CONTRA-TIEMPO Hosts Free Dance Events in Pittsfield This Month

As part of this year’s 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival in Pittsfield, Jacob’s Pillow has announced that CONTRA-TIEMPO will host a community dance party and workshop (“Sabor Session”) on the evening of Tuesday, February 20, followed by a performance of ¡azúcar! on Friday, February 23. These events will be held at the Common Room at Zion Lutheran Church on First Street in Pittsfield.

Walk-ups are welcome; however, advance registration is recommended, as space is limited. Visit jacobspillow.org/10x10 to reserve free tickets to either or both events, and to see the most up-to-date event details (including any week-of updates concerning inclement weather).

This programming is presented by Jacob’s Pillow—America’s preeminent international dance center, based in Becket—in partnership with NAACP Berkshire County Branch. This event is part of the 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival, a city-wide event featuring dozens of events, in partnership with Mill Town Foundation. Go to LovePittsfield.com for more information.

CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual Los Angeles-based 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. The company dances and educates using a physical, visual, and sonic vocabulary that combines Salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip hop, and contemporary dance with theater, compelling text, and original music.

CONTRA-TIEMPO most recently appeared onstage at Jacob’s Pillow as part of the 2021 summer festival, wowing audiences of all ages with their passionate and high-energy approach to dance and storytelling. Families and participants of all ages are invited to come dance, watch, and learn.

Sabor Session and Dance Workshop

Tuesday, February 20 at 6:30pm

The Common Room at Zion Lutheran Church, 74 First Street, Pittsfield

Get moving and grooving with a "Sabor Session" (from the Spanish word for "flavor") where CONTRA-TIEMPO will guide participants in Afro-Latin social dance forms that are rooted in radical joy. In the artists’ words: “Together we embody joy as a form of resistance and a tool to build community.” No prior dance knowledge is necessary. Bring comfortable shoes and an open heart. 

Performance of ¡azúcar!

Friday, February 23 at 6:30pm

The Common Room at Zion Lutheran Church, 74 First Street, Pittsfield

This excerpt from the full-length work ¡azúcar! brings to life the vibrations of Cuban musician Celia Cruz, as artists explore ancestral wisdoms about a plant that once aided in our healing, sweetening medicinal concoctions, now extracted, refined, and used as weaponized poison. The development of ¡azúcar! is driven by unearthing the history embedded in the artists’ bodies to courageously name, confront, and intentionally obliterate the often unspoken undercurrent of anti-Blackness in Latinidad. This courageous work is rooted in our Afro-Latine movement languages, the sacred feminine, personal narratives of food, labor, community, sabor, and explorations of ‘familying’ and healing as practices. Join artists for a Q&A following the performance. 

This performance culminates CONTRA-TIEMPO’s two-week residency in the Pillow Lab, a year-round program that supports U.S.-based and international dance artists during crucial development, research, and technical stages of choreography-driven projects. To learn more about this residency program, visit jacobspillow.org/pillowlab.

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