CHOREOGRAPHIC LAB: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT THROUGH MOVEMENT
(2 hours; 30-40 participants)
In CONTRA-TIEMPO's choreographic laboratories participants witness a small performance offering by the company from our newest work, joyUS justUS. Participants are led in several movement experiences, embodying joy and connection. They then as a group, create their own 30 second, movement/theater-based work embodying the elements: water, earth, wind, and fire. In the last half of the choreographic lab, participants sit together in council and share their own stories connected to the themes of the work.
The labs provide a rare opportunity for community art-making, "holding space" to hear each other's stories and building deep and meaningful connections through creative and generative practice. We have adopted the choreographic lab process as one of our core community engagement practices.
Themes: Restorative Justice, Radical Joy, Sacred Feminine, and more...
Recommended to be led by the full company
Appropriate for all ages. No prior dance knowledge necessary.
To learn more and view past choreographic labs, click here.
SABOR SESSION: RADICAL JOY SESSION
(1 hour -1 hour & 15 min; 30 - 100 participants)
Los Angeles-based Activist Dance Theater company, CONTRA-TIEMPO will get you moving and grooving with their "Sabor Session" (from the Spanish word for "flavor") where dancers will guide participants in Afro-Latin social dance forms that are rooted in radical joy and exercises that promote community engagement. Additionally, CONTRA-TIEMPO will share an excerpt of their work. (This may be done without the performance as well).
Full company = 100 participants
2 Dancers = up to 50 participants
Appropriate for all ages. No prior dance knowledge necessary.
COMMUNITY “GET DOWN”
(1 hour: up to 100 participants)
A joyous community dance jam. Where dancers lead participants in various Afro-Latin and urban forms, salsa, rumba, samba and hip-hop grooves. Together we embody joy as a tool to build community.
Full company = 100 participants
2 Dancers = up to 50 participants
Appropriate for all ages. No prior dance knowledge necessary.
Class Offerings
(20-60 Participants; Led by 2-4 company members)
Art and Social Action - Based on the two-week Art as Social Action curriculum taught during the company’s Futuro Summer Dance Intensive, this highly interactive and multi-modal experience is open to anyone searching for a way to both understand and plug into the movement for equity, anti-racism, and anti-violence, using movement, imagination, story sharing, and dialogue. Art and Social Action both support and challenge participants to raise their voices and use love “to move towards freedom”. This workshop can be catered towards a particular issue, moment in history or specific needs of the community. This class is appropriate for all ages and levels.
Rumba Fundamentals - Rumba is a traditional Afro-Cuban form of dance and music, we will teach elements of Yambu, Guaguanco and Columbia. Elements of these forms are incorporated into pieces from our repertory. participants will learn to embody both the rhythms and movements. This class is appropriate for all ages and levels.
Comparsa Fundamentals - Comparsa is a traditional Afro-Cuban dance form, rooted in the tradition of Carnival. This movement is also a part of the 'clave' rep piece and can be a great teaching tool to bring the community together. This class is appropriate for all ages and levels.
Salsa Rueda - Salsa Rueda is an Afro-Cuban form of Salsa dancing, performed in a circle (“rueda” is Spanish for “wheel”). There is a caller who shouts movements for the participants to do, and the partners often switch throughout the dance. The dance can be used to both build community and to help participants build language and body confidence. CONTRA-TIEMPO regularly uses Rueda as a tool to teach concrete skills of compassionate partnership, collaboration, eye contact and taking responsibility for our decisions and impact on others. This class is appropriate for all ages and levels.
Ancestral Technologies of the Afro-Latine Diaspora - We are reframing the idea of technology, engaging it as a practice or tactic developed by human beings to solve problems and create solutions. This framework allows us to see our music and movement forms as the powerful resilience building tools they are - tools that created and continue to create futures of possibility and hope. This is a full bodied movement class that continues to evolve and grow with each new generation of movers. This class will give participants access to their fullest self expression and movement possibilities through experimentation, play and the study of specific embodied ancestral movement practices including rumba, salsa, hip-hop, and afro-beat. This class is appropriate for all ages and levels.
Hip-Hop Grooves - Hip Hop is an American art form, rooted in African American and Latinx communities. Originally born in the Bronx, NY, Hip Hop has evolved and grown into a worldwide phenomenon. CONTRA-TIEMPO’s Hip Hop Grooves class works with participants embody movement, rhythms and grooves. The class will help participants build movement language, connection and confidence - ultimately to build community. This class is appropriate for all ages and levels.
Clave Play/Body Rhythm Work - This class will focus on teaching 4/4 clave and 6/8 clave, and working our way towards some of the more complex rhythms that are in the company’s work. The Clave is the rhythmic basis for Salsa, Rumba and many other dance and musical forms across the diaspora. The rhythm can be found in almost any form of music, and our commitment is that participants learn to embody this rhythm, to open up a world of creative possibilities; decolonizing the clave! Intermediate level.