ANA MARIA ALVAREZ

(she/her)

Founding Artistic Director

BIOGRAPHY

Ana María Álvarez, a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow, is a prolific choreographer, skilled dancer, masterful teaching artist, and movement activist who has achieved multiple accolades for her dynamic works. Her thesis work explored the abstraction of Latine dance, specifically Salsa, as a way to express social resistance as related to the U.S. immigration battle. This work became the impetus for founding CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater in 2005 in Los Angeles. Alvarez and CONTRA-TIEMPO have continued to tour “joyUS justUS” (2017). This signature work is a radical celebration of humanity and the feminine, centering joy as a more loving and just future is imagined. Her work has been presented in theaters across the country and the world, including in Germany, Bulgaria, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and El Salvador.  She was selected as the 2018 BiNational Artist in Residence, connecting communities in the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix (U.S.), Douglas (U.S.), Tucson (U.S.), and Agua Prieta (M.X.), through leading artistic workshops, collaborative performances, and public talks, and concluding with a performance at the U.S.-Mexico border. Alvarez and CONTRA-TIEMPO were also invited to represent the best of American Contemporary Dance Abroad through The Obama Administration’s U.S. Department of State cultural exchange program, produced by BAM, DanceMotionUSA. In the Fall of 2022, Alvarez was invited to join the UC San Diego Theatre and Dance Department as a tenured faculty member. In this exciting new chapter of her career, Alvarez, in collaboration with her colleagues and students, is imagining and designing a new future for embodied performance and practice at UCSD. 

Alvarez has been recognized with a number of awards and grants including NEFA’s National Dance Project, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, LA City Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County and the California Arts Council among others. She is the recipient of  the Mujeres Destacadas award from LA Opinion and a Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival Rainbow Award for her work with CONTRA-TIEMPO called “Agua Furiosa.” She received a Bachelor of Arts in dance and politics from Oberlin College and a Master of Fine Arts in choreography from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

To see her full CV, click here.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a Los Angeles-based choreographer, dancer, educator, and organizer whose work traverses the worlds of social dance, political activism, community organizing, and art-making. My work is deeply inspired by my upbringing as a Cuban American raised primarily in the Southeastern United States by two labor union organizers and educators. I have had the privilege of studying and shaping my movement palate with master artists such as Katherine Dunham, Idalberto Bandera Sidó (Ballet Folklórico Cutumba), Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Urban Bush Women), Ann Cooper Albright, Julio Jean, and Dr. Eleanor Gwynn. I have also traveled extensively throughout South America and the Caribbean to study, practice, and perform Tango and Afro-Cuban secular dances (Timba, Rueda, Rumba, and Gaga).

I received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Politics from Oberlin College and a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. My thesis work, which explored “Latin Dance” (specifically Salsa) as a way to express social resistance within the US immigration battle, became the impetus for founding CONTRA-TIEMPO. In 2005, I founded CONTRA-TIEMPO Urban Latin Dance Theater to be a space where I could take on big social ideas on the concert stage, centering social dance forms and narratives of the African and Latin diasporas. 

The first work I choreographed, Against the Times, was completed for my MFA thesis project. It explores Salsa as a metaphor for social resistance, looking specifically at immigration battles along the U.S.-Mexican border. I Dream America, explores the tensions, commonalities, strains and histories between the Black and Latino communities, traversing the political landscape of immigration and Hurricane Katrina. Full Still Hungry explores food justice and the politics of consumption. Agua Furiosa takes on environmental justice, racism, and patriarchy. joyUS justUS looks at joy as a revolutionary practice grounded in community and human connection.

Since founding CONTRA-TIEMPO, I have received numerous awards, including a MAP Fund award in 2018 for the development of "joyUS justUS"; the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project award in 2014 for the development of "Agua Furiosa" and in 2016 for the development of "joyUS justUS"; the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Fund for the Arts grant every year from 2013 to 2018; and the Dance/USA Engaging Dance Audiences award for "Agua Furiosa" in 2015 and for "joyUS justUS" in 2017. In 2016 CONTRA-TIEMPO was awarded the James Irvine Foundation’s two-year Exploring Engagement Fund for the development of "joyUS justUS". 

