about ¡Azúcar!
“Hearkening back to my Salsa roots, this work will be an embodiment of our complicated truths and a re-framing of our relationship to sugar as a way to confront harmful systems of oppression. Our cultural organizing work with Black and Brown communities in South and East LA in conversation with Celia Cruz’s music re-interpreted woven together with multiple personal narratives, ¡azúcar! will be a tapestry of truth-telling, a call for liberation and an affirmation of our future as a people.” -Ana Maria Alvarez, Founding Artistic Director
“¡azúcar!” is a courageous naming/confrontation of and intentional obliteration of the undercurrent and often unspoken anti-Blackness in latinidad. This framework is embodied through the practice and sharing of our Afro-Latine ancestral movement and vibrational technologies. Questions are continuing to drive the process as we begin to understand the complicated history of sugar and the messages from our ancestors. What would it look like to exist in a world that centered nourishment, care and rooted in the body? How does Celia's belting out “¡Azúcar!” set us all a little more free? Can we reckon with our past without losing ourselves in the fight? Does it have to be a fight? Is there space for grace? What does it feel like to individually and collectively heal, what does it move like?
Together we journey through Celia Cruz’s vibrations and unearth information embedded in our bodies. Through “¡azúcar!”, we explore ancestral wisdoms about a plant that once aided in our healing, used as a way to sweeten medicinal concoctions, now extracted, refined and used as weaponized poison. The cast and creative team of brilliant collaborators, rooted in and inspired by the sacred feminine, are building the work from personal narratives of food, labor, community and explorations of 'familying' and healing as practices and brave choices.
“¡azúcar!” is conceived and directed by Ana María Álvarez and is created with a village of brilliant artists. Alvarez works closely with long-time CONTRA-TIEMPO company members, Jannet Galdamez, Ruby Morales and Jasmine Stanley as choreographic and content collaborators. Master Artist and Afro-Cuban practitioner, Kati Hernandez, is a core collaborator and performer in the work. Additionally Anais Maviel and Rashaan Carter are collaboratively sound designing and composing; Meena Murugesan is designing video and projection vibrations; David Reynoso is costume designing; Maximiliano Urruzmendi is lighting designing and Emily Orling is visually consulting. Farah Sosa is the photographer of the work and shared her images in the live exhibition at Helms Bakery in November 2022. Five apprentice artists are also a part of the creative team, Alek Gabriella Lopez, Ariela Conde, Edgar Aguirre Jose Jose Arrieta Cuesta, and Maria Garcia. In each new city we visit, a community cast of 8-10 Salseras will be invited to perform as part of the work. As the piece evolves new artists and collaborators will be added to the team.
Credits:
Conception and Direction Ana María Alvarez
Production Manager Maritxell Carrero
Production Assistant Juan “Co-eL” Rodriguez
Musical composition, writing and arrangement Anaïs Maviel and Rashaan Carter
Musician Anaïs Maviel, Rashaan Carter and Robert "Bobby" Wilmore
Dramaturge Daniel Penilla
Technical Director Maximilliano Urruzmendi
Video Projection Designer Meena Murugesan
Set and Prop Fabrication/Design Peter Volk
Caña Prop Fabricator Steve Tolin
Lighting Designer Tuce Yasak
Visual Design Consultant Emily Orling
Costume Designer David Israel Reynoso
Costume Designer for Celeoshun Halei Parker
Costume Design Assistant Jaymee Ngernwichit
Costume Stylist and Crown designer Maria Garcia
Cultural consultant, Movement Coach, Guest Artist Kati Hernandez
Vocalist Maria Garcia and Jasmine Stanley
Responsive Body Ecologist Holly Johnston
Healer and Priestess Felicia “Onyi” Richards
Choreographed by Ana-Maria Alvarez and Jannet Galdamez
Creative Generators Ana María Alvarez, Jannet Galdamez, Ruby Morales, Jasmine Stanley, Maria Garcia, Alek Lopez, Edgar Aguirre, Jose Jose Acuesta, Ariela Conde, Kati Hernandez
Music Sampled “Azúcar Negra” by Celia Cruz
Source Material:
1619 Project edited by Nicole Hannah-Jones
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
Rest is Resistance by Tricic Hersey
Celia Cruz’s body of work and life story
Community Casts
March 2023 - NC State Live
Ommy Alvarez, Jinjer Katrina Haskins, Erica Ranosa, Annie McCollum, An Hoang-Xuan, Crystal Michelle Villegas, Peggy Dominique, Irene Nazario, Yasser Cardenas, Krista Padilla, Nestor Alejandro Rodriguez-Garcia
August 2023 - The Ford Theaters
Jocelyn Adame, Ulises Aguirre, Stephanie Ballena, Alejandro Barajas, Ariela Conde, Shana Christopher, Cinthia Duran, Kloii Hummingbird, Norma Ovalle, Edrian Pangilinan, Sydney Richardson
Upcoming Events
press
“…an exuberant display of heritage and unity… ¡azúcar! is a meaningful and inspiring show you won’t soon forget.”
