The company AH HA Productions

The Momentum of Hunger Photo : Stephen Hughes

AH HA Productions was founded by Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood in November 2000. Based in Montréal, Canada, AH HA promotes, directs and produces various experiments and performances utilizing alternative approaches to dance making and dance performance. The company often juxtaposes two distinct yet complementary approaches in creating new work: choreography and improvisational strategies which include chance procedures and contact improvisation. The main components that deeply influence the company’s creative process include intuition, perception, soulful states and transformation.

Improvisation is not only seen as a device for research and experimentation, or merely used as a means of generating innovative movement vocabulary; rather it is viewed as a demanding form of instantaneous choreography or live composition in which dancers, attuned to an abundance of information, must make in-the-moment decisions as they fashion a dance piece presently in performance. It takes a great deal of confidence, openess and honesty to make it up on the spot, without a safety net. The practice of improvisation demands a high level of concentration, a fertile imagination and the ability to make immediate decisions which in turn allow stories and images to emerge in movement that are both surprising and unexpected to audience and performer alike.

The artistic mission of AH HA Productions is to foster global artistic exchange and produce many high level performances on a local, national and international level. AH HA projects are produced in a spirit of openess where innovation and the risk-of-the-moment are always present, and where an exciting collaborative approach is encouraged. This framework yields a rich harvest of ideas, movements and images that constantly merge and offset.