COME TO CUBA WITH US!!!!!! JULY 2009

CONTRA-TIEMPO is going BACK to CUBA for our second annual dance and music research trip! Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to DANCE, STUDY and TOUR in Cuba with the company in 2009!

The trip will be from JULY 6th - JULY 20th - 2009 - It is a 14 day professional development and research tour where CONTRA-TIEMPO and I will present our work in La Habana and Santigago and a delegation of non company members (along side the company) will be taking DAILY master classes with amazing Cuban Master artists in Rumba, Afro-Cuba Foklorico (Gaga, Macuta etc), Casino, Rueda and Salsa on the CONTRA-TIEMPO, Son and Cuban Contemporary Dance! Like I said before (and I know from last October's trip) this is will be an LIFE ALTERING experience to be touring for 14 days straight with a rigorous schedule of training, dancing, traveling and building alliances with Cuban Artists and people! Part of the trip is to also learn about Cuban culture and how arts functions in a socialist system - which is fascinating and completely different than our reality in the US. The trip is NOT a vacation - but an amazing opportunity to have our art and the relationships we build there, begin to create future collaborations in both of our countries to further the connection and opening relations between Cuba and the US - We are going legally (with a general research license) through an organization called GLOBAL EXCHANGE http://www.globalexchange.org/. Since this is a professional development trip for artists - all delegates who come on the trip must bring documentation of what they do for a living. I will send more info on this when you contact me about registering.

During the 14 days, we will study intensively with two companies Narciso Medina's and Cutumba . Both are AMAZING companies who I first danced with in the 90's, then again in 2001 and we worked with them this past October! The first week we will be working with Narcisco Medina Danza Contemporania en La Habana (who has an incredible take on Cuban contemporary technique - Modern dance infused with a Cuban sabor!) and the second week we will be working with Cutumba Baile Foklorico de Santiago de Cuba (they do more traditional work like the Cuban social dances and Cuban sacred dances) The price for the two weeks is $3700 plus airfare to Cancun and worth every PENNY!! The price includes almost everything: travel, room and board (2 meals a day), and all of the classes and cultural experiences, a translator, ground transportation throughout the trip and the air fare to Cuba and between La Habana and Santiago.

We have a limited number of spots - TEN to be exact -and we want to have those spots filled by the end of February (or ideally even before then!). If you are interested in coming, please contact us IMMEDIATELY - and we will send you all of the details. Email contra1tiempo@gmail.com. And feel free to share this opportunity to anyone and everyone who you think might want to participate. This is an opportunity of a lifetime! I hope to hear from you soon!

CUBA! This is just the beginning...

So this will be my first posting about Cuba - I need to process a bit more and spend some time really articulating the depth of what I (and the 21 artists we took to Cuba) got from this tour. It was truly amazing. But I didn't want to wait too long before posting some of our photos on the blog! We are going back with in the next year (July 2009) so please contact us immediately if you would like to be a part of the trip! Stay tuned for more!

WE LOVE AND MISS YOU TATIANA!!

San Francisco & Seattle - CT hits the WEST COAST

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!!

The bay feels like home in a funny way. I have never lived there but you just feel the energy of the city in a way that makes me absolutely love it! It feels like NY on the west coast! We stayed with Marina's familia - who were absolutely the most loving and gracious hosts ever! Their home was a Brazilian oasis of relaxation and rejuvenation in Orinda! WHO KNEW!?

We then headed up to Seattle for a marathon tech, dress and performance for our WAA (Western Arts Alliance) LACA (Los Angeles Choreographer Alliance) Showcase! 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!

Getting down in the Bronx with CONTRA-TIEMPO - back to the home of Salsa!

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!



Tomorrow night we will be having our yearly BENEFIT FIESTA at the Electric Lodge - all of you out there in LA LA land - please join us! I would love to have you there - it is going to be a good time for a good cause! http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/40165 and then we are off to SAN FRANCISCO and SEATTLE! I am so excited - as we are being to create a new piece now and after these tours are over we will begin really getting down with our new work - to be
debuted in 2009! Yeah! Bueno - good night - boa noite - hope to see you on the dance floor! - Ana Maria

Celebrate Dance! SOLD OUT the ALEX THEATER in GLENDALE!

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 in 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!

Puerto Rico!

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!

We also had the absolute pleasure of dancing with Tata and Cepeda Familia - 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

Pre-SUMMER update!

It has been way too long! Where to start!? This past year - since February has been a whirlwind! More press coverage, booking gigs left and right, more international touring , booking tours to Costa Rica, North Carolina, Puerto Rico and New York - with tours pending in Arizona, San Francisco, San Diego, Mexico, China and New Mexico! We've been given grants from Culver City Cultural Affairs, LA County Arts, Puffin Foundation, Durfee Foundation and we will be getting a lot more over the next several months! We are also continuing to make amazing connections with the LA community (education, arts, political and entertainment) - we found an AMAZING new space - so CT finally has an official home - stay tuned for more on that!

We have five new members who are taking our work to an even higher level - the company right now is fierce and I feel proud to share what we are doing with everyone! I really get that whatever we create - a long as it is aligned with our commitment to make an impact and inspire - it HAPPENS! Please come check us out at the Unknown Theatre in July - the show will SELL OUT for sure - so get your tickets early!

*Cesar, Omar, Lisa and I just got back from a great trip to Grand Cayman - we performed (not as contra-tiempo) but in some of Lisa's fierce choreography - it was an amazing trip - we met lots of fabulous artists/musicians - see a couple fotos below!