I have been recognized locally and nationally for my work by La Opinion, a Los Angeles-based new publication, as a “Mujer Destacada” in 2012, and by the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival with the Rainbow Award in 2016. Most recently in 2019, I have been awarded Dance/USA’s Fellowship to Artists award and the Pieter Dancemakers Gran and the U.S. State Department selected CONTRA-TIEMPO to help develop, support leadership and to inspire youth through art as social action in El Salvador, Central America. In 2018, CONTRA-TIEMPO was selected to represent the U.S. at Spotlight USA Dance Platform in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where we performed “Agua Furiosa”. Similarly, in 2014, we were selected as ambassadors to represent U.S. dance abroad by the U.S. State Department/ Brooklyn Academy of Music during the DanceMotionUSA tour in South America. In 2012, I was selected by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to represent Los Angeles contemporary dance at the Tanzmesse in Dusseldorf, Germany and at the Kindling/Fresh Tracks Choreographic Institute in Dusseldorf. 

I have been commissioned by the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts for "joyUS justUS" in 2017 (premiering to a sold-out theater at USC), by UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance for “Agua Furiosa” in 2016, and by The Music Center in Los Angeles for “Moves After Dark” in 2015.

In addition to my work with CONTRA-TIEMPO, I have always been engaged in a number of exciting creative projects outside of the company and continue to find new ways to partner, play and expand the vision of my work. I am frequently invited as a guest choreographer or artist in residence with dance companies and universities across the country. In July 2018, I was the guest choreographer for the Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company in Sarasota, FL. A few months earlier, I collaborated with award-winning composer, lyricist, and writer, Cesar Alvarez, to choreograph “NOISE”, a commission of The Public Theater and NYU/Playwrights Horizons Theater School. In February 2018, I had the honor of choreographing and lecturing as the artist in residence (alongside Liz Lerman and Natalie Diaz) at the Binational Artist Residency in Tucson, Douglas, and Phoenix, AZ and Agua Prieta, Mexico. Before my time with the Binational Artist Residency, I was an artist in residence at North Carolina State University, Shenandoah Conservatory, Arizona State University, Cal State University Monterey, and the University of North Texas Denton.

To learn more about my current and past projects, click here.

Connect with mE

Instagram: @movementartivist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/movementartivist

Twitter: @movementartivst

Press

“represents the kind of socially aware contemporary work that only a few dance artists such as Bill T. Jones reliably provide…in heart, mind and soul this is the real thing!” - Los Angeles Times

“Alvarez is a force to be reckoned with” - curtainup.com, NYC

"(On Alvarez) A legit choreographic wunderkind with technical skills and theoretical foundations anchored in deep humanity... All of this is framed within a socially engaged and vividly creative approach to contemporary performance. Alvarez creates work that has deep roots and big ambitions." - CLture

“Alvarez is a rising star of the dance world.” - Backstage, NYC

 JOSE JOSE ARRIETA

(HE/HIM)

COMPANY APPRENTICE

Jose Jose hails from Cartagena, Colombia. Though most of the people in this city are financially poor, they are extremely culturally wealthy. Jose Jose grew up in an environment of strong social connections and close family relationships where he was nurtured to be generous and grateful. Jose Jose was first introduced to CONTRA-TIEMPO through a community member who recognized the spirit of the organization in his movement. He then volunteered at a community event held at Helm’s Bakery in Culver City, CA. There he was able to learn more through the experience of CONTRA-TIEMPO’S notable sabor sessions and choreographic lab. Jose Jose joined as an apprentice in January 2023, and premiered ¡azúcar! with the company in Raleigh, North Carolina in March 2023. Jose Jose is proud to be the first person in his family to earn an international BFA. He looks forward to continuing his education in Arts Management and Administration, so that he can bring dance back to Colombia. Jose Jose received his BFA from Northwestern State University of Louisiana in May 2022. He has toured nationally and internationally with companies such as Diavolo Architecture in Motion, Blue13 Dance Company, and Diabolique Cabaret of Colombia.

Jose Jose enjoys dancing to the drums - it fills him with adrenaline, opens up his awareness and links him to ancestral wisdoms. He hopes to create spaces where people feel free to explore their bodies, uplift their spirit and connect with their roots.

IG: @JOSE2_AC

JANNET GALDAMEZ

(she/her)

REHEARSAL/programming DIRECTOR & company member

Jannet Galdamez is a dance artist born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, CA. Her love for dance and music began at a very young age through social, street, family settings. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and minor in Education from the University of California Irvine June of 2012 training intensively in jazz, improvisation, modern and ballet. Jannet has been studying salsa for the last 17 years, Afro-Cuban dance, music, and culture for the last 10 years and she continues to dive deep in her studies of various dance forms inside the Latin and African Diaspora.  

