Aimée Dawn Robinson
also known as mother drift and ADR
*click photos for a closer look
I bring wild spaces, the conceptual, and the feminine to embodied performance practices.
I'm a dancer. I'm also an actor, writer, performer, visual artist, researcher, musician, theatre-maker, teacher, producer, facilitator, curator. I have about 28 years of Canadian and international performance experience.
In 2022, I started my PhD with the University of Guelph in Critical Studies in Improvisation, studying and working remotely and in-person too, aiming for a Doctorate in Philosophy.
My doctoral project, Dissolution of Hierarchies Part Two – The Permission to Dance, is comprised of 200 plus one minute to one-minute and thirty second screendance videos…and counting.
Please find them on Instagram @tracedancepractice.
My research for this project exists in interactions between: improvised dance, screendance, and the camera lens with critical, philosophical, and tangible concepts of “permission” in my improvised screendance works in conversation with the “Untitled Film Stills” of Cindy Sherman, works and life of silent film actor Theda Bara, Laura Mulvey’s concept of “the gaze”, and the Land and wild places.
For more about my studies at IMPR/IICSI, please follow this link.
I’m grateful to live and work on the lands of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch'än Council and Carcross/Tagish First Nation.
And to also spend time in my birthplace of London, Ontario -- where I am grateful for the Land Stewards since time immemorial this area, and in Guelph too!
Click the links below to read about my work and collaborators:
To read a version of this bio as one document, click here.
Dance and Production across Canada, and in Japan, America and Malaysia
Some Theatre, Music, and more Dance
Academics, Writing, Publication
Studies in Japan, Body Weather Farm, and with Yukio Waguri
Some Film, Video and Visual Art
Dance Research Archive and Current Teaching
To read this bio as one document, click here.
Aimée's Vimeo page is here.
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*click photos for a closer look
 Aimée as Morad for feature film Polaris, 2022, Director KC Carthew |  Aimée dancing to "Fistful of Love" by Antony and the Johnsons in her home studio, spring 2021. |
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 Aimée Dawn Robinson, Winter, 2020, Southern Lakes, Yukon. |  |
 Aimée improvising at Robinson Roadhouse historic site in the Yukon, spring 2021. |  Winterlight site-specific dance series by ADR, 2020 - 2021. |
 Winterlight dance series, 2020 and 2021. |  Aimée dancing within Long Lake, Yukon, Body of Water project, 2015, photo Wojciech Mochniej |
 Aimée working on Ramble, Whitehorse, 2015. Photo Scott Maynard |  Aimée dancing on Marsh Lake in "Flour Pull at Rendezvous", directed by Ingrid Veninger, 2018. |
 Aimée improvising in High Park at in the 2011 Nuit Blanche Devereaux, curated by Victoria Cheong and Allison Peacock. Photo Stephanie Ledger |  Aimée improvising in High Park at in the 2011 Nuit Blanche Devereaux, curated by Victoria Cheong and Allison Peacock. Photo Stephanie Ledger |
 Aimée at Body Weather Farm, Hakushu, Japan, 2008. Photo Helen Smith. |  ADR (at right) rehearsing with Monique Romeiko (left) for "begin you again" directed by Romeiko, and created with the 001 Collective., at the Old Fire Hall (Whitehorse). Photo Martin Berkman, 2014 |
 Aimée (on the floor with the sculpture by Helen O'Connor on her feet) rehearsing with Monique Romeiko for "begin you again" directed by Romeiko, and created with the 001 Collective at the Old Fire Hall, Whitehorse. Photo Martin Berkman, 2014 |  ADR working on The Body of Water Project in Calgary with Anne Troake and Wojciech Mochniej (out of the frame), 2016. Photo Melissa Monteros. |
