TRACES

Presented by the University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries & Dance Saskatchewan Inc.
Produced by New Dance Horizons & NDH/Rouge-gorge

Saturday November 24, 2018 7:30pm
Sunday November 25, 1:00pm

Convocation Hall (Peter MacKinnon Building)
107 Administration Place, University of Saskatchewan

Free admission (donations welcome)

James Viveiros

Marcus Merasty
Photo Credit: Mark Dela Cruz

Inspired by the art and life of Sarain Stump, TRACES is a performance work co-created by Edward Poitras and Robin Poitras. Performed by dance artists James Viveiros and Marcus Merasty, TRACES features solo piano work There Is My People Sleeping, composed by Alfred Fisher and performed by Gordon Gerrard and an original live modular synthesizer sound score composed and performed by Gary James Joynes with excerpt ambient / recorded sounds by Charlie Fox.

TRACES follows two earlier works created in Spring 2018, the first through invitation by the Regina Symphony Orchestra for their inaugural Forward Currents Festival. Both were created in residency at the MacKenzie Art
Gallery in conjunction with the Exhibition Mixing Stars and Sand: The Art and Legacy of Sarain Stump, co-curated by Anthony Kiendl and Gerald McMaster, now on view at the Kenderdine Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan. We are excited to continue to develop this work in the unique space of Convocation Hall with light design by Kennedy Sembaliuk.

BIOGRAPHY of Robin Poitras

Robin Poitras is one of Saskatchewan’s most prolific dance and performance creators. Creating dance, performance and installation works, she has been actively engaged in contemporary dance practice since the early 80s. For many years Robin has traversed the formal worlds of dance and performance art. She co-founded New Dance Horizons in 1986, with Dianne Fraser where she continues to act as Artistic Director. With an interest in research into diverse fields of artistic and somatic practice she has developed a unique interdisciplinary approach. Robin’s works have been presented across Canada, in Spain, France, Germany, Mongolia and Mexico. She is a recipient of the 2016 Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2006 Mayor’s Awards for Business & The Arts’ Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2004 Women of Distinction Award for the Arts.

BIOGRAPHY of Edward Poitras

Edward Poitras is a member of the George Gordon First Nation and resident of Treaty Four Territory. He is an artist who has always recognized his mixed heritage – Métis/Cree/Saulteaux – as a powerful source of energy, creativity and contradiction. Poitras was born in 1953 in Regina. In 1974 he studied with Sarain Stump at the Indian Art Program at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where he was introduced to diverse artistic and philosophical approaches that continue to inform his art practice. In 1975–76, Poitras attended Manitou College in La Macaza, Quebec, where Mexican Aboriginal artist Domingo Cisneros imparted an experimental approach to materials and introduced Poitras to the Quebecois performance art scene. Following this time in Quebec, Poitras taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College and at the University of Manitoba. During much of the 1980s, he taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, University of Regina (now First Nations University of Canada). Poitras worked as a graphic designer for New Breed Magazine in the 1980s. Poitras has since remained connected to his community, exhibiting with and mentoring emerging artists through his involvement with groups including Tribe Inc. (Saskatoon), Sâkêwêwak Artists’ Collective (Regina), and New Dance Horizons (Regina).

Since the early 1980s Poitras’ “artistic benchmark [has been] his masterful ability to combine seemingly contradictory materials”[1] such as fiberglass, circuit boards and magnetic tape with bone, horse hair and rawhide. His work examines complex issues of history and identity, and their connection(s) with place. As critic Nancy Tousley observes, his “family and regional history are [often] interwoven with references to the story of Aboriginal people in the Americas.”[2] Themes of colonization, assimilation, integration, genocide, displacement, migration, survival, nationalism and transnationalism permeate his work as he explores tensions, contradictions, narratives and interactions.

Poitras has exhibited extensively across Canada, as well as in the United States and Europe. His selection as the first Aboriginal artist to represent Canada at the prestigious Venice Biennale marks a recognition of his distinctive contribution to the questions of “Identity and Alterity,” the theme of the 1995 Biennale. His other solo exhibitions include: Qu’Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (2002); RESIG/NATION, Galerie Le lieu, Quebec City (2000); The Politics of Land, an earthwork at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon (1998); Jaw Rez, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau and MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina (1996); Marginal Recession, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina (1991); Et in America Ego, Art Speak, Vancouver (1989); and Indian Territory, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (1988). Among group exhibitions, nearly every major contemporary Native art exhibit since 1980 has featured his work, notably: New Work by a New Generation, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina (1982); INDIGENA, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau (1992); and Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years, Plug In ICA, Winnipeg (2011). Internationally, his work has been shown in Santa Fe, Paris, Munster, Havana, New York and Tampere, Finland. His work may be found in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, MacKenzie Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, and National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), among others.

Throughout his career, Poitras has been instrumental in organizing, producing, and participating in performance art, dance, and theatre works. He has created a number of sets, costumes and light designs in collaboration with various artists, including: Floyd Favel Star, Richard Martel, Benoit Lachambre, Jocelyn Montpetit, Bill Coleman, Boye Ladd, Bruce LaBruce, and Robin Poitras. Edward Poitras is a recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts (2002), the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Arts Award for Innovation (2005), and a Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art (2009).

BIOGRAPHY of James Viveiros

James Viveiros is a certified GAGA teacher from Montreal. A graduate of both the Grant MacEwan College Music Theatre and Dance Programs. He was a former company member of COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD (CMC) between fall of 1999 to the summer of 2016. For the past seventeen years, James has performed in contemporary dance festivals around the world.

He has also collaborated with several Canadian companies and choreographers as an interpreter and creator. In 2009, James was the recipient of a Gemini award (ﬁlm and television) alongside the other company members of CMC, for best performance in a Performing Arts Program or series for bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLBERG, by CMC. James was awarded funding on two occasions from CALQ to become a certiﬁed Gaga teacher and studied with Batsheva under the direction of Bosmat Nossan and Ohad Naharin in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Since June 2017, James has been working as guest artist with New Dance Horizons Creation Base, NDH/ Rouge-gorge in the collaborative creations of Robin Poitras and Edward Poitras and also guest teaching GAGA at NDH studio. James also works as a rehearsal director for the Collective La Tresse. James is currently working on A new work that will premiere at Festival Quartiers Danses in Montreal 2018. His solo “MELT” ; a prefix for a prayer ) Recipient of the Jury Prize for the innovative elegance and intelligence of his creation will be performed in May in Regina in conjunction with the RE: Celebrating the Body exhibition at the MacKenzie gallery.

BIOGRAPHY of Marcus Merasty

Marcus Merasty is a dance artist from Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan and is of Cree descent, or Assin’skowitiniwak meaning “People of the rocky area”. His interest in dance began with learning traditional Métis jigging in 2013. A year later, following the invitation to perform in a contemporary dance work by Edward and Robin Poitras he began to pursue a career as a professional dance artist. This was also the beginning of an on-going mentorship under artists Robin Poitras and Edward Poitras. During the same year he began performing with The Creeland Dancers, a square dance troupe from the Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation. Since then Marcus has received training in theatre from the Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre and participated in the Indigenous Dance Residency at The Banff Centre. Marcus is currently in the Professional Program at The School of Contemporary Dancers and is working toward his BA. (Hons) in contemporary dance from the University of Winnipeg.