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"I Dream America" (40 minutes)
........................... ......"...represents the kind of socially aware contemporary work that only a few dance ..................................... artists such as Bill T. Jones reliably provide." .....- Los Angeles Times
"This signature piece is both an edgy examination of (what Alvarez has called) a look at the complexity of resistance and struggle for Latinos in the United States, and a joyous celebration of community" ......................................-The San Francisco Bay Guardian
2008 has seen CONTRA-TIEMPO and the Alvarez duo embark on a new collaboration: "I Dream America". "I Dream America" is a 40-minute movement opera, which primarily seeks to engage the tensions, commonalities, strains and histories between the Black and Latino communities. Traversing the political landscape of immigration and Hurricane Katrina, "I Dream America" will investigate compassion and peace and paint a disarming and thought-provoking critique of contemporary life and injustice. Parts of the piece were debuted in in Mexico as part of the Festival Internacional de Teatro de Los Angeles (FITLA). The first full performance of this work was debuted in Los Angeles at the Unknown Theater in July 2007. In 2008, the company later toured the work to North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Washington D.C, San Francisco, Seattle and will be performing it in Cuba later this year.
Articles/Interviews on this piece:
Tomorrow and the Day After (DC blog)
The Washington Post Express
The San Francisco Bay Guardian
Against the Times (35 minutes):
Salsa is a dance form that is rooted in Cuban and Puerto Rican cultural tradition. It is laden with social and political contradictions; a dance of resistance. Salsa is an improvisational form that is created and recreated with every new combination of people that dance it; a dance of change. Born from the fusion of African and Spanish musical influences, salsa was originally created as a cultural voice and form of expression for working class people; a dance of the times. Salsa has always been a patriarchal dance form, in that men are leaders and women are followers. In more recent times, the over sexualized representations of women have gotten more extreme, especially in styles that have been popularized by ballroom dancing and Hollywood films. The cast of CONTRA-TIEMPO will flip the script on who leads who... Together they will move resistance from being adversarial to being the fundamental key for communication and empowerment between partners and for a people.
"A passionately delivered performance communicates the often antagonistic relationships that exist among Latino immigrants to America, as well as the nature of the greater struggles that they face in the new country."
- Katherine Paradero, Editor-in-Chief of The Worldly, LA, CA
Articles written about this piece:
La Opinion
The Worldly
DUET (7 minutes):
The Duet is a piece about power. An audience favorite, it captures beautifully the humorous and sometimes frustrating opposition between fighting and giving in. The piece can be performed alone or as part of "Against the Times".
SIDES/LADOS (11 minutes):
Sides/Lados is a movement and sonic exploration of the pushes and pulls that result from a bi-cultural identity and specifically a Cuban-American identity. Debuted at the Ninth International Electro-Acoustic Music Festival "Primavera en la Habana" in Havana, Cuba March 2002. The Alvarez duo uses their own mediums to collage and depict the conflict and harmony that comes out of a distinctly split cultural heritage. Link to an article about it : OBERLIN ONLINE
YEMBE LAROCO (4 minutes):
An animated short about the joy of Salsa (by Omar Rodriguez). This July 2007, the final piece - which is a flirtatious quartet between a man and a woman on stage and a man and a woman on screen.
"...a delightful animated sequence." - nyctheatre.com
" ...not to be missed." - curtainup.com
SENTIR (8
minutes):
Alesia Young's choreography is set on the women of CONTRA-TIEMPO to create a beautiful tribute to the streghth and resilience of the women everywhere. This new collaboration is set to an origianl composition by Cesar Alvarez that uses traditional rhythms and sounds from Yemaya - the afro-cuban goddess of the ocean and the moon - the mother of all other deities. This piece was debuted at Highways Performance Space in February 2007 and is toured and performed as part of "I Dream America".
Brackish Water (10
minutes):
A work commissioned in 2008 by New Dance at Saint Joseph Ballet in Orange County - this piece is set on the MEN of CONTRA-TIEMPO and is a fierce display of the company's signature Urban Latin Dance Theater physicality and strength. Six men dance, crash, lift, fall, throw and explode the intersections and contradictions of manhood, survival and community within the context of war.
Articles written about this piece:
Mundo Plastico (10
minutes):
A work created for CELEBRATE DANCE 2008 - Produced by Jamie Nichols. This piece is a comic and grotesque commentary on the 'Plastic' facade of Salsa. A dance form that started as a voice for regular people and an expression of history, power and opinions, has been transformed into a de-politicized, hyper-sexual exaggeration of the Latino body.
Copyright © 2008 CONTRA-TIEMPO, Inc. All rights reserved.