Jannet has danced with Paula Abdul, Spanish Rock Band Mana, Prince Royce, Keaira LaShea's Dance Fitness Series, Maite Perroni, El Dasa, Luis Coronel, Chiquis Rivera, Ozomatli, La Sonora Santanera from Mexico City, Los Angeles based Cuban Roots Band Changui Majadero, Chicano Band Las Cafeteras, and the 2017 ON YOUR FEET Broadway Musical Promo Cast. She has also volunteered and worked closely as a teaching artist and behind the scenes with The Floor Improv Night and The Open Floor Society, a 501 (c) non profit organization connecting the youth with a community of professional artists, engaging in multi-cultural dance and music, using improvisation to build confidence and self empowerment. 

Jannet is currently rehearsal director, teaching and dance artist with CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater while simultaneously dancing with Kimbambula Cuban Dance Ensemble directed by Cuban Master Kati Hernadez and touring with Spanish Guitarist, Roni Benise’s Emmy Award Winning World Music and Dance Spectacular. Jannet continues to blossom in her versatility as a dance artist... always grounded with the beat of a drum and with deep gratitude for her teachers, mentors, and elders. She is passionate about her journey - a journey guided by love, balance, connection, gratitude and rooted in celebrating and uplifting cultural and ancestral roots, community-building, self-discovery and self-empowerment through dance.

Email: jannet@contra-tiempo.org

IG: @jgsoulbird

MARIA GARCIA

(SHE/HER)

COMPANY APPRENTICE & TEACHING ARTIVIST

Maria I Garcia, Chilean-born and Miami-raised, is motivated by the stories of Latine people, culture, and communities. She first joined CONTRA-TIEMPO as a teaching artivist in 2021, when she saw her own values of community, love, culture, and boldness, align. As an artist and teacher, authenticity, confidence, freedom and connection are at the root of her being. Salsa and Bachata are dance forms in which Maria feels most free and liberated. Maria earned her BFA from the University of Florida, where she was a Choreographer in Residence at the HARN museum. She then taught a salsa course at Los Angeles Valley College.

Beyond movement, creating art of all forms connects Maria to a spiritual source. Whether it is fashion, music, or other artistic medium, improving access to art, and sharing the joy of creativity is her purpose.

IG: @beingme_mari

KATI HERNANDEZ

(she/her)

GUEST ARTIST & MASTER TEACHER

A native of Cuba, Kati Hernández grew up surrounded by the sounds of the drum and Afro-Cuban dance traditions. Her dance studies included Afro-Cuban and international folklore, popular, modern, ballet, choreography, composition, and staging. These shaped her into the electrifying choreographer, educator, and dancer of today. Her knowledge of dance and choreography reveals her intricate and versatile style, making her a highly sought-after performer nationally and internationally. She launched her international career at an early age, touring throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas with renowned Cuban productions, musicians, and visual artists. In her hometown of Los Angeles, Kati is a central figure in a large dance community. She was recently presented with a Community Leader of Excellence 2023 award honoring her artistry, work, and leadership. She is dedicated to spreading the treasures of her Afro-Cuban roots in the US. Her nationally acclaimed signature program Oricha Dance Therapy, which she is currently touring with, is a language of expression through movements and rhythms of the rich Afro-Cuban Dance diaspora. Hernández is founder of a pioneering online dance, and music program that preserves and promotes Cuban culture worldwide to create vibrant cross-cultural communities. She is also founder and artistic director of Kimbambula Cuban Dance and Music Ensemble, and co-founder of Kimbambula Productions. The latter serves as a platform to promote Cuban culture in LA where she produces annual events such as “Essence of Cuba” a paramount reunion of Afro-Cuban masters, Kati’s Cuban Ganga, and The Cuban Social. Kati has led successful Afro-Cuban “Jam Sessions” at both Grand Park and the Ford Theater, where she served as lead choreographer for several of their programs and has also co-hosted dance workshops with the acclaimed Afro-Cuban rock band, Síntesis. More recently, Kati was artistic director for the joint production “Cuba Antes y Ahora,” at Grand Park and the Getty Museum, as well as the choreographer and cultural advisor of “Tentacion” a new production at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for LA Philharmonic’s Pan-American Youth Initiative. She has choreographed and performed in music videos including “Un Poquito de Amor Every Day” with world renowned Colin Hay and San Miguel Perez, and Iris Sandra Cepeda’s “Vete Por Donde Vinistes.” She was featured in Spotify’s Latinx Heritage Month 2021 campaign “Aquí Siempre - Retratos de una comunidad en movimiento” spotlighted in Times Square, and is currently part of the American Heart Association’s worldwide P.S.A. “Get Down with your Blood Pressure” featured in the NY Times, national American and Spanish tv, and multiple print ad campaigns. She just finished shooting as one of the actors for short film “72” which centers around a search to belong, and the ways in which immigrants find sanctuary in community, breaking away from the pervasive limited narratives about Cubans, Latinx folks, and immigrants in general. Kati also flows between public and academic venues, teaching dance classes, intensives and lectures at colleges, dance studios, and congresses around the country. She has worked with dance and music departments like CalArts, UC Irvine, University of Oregon, Pomona College, and is a yearly guest instructor at the top Cuban dance festivals in the nation. Kati’s work is a true illustration of her heritage and an endless celebration of Cuban culture.