 Video still from "For Terril Maguire", Hanlan's Island, Toronto, 2011. |  Labyrinth of the Body by Yukio Waguri, Celeste Hastings (left), Aimée, Julie Spodek (right). Video still from Shige Moriya's footage, 2011, Cave Gallery, Brooklyn. |
 Labyrinth of the Body by Yukio Waguri from left: Julie Spodek, Aimée, Celeste Hastings,Yukio Waguri. Video still from Shige Moriya's footage, 2011, Cave Gallery, Brooklyn. |  Labyrinth of the Body by Yukio Waguri from left: Liz McAuliffe, Julie Spodek, Theresa Magario, Aimée (right). Video still from Shige Moriya's footage, 2011, Cave Gallery, Brooklyn. |
 from Vehicle Dance #1, After Work Dance, After Monet, 2008, Toronto. |  ADR dancing in "Couplings", 16 mm short film directed by Chris Boni, Whitehorse and Toronto, 2012. |
 ADR, Couplings shoot, Whitehorse, 2012. Photo Cassandra Collins |  ADR dancing in "Couplings", 16 mm short film directed by Chris Boni, Whitehorse and Toronto, 2012. |
 Sam Bergman-Good (left), ADR, Monique Romeiko (right), Couplings Performance, Whitehorse, 2012. Photo Cassandra Collins. |  |
 Aimée (left) and Kurt Newman. Video still from Motria Sabat footage, 2001, Toronto. |  |
 Sam Bergman-Good (left), Aimée, and Monique Romeiko artist talk, Arts Underground, 2012. Photo Cassandra Collins. |  Video still from "Treeline", Hanlan's Island, Toronto, 2010. |
 Elyssia Sasaki (left), Rock Plaza Central and Aimée (right) performing, "When We Dance We Dance Together" at Atlin Music at Arts Festival, 2018.Created and directed by Jacob Zimmer. |  Mary Sloan (left), Rob Carson and Rock Plaza Central, Aimée (right) performing, "When We Dance We Dance Together" at Atlin Music at Arts Festival, 2018. Created and directed by Jacob Zimmer. |
 Aimée dancing, Old Fellows Hall, Dawson City, 2016. "Map of the Land, Map of the Stars" rehearsal. Photo Chris Healy. |  Aimée playing at Healing Power Picnic II, 2011. Photo Wolfgang Nessel |
 Aimée performing with Deep Dark United at Sneaky Dee's, in Images Festival, Toronto, 2004. |  ADR improvising at 401 Richmond in Terpsichorienteering: A Cartographic Composition with Four Movements for Mobile Musicians, Dancers & Audience Conceived and composed by Scott Thomson & Susanna Hood, 2009. Photo by Anna Karpacheva. |
 ADR (left) and Yves Candau improvising at 401 Richmond in Terpsichorienteering: A Cartographic Composition with Four Movements for Mobile Musicians, Dancers & Audience Conceived and composed by Scott Thomson & Susanna Hood, 2009. Photo by Anna Karpacheva. |  Aimée and Sam Bergman-Good (right) in"Couplings", 16 mm short film directed by Chris Boni, Whitehorse and Toronto, 2012. |
 Foreground: Frank Cox O'Connell (left), Evan Webber, Chad Dembksi, Background: Jacob Zimmer (left), ADR, Erin Sheilds (right). Dedicated to the Revolutions by Small Wooden Shoe rehearsal at Buddies, 2010. |  Jacob Zimmer (left), ADR, and Erin Sheilds, Dedicated to the Revolutions by Small Wooden Shoe, rehearsal, Toronto, 2010. |
 ADR and Trevor Schwellnus, Dedicated to the Revolutions by Small Wooden Shoe, rehearsal, 2010. |  Aimée at Body Weather Farm, Hakushu, 2008. Photo David Noble. |
 Aimée (left) and Josh Rutter (right) on Body Weather Farm, 2008. Photo Elina Kabitaki. |  ADR outside of Dawson City, 2014. Photo Scott Maynard. |
 ADR at Long Lake. Photo Scott Maynard, 2014. |  ADR and Ruby, Marsh Lake, 2017, Photo GM. |
 Aimée in Winter Into Spring rehearsal, Hanlan's Island, Toronto, 2012. Photo Chris Boni |  Aimée Dawn Robinson and Eric Chenaux performing improvising with Heritage Hall, at Guelph Jazz Festi |