Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood (Montreal) is an internationally recognized pioneer and master teacher of contact improvisation (CI). He began his dance career in 1975 and for over forty years has dedicated himself to the research, education, development and dissemination of contact improvisation and real-time composition as sophisticated movement disciplines and performing art forms. He studied and performed with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Nita Little, the founders of contact improvisation and danced for the companies of Marie Chouinard, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Jo Lechay and Fulcrum as well as the improvisation collectives Discovery Bal, The Echo Case and the Improvisational Movement Fund. His work has evolved through ongoing collaborations with many renowned dancers (Peter Bingham, Marc Boivin, Benoît Lachambre, Lin Snelling, Chris Aiken, Kirstie Simson, Julyen Hamilton, Benno Voorham, Ray Chung, Lisa Nelson, Jori Snell, etc.) and through various investigations of perception, performance, composition, spatial/set design and movement techniques.
Passionate about teaching, he transforms his training in gymnastics, the Alexander Technique, Aikido, release technique, contemporary dance, yoga and various somatic practices into a personal language, which he has shared throughout the world since 1976. He is the recipient of the Canada Council’s Jacqueline-Lemieux award for the year 2000.