Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Presents CONTRA-TIEMPO: JOYUS JUSTUS

CONTRA-TEMPO, the critically-acclaimed Los Angeles-based urban Latin dance company, presents joyUS justUS, an evening-length work that celebrates the power of joy to overcome inequalities, on Friday, January 17, and Saturday, January 18, 2020, 7:30 pm, in the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts' Bram Goldsmith Theater. Set to the music by the band Las Cafeteras, the powerful work fuses Salsa, Afro-Cuban and contemporary dance styles with theater, offering stories of hope, faith, family and joy collected from communities of color in South Los Angeles. A deeply collaborative effort, joyUS justUS includes choreograph by CONTRA-TIEMPO Founder/Director Ana Maria Alvarez as well as company members. Alvarez says, "It celebrates our capacity to come together and be connected and see ourselves in one another." Backstage proclaims it, "A joyous performance that comically explores the diversity of Salsa dancing, while also using the dance form to portray the thorny social and political issues facing Latinos in America today!"

"CONTRA-TIEMPO is known for compelling choreography steeped in social justice," says The Wallis' Artistic Director Paul Crewes. "This engaging work beautifully showcases the troupe's unique style and vision."

The Wallis' 2019/2020 dance programming features Los Angeles-based companies exclusively, marking the first time a major Southern California performing arts venue has presented an all-local dance line-up during a single season. Dance @ The Wallis is sponsored, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

CONTRA-TIEMPO'S performers and musicians, who share ties to South Los Angeles, "upend conventional notions of minority communities in the United States" (Sheppard Express). The company, founded in 2005, creates an invigorating blend of physically intense and socially astute performance that pushes the boundaries of Latin Dance as an expressive cultural and contemporary form. It takes Salsa back to its roots as a mode of expression for the struggles of the working class. CONTRA-TIEMPO, says Alvarez, "exists in the in-between space of leader/follower, immigrant/American, English/Spanish, performer/listener." Many of the company's professional dancers and performers, who are trained in a variety of dance styles, are immigrants or first generation North Americans, living within the varied and infinitely complex political and personal landscapes that CONTRA-TIEMPO addresses in its work.

Tickets, $29 to $79, are on sale now. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit TheWallis.org/CT.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is a dynamic cultural hub and community resource where local, national and International Artists share their artistry with ever-expanding audiences. The campus, located in the heart of Beverly Hills, CA, is committed to robust and distinctive presentations and education programs curated with both creativity and social impact in mind. Distinguished by its eclectic programming that mirrors the diverse landscape of Los Angeles and its location in the entertainment capital of the world, The Wallis has produced and presented more than 275 dance, theater, opera, classical music, cinema and family programs since its doors opened in October 2013. Hailed as "au courant" (LaLa Magazine), The Wallis was lauded by Culture Vulture, which proclaims, "If you love expecting the unexpected in the performing arts, you have to love The Wallis." Its programming has been nominated for 48 Ovation Awards and seven L.A. Drama Critic's Circle Awards. The campus itself, a breathtaking 70,000-square-foot facility, celebrating the classic and the modern, has garnered six architectural awards. Designed by acclaimed architect Zoltan E. Pali (SPF:architects), the restored building features the original 1933 Beverly Hills Post Office (on the National Register of Historic Places), which serves as the theater's dramatic yet welcoming lobby, and includes the contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theater; the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater; an inviting open-air plaza for family, community and other performances; and GRoW @ The Wallis: A Space for Arts Education, where learning opportunities for all ages and backgrounds abound. Together, these elements embrace the city's history and its future, creating a performing arts destination for L.A.-area visitors and residents alike. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is led by Chairman of the Board Michael Nemeroff, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer Rachel Fine and Artistic Director Paul Crewes.

For more information about The Wallis, please visit: TheWallis.org.

WHAT:

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Presents
CONTRA-TIEMPO: joyUS justUS

PROGRAM:

joyUS justUS
Conceived and directed by Ana Maria Alvarez, the piece includes choreograph by Alvarez and company members, who contributed their ideas and unique movement styles

WHEN:

Friday, January 17, 2020, 7:30 pm (artist talk-back immediately follows the performance)
Saturday, January 18, 2020, 7:30 pm

RUN TIME:

Running time is 2 hours including a 15 minute intermission and an audience on-stage dance party.

WHERE:

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Bram Goldsmith Theater
9390 N. Santa Monica Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

TICKET PRICES AND INFORMATION:

$29 to $79 (prices subject to change)
TheWallis.org/CT
310.746.4000
Box Office - Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Services
9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210

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