REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
This 2-week intensive will offer rigorous dance and movement classes taught by CONTRA-TIEMPO artists and a roster of collaborators and accomplished guest artists from the field. We will train in salsa, rueda de casino, afro-cuban, grooves, hip hop, and more! You will learn these incredible ancestral movement practices, their radical histories, and engage with our Art as Social Action methodology. The program will culminate with a public community sharing that will be co-generated by the participants.
Scholarships Available
We are offering scholarships of up to 50% to attend FUTURO 2025! Apply early, as scholarships are limited. For consideration, please submit, FUTURO registration and scholarship application before Monday May 19, 2025 at 11:59pm PST.
Our commitment as an organization is to pay our artists and guest teachers equitably. Your tuition helps support the program.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Jannet Galdamez at futuro@contra-tiempo.org
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Yes! Application questions can be answered in written or video format (Youtube, Vimeo, DropBox, Google, etc). When submitting videos, please note:
Include link to video in corresponding section of the application form, with applicable passwords. Be sure access to the link is open for us to view.
All videos must be under 2 minutes long.
Each question must have a separate written/video submission with a separate link for each.
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FUTURO 2025 will take place in Los Angeles, CA at Nate Holden Performing Arts Center
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FUTURO is designed for movers and dancers 18 years and older. This structure is to allow for conversations and space to be held appropriately and in response to folks with similar age experiences. Our art as social action classes sometimes bring up complex conversations that empower all those in the space to take action. If you or someone you know is outside of this age range that does not mean they cannot participate. Email futuro@contra-tiempo.org with any questions.
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We do not provide housing however, we do have a lot of people who travel to L.A. to participate in FUTURO so we will connect you to others who are looking to share costs of an airbnb. Once everyone has submitted their applications and we have sent out letters of acceptance to participants, we will connect people via email to each other. Please email futuro@contra-tiempo.org if you have any questions.
What is Futuro?
Jannet Galdamez teaching at FUTURO 2022. Photo by Steve Wylie
In 2011, CONTRA-TIEMPO launched FUTURO. For its first three years, FUTURO existed only as an intensive two-week dance program, held in the summer for high school and college-age youth from across the country. FUTURO has grown over the years to include multiple programming opportunities, professional artists, activists, and educators.
We currently facilitate 2 programs, our FUTURO Summer Dance Intensive and FUTURO Artivist Leadership Intensive.
Guests artist, Martha Gonzales and Quetzal Flores or Queztal Music lead a community song writing workshop, FUTURO 2022. Photo by Steve Wylie.
During both programs participants become grounded in our CONTRA-TIEMPO technique that is rooted in Afro-Cuban traditional and social dance forms, as well as American street and contemporary forms, and it epitomizes art as social action, incorporating leadership development, community-building strategies, and social theater techniques such as Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed. At the conclusion of our programs participants come away with a greater sense of their power as artists and leaders in their communities.
Our summer dance intensive is definitely a deeper dive into movement based practices and Art as Social Action. This is a 2 week rigorous program.
CONTRA-TIEMPO artst, Charlie Dando leading a house class at FUTURO 2022. Photo by Steve Wylie.
Our Artivist Leadership Intensive is more focused on Art as Social Action and the development of the artivist voice.
FUTURO is planting the seeds for the ‘futuro’, or future, of CONTRA-TIEMPO, thus ensuring the artistic sustainability of our senior company— all of our current company matriculated through the FUTURO program— but more importantly, FUTURO is supporting the leaders of the ‘presente’. The NOW.
Futuro is made possibe in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeels Department of Cultural Affairs.