The daughter of two union organizers, Ana María Alvarez has social change advocates in her blood. “My whole life I have been very clear that dance is not just something I do, but something that has the power to move the world and bring about change,” the Cuban-American dancer and founding artistic director of CONTRA-TIEMPO said in “Contra- This is described in TIEMPO.
After earning degrees in dance and politics from Oberlin College, Alvarez began working at the Lifeline Community Arts Program at the Family Life Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. “I think this work really solidified for me the power of dance and what it can do,” said Alvarez, who is also a tenured faculty member in the dance department at UC San Diego. Now, CONTRA-TIEMPO is inspiring the next generation of “artists” through the Futuro Summer Dance Intensive held in Los Angeles from August 12th to 21st (registration closes on July 22nd).
In the topic “not any All of us are free until all We are all free,” Futuro will host classes in salsa, hip-hop, house, Afro-Cuban and other techniques. The program will also delve more deeply into the practices of these ancestral movements, their history, and CONTRA-TIEMPO’s methodology of “Art as Social Action.” Renowned poet Amanda Gorman is a noted alumna of the Future Summer Dance Intensive.
us Discussed with Alvarez what participants can expect from Futuro.
Who is Futuro suitable for?
We describe it as a 10-day transformational experience for anyone interested in dance as a physical practice and making a difference in society through work. Artists who are committed to making the world a different place than it is now. As a company, CONTRA-TIEMPO is deeply integrated with the community, with dance education, with the concert stage; these things are all in deep dialogue with each other, and the Futuro program really reflects that. We spend part of every day doing what is called “art as social action”, thinking about micro and macro; think of yourself as the starting point of your positive actions, and when the embodiment of self is solid, you can contribute to the world.
Artists really come to us [from all walks of life]. We have high school and college students, graduates, professional dancers, and people working in other industries such as community organizations, city jobs, and nonprofits. It looks not just at how to be a dance practitioner, but also about how to be an artist, truly a whole person, and how we can co-construct the idea that art has the power to change the world as we know it.
What level of training and experience is required to attend Futuro’s technical courses?
The beauty of this program is that we run two tracks at the same time. We typically have about 45 to 50 participants per year. There were some classes we did as a group, such as rueda decasino, a Cuban-style salsa dance that involves standing in a circle and changing partners. But then we separated and took many other technical courses, [which are divided] Divided into professional and beginner tracks. Every day we display the courses being taught and you can choose the ones you want to study. You can bounce back and forth depending on your desires and how hard you want to push yourself.
Can you talk more about the practice of the ancestral movement and the methodology of art as social action?
Our dance teaching framework considers these “ancestral techniques” as I like to call them. When you think of technology, it’s something humans create to solve problems. When I think about dance, music, and art, I think about the way humans designed these things to understand the world, overcome obstacles, and find deep connection and meaning in our lives. These ancestral techniques are everything we teach—salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop. We also teach somatic movement practices that engage with the body as a body practice, viewing the body as a site of social transformation and activated meaning.
There are many different approaches to “art as social action” – Augusto Boal theater of the oppressed and Sphere Theater, Luis Valdez. These are the bloodlines we share in programming. We are teaching intersectionality and emancipatory frameworks to give people a deeper understanding of the tools they already have and the practices they can access to build a freer future for us all.
There is also an intensive leadership program for future artists that operates in parallel with Futuro. What can dance educators gain from this program?
The Artist Leadership Academy is not a program we have been running since COVID, but we are looking forward to relaunching it. It focuses more on the activist part of what we do, almost using art as a social action aspect of the Futuro course, and really having a two or three day in-depth experience around that. The way we think about this is for those [want to] Engage in these topics in class. That being said, even if you are an educator or someone who works with youth, the Futuro Summer Dance Intensive is currently the best place to do it. Futuro will provide you with a complete experience beyond physical exercises. I hope by 2025 we can recover [redesigned] Artist Leadership Institute.
What is the Student Aid Scheme?
Futuro is often funded by grants, but this year we didn’t have full sponsors like we have in the past. Typically about 75% of our students receive some kind of scholarship. Therefore, we ask our community and anyone who believes in this work to visit our website. You can sponsor a student ($1,000) [or donate another amount]. Currently, all donations on our website will be used to provide scholarships for Futuro.
