Biography

Scottish dancer and performer Courtney May Robertson is based in Rotterdam. As a dancer and artist she has collaborated with several companies and artists including Jan Martens, Connor Schumacher and Florentina Holzinger. In 2015 she started making her own pieces which explore what she has defined as ‘the relentless desire to dominate’ – ranging from the micro; a patriarchal figure in the nuclear family, to the macro; totalitarian governments.

Courtney May Robertson (Scotland, 1992) is a performer and maker based in Rotterdam. Upon graduating in 2013, she joined Club Guy & Roni’s Poetic Disasters Club and has since performed across Europe in the work of Jan Martens, Connor Schumacher and Florentina Holzinger, amongst others. Robertson began creating her own small-scale / DIY produced performances in 2015. Her work has been presented at various underground venues and gallery spaces in the Netherlands and more recently also in small theatres. In early 2019 she began exploring the crossover of choreography and computer programming in the context of the SUB Research Project. SUB formed the basis of her latest solo performance THE WOMAN DESTROYED

2020 marked a significant step in Robertson’s trajectory as a maker when, for THE WOMAN DESTROYED, she was awarded De Troffel Prijs 2020, Festival Cement’s incentive prize for young makers. She was also nominated for Het Theater Festival Belgium’s equivalent, the Roel Verniers Prijs. In addition, the short solo she created prior, the pleasure of stepping off a horse when it’s moving at full speed, was selected for Aerowaves Twenty22.

As a trained dancer Robertson’s work starts with the body, but spans numerous disciplines including video, generative art and writing. She sees herself as a nomadic artist and enjoys collaborating with production houses in different ways, alongside continuing to work as an interpreter for other makers. She is currently an artist in residence at ICK Artist Space and her recent work is supported by Dansateliers and Dans Brabant. Both THE WOMAN DESTROYED and the pleasure of stepping off a horse when it’s moving at full speed are part of her broader study into a widely spread phenomenon she has defined as ‘the relentless desire to dominate’ – ranging from the micro; a patriarchal figure in the nuclear family, to the macro; totalitarian governments.