CONTRA-TIEMPO Dance Company Presents New Work at Sierra Madre Playhouse at Sierra Madre Playhouse

CONTRA-TIEMPO, a Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company, showcases its latest project, “Roots of Loving Us,” with back-to-back matinee and evening performances on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM, at the historic 99-seat Sierra Madre Playhouse. An innovative, multi-modal, full-length work-in-progress, “Roots of Loving Us” incorporates somatic healing, dance, music and imagery to explore the 21st Century family, including narratives of adoption, foster families and bioadaptive families, uplifting these stories and lived experiences through movement and artistry.

“Roots of Loving Us” is a testament to lives transformed by the choice to love forever. Touching on diverse ancestries as well as chosen families and families retaining cultural and/or racial homogeneity, it considers origin stories shaped by biological uprooting, unchosen separation, and the re-rooting of bodies that alters family-tree DNA.

The creative forces behind “Roots of Loving Us” are renowned dance artists holly johnston of Responsive Body and Ana Maria Alvarez, founder and artistic director of CONTRA-TIEMPO, both women of color, mothers, activists, and community leaders. “Roots of Loving Us” is a multi-year community engagement, collaborative research project and performance project. Partnering organizations include ArtPower (San Diego, CA); Echoes of Hope (Los Angeles, CA); Shenandoah University (Winchester, VA); and University of Tampa (Tampa, FL).

CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual dance theater company dedicated to transforming the world through dance. Its work is rooted in Salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance and blends theater, compelling text, and original music. CONTRA-TIEMPO illuminates stories not traditionally heard on the concert stage, while building community, facilitating dialogue, and moving audiences to imagine what is possible.

For tickets ($35) and information, please call 626.355.4318 or visit www.sierramadreplayhouse.org. Sierra Madre Playhouse is located at 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, CA 91024.