Artistic Director of CONTRA-TIEMPO
Los Angeles, CA
Ana Maria Alvarez, a Cuban American choreographer engages, creates opportunities for people to feel, relate and communicate with each other and with the subject material that she addresses in her work: immigration, race, gender and power. Her work challenges notions of how Salsa has been utilized to depoliticize Latinos, females and communities of color – and how it can be reclaimed and used as a tool to say something meaningful – and be heard! CONTRA-TIEMPO will be debuting the opening suite of the new urban-Latin dance theater work Pa’ comen(zar). Food is often used as a metaphor for dance, music, body parts, relationships, joy, ecstasy, hurt, and anger. CONTRA-TIEMPO will explore the interchange and conversation between dance and food, the fundamental voids in our cultural and societal relationship with our own history and our connection to ourselves and each other.
2009 Festival Weekend 2 Artist
“Tangled Routes”
Tangled Routes is a new urban-Latin dance theater work exploring one young woman’s journey of self discovery and nourishment through food, music, Afro-Latin and contemporary dance. This diverse company of movement artists reflects the community it reaches: a tapestry of youth, immigrants, teachers, activists, and organizers living and working within Los Angeles. Dancing to a dynamic original score created by Cesar Alvarez, the performers will explore the relationship between what and how we consume to survive, and our own distinct purpose in life. Cuban American choreographer Ana Maria Alvarez challenges notions of how Salsa has often depoliticized Latinos, women and communities of color; reclaiming it as a complex and expressive form to give voice to those who have been silenced.
