Contra-Tiempo

CONTRA-TIEMPO a non-profit, Los Angeles based, activist dance company brings three works to the Dance Place stage.

I Dream America 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 investigates compassion and peace, and paints a disarming and thought-provoking critique of contemporary life and injustice.

Against the Times explores Salsa, an improvisational form 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, yet laden with social and political contradictions. In more recent times, the over sexualized representations of women have become 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.

Plastico 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.

Co-presented by Reston Center Stage and appearing at Reston April 7, 2010. Supported in part by the NEA and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Performance Residency Program.