LA Weekly: CONTRA-TIEMPO’s ¡azúcar!: Transformative Dance Residency Will Unite Los Angeles
“This ethereal performance stands as a true testament to the collective capacity for healing. A story rooted in resilience, ¡azúcar! breaks the boundary between the traditions that brought us here and their modern interpretations.”
HYPE Magazine: CONTRA-TIEMPO Continues its Evolution with ¡azúcar!
AUDIENCE REACTIONS
"the work is luscious gorgeous decadent deep - My friends I brought loved it- You brought us together for social time and culture time"
"you all did a beautiful job of setting the mood that took the audience on a journey. There were moments of struggle, but the resolution was always joy, play, togetherness, love and it was beautiful."
"Azucar was phenomenal. I am thankful to have had the on stage experience and to have sat with a dancer during the sound bath. As we paid reverence in silence, I became aware of the struggles and healings that took place."
COMMUNITY CAST MEMBER
"Thank you for building a space for radical acceptance, radical joy and for offering such a healing/ powerful invitation to just be: to embrace the complexity and beauty of being a human being AND to cultivate and uplift the practices that allow our bodies to be settled, to be at peace, to be creative, to be receptive, generous and abundant. It was truly a beautiful experience and I am beyond grateful"
CAÑA
Sister film of ¡azúcar! Commissioned by the Getty Museum, this film is the initial piece produced from our explorations and discoveries.
CREDITS:
Direction and choreographic vision Ana María Alvarez
Cinematography and editing Meena Murugesen
Musical composition, writing and arrangement Anaïs Maviel
Featured artists and improvisors Ana María Alvarez, Bobbie Bell, Dr. Shamell Bell, Jannet Galdamez, Liliana de Leon-Torsiello, Ruby Morales, Jasmine Stanley, Shantel Ureña, Dr. S. Ama Wray
Youth performers Luca Alvarez-Lowe, Sidney Alvarez-Lowe, Seijani Goodin, Iyannah McClendon
Birds Ana, Bella, Bruno, Roxy, Rudy, Sunshine
Musicians Anaïs Maviel, Rashaan Carter, Aruán Ortiz, Angel Lau, Jaimie Branch, Michael Pallas
Color correction Anastasia Shepherd
Community and production team CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater, Jessica Amaya, Rashaan Carter, Dolores Chavez, Jannet Galdamez, d. Sabela grimes, Vinkya Hunter, Gabriel Ibarra, Jolieba Jackson, Yolanda Keh, Jared Kok, Chan Quach, David Reynoso, Emmanuel Ruffler, Riley Shen, Farah Sosa
press
“…a dialogue that transcended centuries of distance, radically separated by cultural contexts and artistic tools, yet found compelling resonance in their mutual investigations of the distinct emotion and meaning that only dance can elicit.”
Getty Exhibition Brings Together 17th-Century Painting and Contemporary Dance
“…sugar cane is ripped, bitten, and swung about as a meditation on this indulgent substance—echoing themes of vice and virtue, and the pitfalls of bacchanalia that were investigated by Poussin.”
WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR OUR CURRENT FUNDERS LISTED BELOW!
Past Events
¡azucar! by CONTRA-TIEMPO @ The Ford Theater
08/18/23
First Public Choreographic Lab and Sharing @ Helms Bakery
11/12, 11/13, 11/19, & 11/20