Robin Poitras C.M. 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 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, 2021 recipient of the Order of Canada, 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.

Edward Poitras was born in 1953 in Regina, Saskatchewan and is a member of the Gordon First Nation. He studied with Sarain Stump at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon (1974) and then with Mexican Aboriginal artist Domingo Cisneros at Manitou College in La Macaza, Quebec (1975-1976). Poitras then became an instructor himself, teaching at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in Saskatoon (1976-1978), the University of Manitoba (1978) and the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College at the University of Regina (1981-1984, 1989-1990, now First Nations University of Canada). Poitras has also worked as a graphic artist for New Breed magazine (1984-1985).



Poitras's mixed-media sculptures and installations combine a variety of natural and human-made elements. His work explores themes including history, treaties, the effects of colonialism, and life in urban spaces and on the reserve.



Poitras's work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across the country and in the United States and Finland, and has been included in nearly every major contemporary Aboriginal exhibition since 1980. In 1995, Poitras became the first Aboriginal artist to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale. A 2002 exhibition organized by Saskatoon's Mendel Art Gallery, “Qu'Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys,” included many of his recent works.



Poitras's work is part of the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Hull, Quebec), Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), Saskatchewan Arts Board, MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina), Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, among others. In 2002, Poitras was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. In November 2020, Edward joined Robin Poitras C.M. as the Co-Artistic Director of New Dance Horizons.

Rania al-Harthi works in theatre, film, installation, Palestinian embroidery, and Arabic calligraphy. Her studio production consists of collapsed objects that incorporate sound, film projection, and performance. Current projects explore themes of diaspora and cultural memory through film; documentary and animation. She worked as an independent artist in Palestine, Jordan and Tunisia before coming to Canada in 2012. Since then, she has earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Regina and has worked for several arts organizations, including Globe Theatre, Curtain Razors and the Mackenzie Art Gallery.

Johanna Bundon is an independent artist whose practice includes dance and theatre performance, choreography, teaching & gathering. She has made robust contributions to the development of new work & creation processes in Saskatchewan in both dance & theatre over the past 15 years. Her capacity to embody ideas, and to create a generative space for new work to thrive, has made her a sought after collaborator by artists across disciplines. www.johannabundon.com

Davida Monk began her professional career in 1985 with Le Groupe de la Place Royale of Ottawa, and was instrumental in the development of Canada’s first professional contemporary dance laboratory for choreographic development, Le Groupe Dance Lab.  Monk’s works have been presented across Canada and in Europe.  Amongst her most celebrated creations are LYRIC (2002), The Land Quartet (2011), and Dream Pavilion (2013), Pan (2015), The Call (2016) and Ashes for Beauty (2017).   She has taught dance technique, creative process and choreography in a wide variety of contexts and has danced for and collaborated with many Canadian choreographers and artists of other disciplines.   Monk is currently engaged in creative and performance projects in Alberta and across Canada. Recently she has danced solo works from Calgary choreographers Linnea Swan, Helen Husak and Catherine Hayward, and was in residence with a company of seven dancers at Vancouver’s Scotiabank Dance Centre where an evening of her works was presented in May 2019.  Her current project Songs Without Words focuses on the creation of 20 distinct solos, and their dissemination and creative production, live and on video, over several years, with other artists, emerging and mature across Canada. Monk is the recipient of awards for choreographic development and touring from the University of Calgary, Calgary Arts Development, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Banff Centre. Monk directed Calgary’s Dancers’ Studio West, an organization dedicated to the development of choreographers from 2008 – 2018. Monk is Associate Professor Emerita (University of Calgary), and Artistic Director of M-Body (www.m-body.ca), dedicated to the development of her own works, since 2004.

Marnie Gladwell began her professional dance career as a company member of the Regina Modern Dance Works. Since then, she worked as an independent dance artist, freelance dance teacher and arts educator. Her work has included solo performances as well as collaborations with choreographers, poets, musicians and visual artists. She received her dance training in centres throughout Canada as well as New York and London. Over the years Gladwell has been a strong advocate for the arts knowing the importance of performance and learning to a healthy arts environment. Currently Gladwell sits on the executive of the Canadian Network for Arts and Learning.

Arthur Milner is a playwright, theatre director and regular contributor to inroadsjournal.ca. His most recent plays include Getting to Room Temperature, presented by Regina’s Curtain Razors in 2022; and Facts, presented in London, U.K., Istanbul (in Turkish), and Palestine (in Arabic). He has lived across Canada and now lives in Regina, where he’s busy working on a new play about Father Athol Murray and Tommy Douglas.