The last few weeks have been a whirlwind - five states in a month - but no complaints - the shining faces in our audiences, brand new people to connect with, discussions, questions and new perspectives on the work - it is what we LIVE for! San Francisco was a blast. CounterPULSE is a funky cool space - we learned our lesson not to perform on Labor Day weekend next time (since most of the people I know in the bay go out of town then) - but we still had great audiences who were responsive, engaged and really excited about the work! We would love to come back to CounterPULSE - Patrick Simms was AMAZING - he helped Erik with all the Tech aspects of the show - and was a wonderful soul who made the weekend a breeze! I think the lights on the women's piece were some of my absolute FAVORITES - nice job Erik - the man's got talent that is for sure!!
Don't you love all of our various acronyms!? We shared the show with Kujo and Amy and their crews (Lux Aterna and Antics Performance). A lot of fun - it felt like we were one big 20 person company! I danced and got down with Amy and CT's agent, Sophie, (we LOVE HER!) and some other friends from the conference the night after the showcase. The company left to return home and I stayed to schmooze and network! All in all the tour was a great success and now I am ready to start seriously gearing up for CUBA! I can't believe it is a month away! 
It has been WAY too long - I haven't made the time to update this blog in a while - but I am committed to keeping this conversation going - sharing the incredible journey of creating and building CONTRA-TIEMPO! There is a lot to catch you up on - but tonight will just be a quick hello - and I will be back with more meaty entries in the next week! It has been an AMAZING year - and we are just about to end the summer - entering into our third fiscal year as a non-profit - fourth year as a company. Two amazing tours under our belt - NYC and DC - Both were tours where we learned a tremendous amount about ourselves, each other. Each day I was reminded of why I am so absolutely honored and in awe with every opportunity we/I have to share this work and to share dance and the transformative power of movement with others! Below I included a little home video link of an impromptu jam session - we were walking by some congeros at St. Mary's park after our show that afternoon - and the music nos llamo' - wooo did it ever- It felt SO good to just get down with people in the neighborhood - to the sound of salsa blasting over loud speakers with congas and timbales as back up - and remember why it is that we work so hard - so that we can DANCE for a living!
These past few months have been an amazing whirlwind of opportunity, change and growth - we have over tripled our programming and budget from our first year as a non-profit! Our artist-in-residency programs in Alhambra, CA were a huge success. Through these residency programs we were able to support teachers to integrate dance with core curricular subject areas, as well as provide students with exposure to a high quality standards-based arts program. We will expand the programs next year to include schools in Los Angeles Unified School District, as well as complete a number of shorter residencies during our tours for 2008-2009! Speaking of touring… this July we are sending the men of CT to Puerto Rico, to debut the new work Brackish Water i
n a Dance Festival there, then we will all head to the east coast in mid August (GET READY NEW YORK - we're baaaaack!). We have two performances New York City as part of the NYC Parks Foundation Summerstage program, and will be sharing our work in a couple other cities on that coast (Check www.contra-tiempo.org for details in the end of May). In late August we will be heading up to San Francisco, Eugene and Seattle. We are planning a number of tours, collaborations and residencies for the following year.
organized through a non profit organization in the Bay Area called Global Exchange. We will have an opportunity to share CONTRA-TIEMPO’s performance work and master classes with Cuban audiences, and study Rueda, Afro-Cuban, Rumba and Contemporary dance with renowned artists in La Habana and Santiago. Last month we moved into a beautiful new office space in downtown Los Angeles! For this summer, we have been given a LA County Arts Grant, to employ a full time Administrative assistant – a huge leap forward in our commitment to build infrastructure for CT! Stay tuned - I promise to be a better blogger in the days/months/years to come!
I have been a very bad blogger - I'm so sorry to all of our fans - you have been deprived of the amazing adventures of contra-tiempo over the past year. But I am back - and give you my word to keep you posted with exciting news, ideas, questions, ruminations and aventuras - so stay tuned! So much has happened - even since this summer - I don't know where to begin. We have made some incredible progress in a very short time - including a life altering and memorable tour to Puerto Rico - where we all were reminded of the reason we create and share our work! We had the pleasure of working and becoming life long friends with Javier and Waldo (who we found out was the godfather of dance in Puerto Rico!)of Dramadanza - who opened their hearts to us from the beginning. We shared lot of frijoles, arroz and mufongo with them over the week and a half on the island and are looking forward to another tour there in May - fingers crossed that we work it all out!
known for putting BOMBA (the amazingly regal and beautiful Afro-Puerto Rican dance form) on the map! Having her and her family in the audience our last night on stage - at el Teatro Francisco Arrivi - was a dream come true! We are clear that this is just the beginning of a very long relationship between contra-tiempo and all our new amigos en Puerto Rico - there are pieces to be made, collaborations to be created, music to be learned, and dances and connections and relationships to be further built - we'll be back!
Dealing with ideas of immigration was so interesting in a territory that is US dominated - yet not completely 'owned' and run by the US - our conversations on immigration there were quite distinct from our conversations on the US/Mexico frontera (border) last October. We are committed to continuing to complicate the discussions and explorations of what 'immigrant' means and what it means to be 'American' in the context of this continually growing global world we live in! I love how the piece shifts and the meanings grown and develop with each new audience we share with! It keeps us on our toes! We love you Puerto Rico - nos vemos pronto
