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.We are currently creating a professional development trip for the company and for other professional dancers and performers - this coming October 2008 - to tour Cuba! The trip is being
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!