IG: @katihernandez_cubandance

@kimbambula_cuban_dance

https://www.katicubandance.com/

RUBY MORALES

(she/her)

Resource Director & company member

Ruby Morales is committed to equity, facilitating life-affirming spaces, and cultivating community relationships rooted in reciprocity, trust, and love through life and her artmaking. She is a dance artivist investigating culturally informed teaching methods and her relationship with movement as a bgirl and Mexican influenced cumbia Sonidera. After receiving a BFA from Arizona State University she completed Urban Bush Women's Summer Leadership Institute, The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond's Undoing Racism Training, and is continuously training in breaking and learning about hip hop philosophy/theory. She is currently working with internationally renowned creative Liz Lerman, CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater, and Tucson, AZ based choreographer Yvonne Montoya. She recently toured her grant funded evening length show, Breaking Pachanga locally in Arizona. She is a 2021 National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Advocacy Leadership Fellow, and a 2021 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow.

Email: ruby@contra-tiempo.org

IG: @rubezyo

Website: https://rubymorales.com

DALPHE MORANTUS

(he/him)

Company member & Teaching Artivist

Dalphe Morantus is an professional dancer and art creator born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, who spent 11 years in L.A. where he lived and worked as an artist, choreographer and member of several dance communities. His families grassroots hails from Haiti where they migrated from to the States landing in Brooklyn, the melting pot in which molded Dalphe’s artistic beginnings and appreciation of both cultures. That appreciation grew into expression as he fell in love with blending dance styles from several cultures that he was exposed to, growing up vibing to dancehall, afro-fusion, hip-hop, salsa and house dance. Fusions like these are heavy characteristics of his work that led to his trademark style and alias, International Dalphe, with over 14 years of experience working with notable names in the industry, Ricky Martin, Don Omar, Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, just to name a few. Nowadays his work is focused on teaching people how to move their body with using groove isolations as a stepping stool to embrace their true self.

IG: @international_dalphe

JASMINE STANLEY

(she/her)

Communications Associate & Company member

Stanley grew up in the southeast United States between Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina. She cultivated deeply rooted values of community, mutual aid, and joy through the guidance and direction of her mother. Stanley’s first encounter with CONTRA-TIEMPO was in 2016 when “Agua Furiosa” was performed at NC State Live. She loved seeing brown and black people on stage moving in a way that was similar to how she enjoyed moving and telling stories that felt familiar and personally relevant. She attended the Futuro Summer Dance Intensive in 2017, and in 2018, after premiering “joyUS justUS”, she was invited to be a company member. Stanley is most called to the contemporary Black and African social dance forms. Her favorite part of dancing in community is cheering on and encouraging others to be fully expressed. She believes that through dance she can create a world where people have the freedom to thrive, shine, learn and grow. Stanley received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Bachelor of Science in Biology from Columbia College. Some career highlights include performing at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Special Olympics with Stevie Wonder, and performing annually at LA Homecoming bringing HBCU culture to Los Angeles.

Stanley is currently based in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to being a dancer and teaching artivist she is also the Communications and Social Media Associate for CONTRA-TIEMPO and is currently attending the University of Southern California pursuing her Doctorate of Physical Therapy.

Email: stanley@contra-tiempo.org

IG: @_jstanley_