Shenandoah Conservatory is proud to host Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company CONTRA-TIEMPO for a dynamic creative residency this month. Known for their bold, multilingual performances and commitment to social change, CONTRA-TIEMPO creates communities where all people are awakened to their potential as artists and advocates.

The residency serves as a vital developmental chapter for the company’s newest work, “Roots of Loving Us.” Through high-energy workshops, collaborative research and a unique “work in progress” performance, CONTRA-TIEMPO will bring its signature blend of salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop and contemporary dance to the Winchester community this month.

CONTRA-TIEMPO in Performance

CONTRA-TIEMPO will share excerpts from its latest project, “Roots of Loving Us,” during a free community performance at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, in Shingleton Dance Space. A multi-year collaborative research project created by holly johnston of Responsive Body and Ana María Álvarez, artistic director of CONTRA-TIEMPO, this work explores the profound concept of chosen families.

Inspired by narratives of adoption, foster care and bioadaptive families, the performance incorporates somatic healing and ancestral technologies of dance, music and imagery. This event is a testament to lives transformed by the choice to love, featuring innovative production elements and cross-sensory experiences developed in partnership with Shenandoah Conservatory’s music therapy program.

Community Engagement: Afro-Latin Social Dance Workshop

Dancers from CONTRA-TIEMPO will lead a free Afro-Latin Social Dance Workshop at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 16, in the Hazel-Pruitt Armory, Collaboratory. Known as a “Sabor Session” (from the Spanish word for “flavor”), this high-energy workshop invites participants of all ages, levels and abilities to move and groove.

Dancers will guide the community through Afro-Latin social dance forms rooted in radical joy and rhythm. No prior dance experience is required. This event is free and open to both the Shenandoah University community and the general public.

Collaborative Music Therapy Residency

​​Throughout the residency, CONTRA-TIEMPO will engage the Shenandoah Conservatory music therapy program in four days of intensive choreographic labs while simultaneously developing their new work, “Roots of Loving Us.” These labs serve as a cornerstone of the company’s community engagement practice, providing a unique space for art-making, storytelling and building deep connections through creative, generative practice. By working alongside professional artists and clinicians, music therapy students have the rare opportunity to engage their own creative capabilities and explore the intersection of dance and therapeutic practice.

“The CONTRA-TIEMPO residency with the music therapy program is an incredible opportunity for undergraduate and graduate music therapy students to engage in an arts process that supports their development as therapists,” said Director of Music Therapy, Coordinator of Graduate Music Therapy and Professor of Music Therapy Anthony Meadows, Ph.D. “The artists will facilitate a series of movement labs that focus on embodied presence and expression, connecting this to concepts of family and belonging. This intersects with program themes and develops students’ sense of what it means to have a therapeutic presence and be able to engage clients in creative, healing processes.”

Sponsors

The presentation of Roots of Loving Us by CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Roots of Loving Us by CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by ArtPower at University of California San Diego, Shenandoah University, University of Tampa and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. For more information, www.npnweb.org.

The Performing Arts Live series is supported in part by funding from the Marion Park Lewis Foundation.