“More than a hip isolating dance ensemble…CONTRA-TIEMPO pushes boundaries” —Washington Post

CONTRA-TIEMPO’s ¡azúcar! is a courageous naming of, confrontation with, and intentional obliteration of the often unspoken undercurrent of anti-Blackness in latinidad. Questions are continuing to drive the process as we begin to understand the complicated history of sugar and the messages from our ancestors. What does it feel like to individually and collectively heal, what does it move like? Twenty brilliant artists and collaborators take audiences through a journey of Celia Cruz’s vibrations, unearthing history embedded in our bodies. Through ¡azúcar!, CONTRA-TIEMPO explores ancestral wisdoms about a plant that once aided in our healing, used as a way to sweeten medicinal concoctions, now extracted, refined, and used as weaponized poison. This courageous work is rooted in and inspired by the sacred feminine, personal narratives of food, labor, community, sabor, and explorations of “familying” and healing as practices.

CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company that creates communities where all people are awakened to a sense of themselves as artists and social change agents who move through the world with compassion, confidence, and joy.