Instant Instinct
entering the instinctive arena of the unknown

Each class will begin with a warm-up focusing on releasing and extending the body, awakening the senses and developing an awareness of inner/outer space. We then enter the rich and instinctive arena of the unknown with an open mind and a curious body. Simple directions and basic structures will help us harness our intuitive discoveries, share our current quests, and challenge our dancing's desires while we improvise alone/together. Throughout this practice, we will be encouraged to lower our expectations and accentuate our inventiveness. This will be a mixed level class, open to all levels of experience.


Andrew de L. Harwood
Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood is a leading international teacher, performer and creator in the field of instantaneous choreography and Contact Improvisation since 1975. He is the artistic director of AH HA Productions, a project oriented company devoted to Improvisation and based in Montreal. Andrew studied extensively, taught and performed with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Nita Little, three of the founding members of Contact Improvisation. His background also includes gymnastics, Yoga, Modern Dance, Release Technique, Alexander Technique, Improvisation and Aikido. His work has been presented in numerous international festivals since 1980. Andrew danced for the companies of Fulcrum, Jo Lechay, Marie Chouinard and Jean-Pierre Perreault, and continues to collaborate yearly with the Echo Case since 1993. He has also collaborated in performance with Peter Bingham, Marc Boivin, Chris Aiken, Kirstie Simson, Ray Chung, Lisa Nelson, Benoît Lachambre, Marc Thompkins, and Ginette Laurin among many others. Harwood taught advanced workshops and performed at many major Contact Improvisation festivals in the past few years: Freiburg Contact Festival (Germany), Israeli Contact Festival, Zip Contact Festival (Italy), Kontact Budapest (Hungary), Trans Contact Festival (Romania). He has also taught classes to the world renowned companies of O’ Vertigo and Marie Chouinard in Montréal as well as the fabulous Montréal Circus group called Les Sept Doigts de la Main. He is the recipient of the Canada Council’s Jacqueline-Lemieux award for the year 2000.