CONTACT IMPROVISATION AND INSTANTANEOUS COMPOSITION with Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood
Join us for an MZD Workshop with Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood (Montreal)!
WORKSHOP DATES
April 5, 6 PM-9 PM
April 6, 10 AM-4 PM
April 7, 10 AM-4 PM
REGISTRATION
$200 | 3-Day Workshop
$65 | Single Day Workshop Drop-in
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
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. Various contact skills will be practiced to develop a greater range of movement, create safety and build confidence. We will examine the role of perception, sensation, expression and imagination in the Contact work. Our goal is to find a sense of timelessness in our dancing – a state of consciousness that is aware but not self-conscious. We will also seek to integrate contact improvisation into a greater improvisational universe in order to freely move in and out of partnering, strengthen our solo dances and develop a group mindfulness. Through various compositional strategies we will look at how the mind’s beliefs about space and time can be altered and how this can dramatically affect our presence, our bodies and the way we move.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood (Montreal, CA) is renowned as a leading light in the field of dance improvisation. He is an internationally recognized pioneer of contact improvisation (CI) and a master teacher/performer in both real-time composition and CI. For over forty-seven years he has dedicated himself to the research, development, education, collaboration and dissemination of these rigorous artistic practices as sophisticated performing art forms.
He first studied and then performed with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little and Kurt Siddal, the instigators of Contact Improvisation. His journey has continued to evolve through the development of consciousness, various investigations of perceptual awareness as well as an abundance of collaborative performances around the globe with the likes of Peter Bingham, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung, Daniel Lepkoff, Kirstie Simpson, Alito Alessi, Karen Nelson, K.J. Holmes, Lisa Nelson, Julyen Hamilton, Benno Voorham and Benoit Lachambre, to name a few.
Formerly founder and artistic director of AH HA Productions (2000–2014) he also danced for the companies of Marie Chouinard, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Jo Lechay, Joint Forces and Fulcrum, as well as the improvisational dance collectives Discovery Bal, The Echo Case and The Improvisational Movement Fund. Still passionate about teaching, he transforms his training and performance experience into a personal language, which he has shared throughout the world since 1977. He was awarded the Canada Council of the Arts Jacqueline Lemieux Award in 2000.
Instructor
Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood
Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood (Montreal, CA) is renowned as a leading light in the field of dance improvisation. He is an internationally recognized pioneer of contact improvisation (CI) and a master teacher/performer in both real-time composition and CI.