Jasmine Stanley
The Choreography of Voting

Voting is a powerful tool that allows you to influence the direction of your community and country. It’s a right that many before us fought tirelessly to secure, and it’s a responsibility that we all share. Whether you’re voting in a local election or a national one, your voice matters. Make sure to register, stay informed, and most importantly, vote! Your participation is essential in keeping our democracy strong and vibrant.

The Choreography of Voting
Jasmine Stanley
The Stages of Group Development

Everyone wants to say and act as if working in an arts organization with people you love is just easy, dreamy, and full of laughs all day, but the days are also just as long, hard, exhausting, and bring us to the edges of our human capacities. To quote joyUS justUS, “If we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am.”

The Stages of Group Development
Jasmine Stanley
Building Resilience Through Creativity and Dance

Resilience is more than our ability to survive through tragedy. How do we maintain love, compassion, empathy - the things that make us human - when our circumstances are less than ideal and our world is riddled with death and hate?

Building Resilience Through Creativity and Dance
Maria Garcia
The Roots of Salsa Dance

As we look to the future, salsa's ability to adapt and incorporate diverse influences ensures its place as a beloved and ever-evolving dance form, continuing to inspire and connect generations of dancers and enthusiasts worldwide. 

Read on to discover how the past continues to shape the future of the ever-evolving world of Salsa.

The Roots of Salsa Dance
Jasmine Stanley
Academia: The New Jim Crow

The global movement to free Palestine from senseless murder, attempted genocide, and decades of oppression by the Israeli government, has further exposed the contradictions, shortcomings, and gut-wrenching truths that is the backbone of higher education in America. Some of these terrifying truths are very reminiscent of the Jim Crow era - which begs the question: is history repeating itself?

Academia: The New Jim Crow

South LA

Building Community in South L.A.

Brianna is a former member of CONTRA-TIEMPO's Futuro Junior Company, and has been interning with us all summer through the L.A. County Arts Commission's Arts Administration Internship Program. Here she reflects on her experience. 

Though based in Los Angeles, CONTRA-TIEMPO hasn't always spent a lot of time here, because the company has been fortunate to be on the road touring and sharing work nationally. That's changed over the last year, as the company has begun building a home in South Los Angeles.

Oftentimes, artists are berated for being contributors to the gentrification process. Even some of the most well-meaning arts organizations have set up shop in neighborhoods like South LA and found themselves facing stark resistance from community members. I mean think about it, if someone were to move into your home uninvited and unannounced, how would you react? Given recent threats of gentrification in South LA neighborhoods like Vermont-Knolls and Leimert Park, CONTRA-TIEMPO knew that in order to do it right, genuine and holistic community engagement would be a crucial step.

This is why CONTRA-TIEMPO decided to work with the Community Coalition to build community specific, context-driven engagement strategy that focuses on grassroots organizing, intentional community building, and forming genuine relationships with people in the neighborhood. Through canvassing the community and hosting Sabor Sessions (free weekly dance classes for the South Los Angeles community), CONTRA-TIEMPO has been able to grow some really rich relationships with community residents.

Witnessing and facilitating this beautiful process as CONTRA-TIEMPO’s Community Engagement Intern has been both an honor and a privilege for me. After over a month of hard work, South Los Angeles is finally starting to feel more like a home (and that's even with me being from South Los Angeles!). It’s not uncommon to walk around the neighborhood, see familiar faces, and strike up conversation with folks.

One story that reassures me that we are on the right track is of one of our Sabor Session participants who I initially just started talking to in passing, as she and her granddaughters were walking down the street outside of the Community Coalition building. I invited them in to dance with us, and she seemed wary of coming in. But then one of her granddaughters shouted, “Grandma! Grandma! We want to dance!” She looked into her granddaughters’ pleading eyes and finally decided to come in and see what the class was all about. Even as she walked into the building, the hesitation was still very noticeable in her face. “Only a few minutes,” she told her granddaughters as they ran to the front of the room. As it turned out, a few minutes turned into 30 minutes, which eventually turned into an hour.

Gradually, I saw the expression on her face become less and less resistant, until finally, she was smiling cheek-to- cheek. Since then, she and her granddaughters have come every week to dance and build community with us.

It is stories like this that make me aware of the transformative power of dance. The fact that she went from a reluctant passerby to a fully engaged "regular" is proof of how powerful it is to be given a space to have fun, build community, heal and express yourself.

I can honestly say it has been such an exciting time for me to take part in the beginning of what CONTRA-TIEMPO hopes to be a long-standing relationship with the South Los Angeles community, and I look forward to the weeks (and years) to come.

CONTRA-TIEMPO is a 501(C)3 non-profit arts organization. Your donations are tax-deductible. (TAX ID#20-5477825)