Ana Maria Alvarez

(she/HER)

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.

Email: anamaria@contra-tiempo.org

Ruby morales

(she/HER)

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

Jannet galdamez

(she/HER)

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

Matthew Kellaway

He/Him

Matthew Kellaway is a professional singer, teacher, and arts administrator known for his warm and rich baritone voice as well as his hard work behind the scenes in performing arts organizations. He has been a soloist with the Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony, Disney's Candlelight Concerts, and has sung with Disney's Voices of Liberty, The John Alexander Singers, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Over the past ten years, Matthew has been the director of Men’s Chorus and private voice instructor at Biola University and also directed the Tenor/Bass Chorale, Treble Chorale, and Musical Theatre Ensemble at Fullerton College. During those years, Matthew also worked as Assistant Production Manager and Interim Director of Artistic Production for Pacific Chorale as well as Operations Manager for Pacific Opera Project, an Opera Company based out of Los Angeles.

email: matthew@contra-tiempo.org

 Maritxell Carrero

(she/her)

Maritxell Carrero is an actress, producer, multi-disciplinary artist and facilitator. From a very young age her love for her native Puerto Rico, music, family, art, healing and social justice have been her compass. She holds an MFA from University of California- San Diego and a BFA from Florida International University. She is Co-Founder of Carrero Creatives where she has collaborated as producer and cultural consultant for several artistic projects including the 2023 Grammy Awards Bad Bunny opening number, where she also performed as a dancer. Her dynamic vision for creating spaces where art can thrive has led her to combine her passion for performance to that of producing. She is producer of Calle de la Resistencia, a musical film shot during the pandemic. The film was nominated for Best Puerto Rican Film in 2022 and is available now on Amazon Prime.

She is founder of Taller Kurubina, a space to share her love for her Afro- Puerto Rican musical ancestry, dance and cultural events in Los Angeles . As an actress, she was recently part of the cast of 'Seven,' a play commissioned by female rights organization Vital Voices, and brought to the stage on a national level by L.A. Theatre Works. She was the lead actress in Peter Sellars' opera, 'The Indian Queen,' recipient of five 2015 Golden Mask Awards, which she notably performed at the English National Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid, and Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. She is the writer/producer of 'A Revolutionary Mystic,' a biographical one-woman show retracing the life of famed Puerto Rican activist Lolita Lebrón.

Recent credits include: La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Rep, Greenway Arts, North Coast Rep, and Bilingual Foundation of the Arts. She was part of the multicultural production of 'All My Sons' at Hollywood's Matrix Theater, winner of the 2012 NAACP Image Award for Best Ensemble. TV Credits include: NCIS, 'Dame Chocolate' and Televisa's 'Bajo Las Riendas del Amor.' She originated the role of Señorita Reflejos in 'Dos y Dos,' a children's series for Telemundo broadcast in both Latin and North America. Maritxell's image has been used in numerous national advertising campaigns.

She has made it a point to pair her career in the entertainment industry with educational endeavors for various organizations such as Theater of Hearts in Los Angeles, East LA Classic Theater, Libérate Language Justice, Urban Peace Institute, and Acting Conservatory at the Puerto Rican Athenaeum. Maritxell is thrilled to serve as Production & Tour Manager and use her experience in support of CONTRA-TIEMPO'S vision.

Instagram: @maritxellcarrero

Spotify: @maritxell

Email: maritxell@contra-tiempo.org

Holly JOhnston

(SHE/HER)

holly johnston is the creator and director of Responsive Body, a biodynamic ecology of support for body-based resiliency, social connection, personal, and professional development. She is an award-winning performer and choreographer and was the artistic director/choreographer for the national touring dance company, LEDGES AND BONES. holly is bewildered by most things and is fascinated by learning. She is the descendant of artists and social justice workers. Her identity was formed through the love of her family’s matriarch- a white, queer, single-parent of three adopted children, social worker, fierce defender of human rights who loved cats more than people.

holly has experienced the benefits and deterrents of acquiring a BA in Dance and MFA in Choreography. She has synthesized her study of biodynamic craniosacral therapies, structural integration, barefoot shiatsu, connective tissue mobilization, functional movement, kinesiology, anatomy and physiology, Polyvagal theory, art therapy, epigenetics, yoga, energy medicine and choreography into her work as a developer and coordinator for human(ized) systems of performance and production. She integrates Responsive Body into her role as human systems performance and production coordinator for CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater.

holly works as a consultant, mentor, educator, choreographer, artist, relationship bonder and community builder. She facilitates certification programs in Responsive Body, mentors creative and professional development, works therapeutically with individuals, partners, and families, and travels frequently to dance programs as a guest artist. She writes poems and essays describing a life-long bewilderment with being a human person. Her podcast A Space To Be discusses subjects related to current events, culture, politics, embodiment, creativity, history, and futurity. holly’s work is rooted through California in Long Beach and San Francisco/Bay Area. She remains wildly in love with her partner, Peter, and their son Sky.

email: holly@contra-tiempo.org

JASMINE STANLEY

(she/her)

Stanley started taking ballet when she was 5 years old in Annapolis, MD. Through the years, she attended different dance studios allowing dance to grow into her passion, especially after her family moved to Wake Forest, NC. There she explored multiple ways to move her body in ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and modern classes. In college, she grew into her own identity as a mover and as a choreographer, ultimately earning a B.A. in dance from Columbia College in Columbia, SC. She first experienced dance as social action in 2013 when she was given the opportunity to dance with Vincent Thomas and his restaging of “Take Off…” an excerpt of a larger work titled “Occupy”. She was so moved by the power that movement can have over audiences. After attending summer programs outside of her hometown, she was exposed to even more styles including West African, Dunham, Rumba, Horton, Graham, and salsa. She was selected by Debbie Allen to perform with Stevie Wonder live at the Special Olympics World Games in 2015. Since moving to Los Angeles, Stanley has worked with many choreographers including Reegan Haynes, Joe Brown, Tai White, and Darrel “Friidom” Dunn. She has dance with artists such as Tye Tribett, Kanye West, and Shaunte Usual.

In addition to dancing, Stanley worked as a full-time biochemist. She is currently attending the University of Southern California to receive her Doctorate of Physical Therapy.

When Stanley first learned about CONTRA-TIEMPO in school, she became curious about their mission and movement. After moving to Los Angeles in the Summer of 2017, she attended the CONTRA-TIEMPO Futuro Summer Dance Program where she saw her own personal values and mission align, and in September of 2018 Stanley was asked to join CONTRA-TIEMPO as a company member.

Email: stanley@contra-tiempo.org