A Visions and Voices Signature Event

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. RSVP beginning Friday, August 1, at 10 a.m.

DESCRIPTION:
Celebrate 20 years of Visions and Voices and 10 years of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance with a dazzling triple bill of companies from L.A.’s vibrant dance scene. Also celebrating two decades of exciting work, CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater and the Versa-Style Street Dance Company have performed in multiple Visions and Voices and Kaufman School events and workshops. JA Collective was founded by members of USC Kaufman’s inaugural class of 2019.

> Led by founding artistic director Ana María Alvarez since 2005, CONTRA-TIEMPO is a multilingual activist dance theater company dedicated to transforming the world through dance by building community, facilitating dialogue, and moving audiences to imagine what is possible. They will perform an excerpt from joyUS justUS, a powerful work that highlights joy as the ultimate expression of resistance.
 

> Started in 2018 by Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry when they were USC Kaufman students, JA Collective blends hip hop, theatre, and contemporary dance into a distinctive style that blurs dance and theatre, rehearsal and performance, and reality and dreams. They will perform Castling the Unknown, inspired by the events of Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland.
 

> Established by Los Angeles natives and artistic directors Jackie “Miss Funk” Lopez and Leigh “Breeze-Lee” Foaad in 2005, Versa-Style Street Dance Company seeks to empower underserved and marginalized groups worldwide through the movement and culture of hip hop dance. They will perform an excerpt from Freemind Freestyle, a high–energy, improvised work that features such street dance styles as locking, popping, hip hop, and krump.
 

Bios:

Led by founding artistic director Ana María Avarez, CONTRA-TIEMPO’s mission is to create a future where all people are awakened to a sense of themselves as artists and social change agents through movement making, facilitating dialogue, leadership development, and creating physically intense and politically astute dance theater work. The bold, multilingual Los Angeles–based activist dance theater company 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. CONTRA-TIEMPO takes an uncompromisingly radical approach to the ways in which artists function within communities and create their work, intentionally engaging diverse audiences, cultivating dancer leaders, and centering stories not traditionally heard on the concert stage.

JA Collective gained prominence in 2018 through their choreography and direction of music videos and short films that amassed millions of views online. They are perhaps best known for collaborating with the band half•alive, shaping the group’s music videos, television performances, and international tours. Their work has extended to artists including Talking Heads, Frank Ocean, Future, Paul McCartney, Brockhampton, David Archuleta, Nikki, Bishop Briggs, and Matt Champion, as well as brands such as Apple, Gucci, Allstate, Belvedere Vodka, Snapchat, Pull & Bear, and Invisalign. They’ve also contributed to projects by artists and filmmakers like Taika Waititi, Olivia Wilde, Mike Mills, Shia Labeouf, Saiorse Ronan, and Margaret Qualley. Johnson and Carberry perform and tour globally in Friends of Forsythe, a new work curated by William Forsythe, which they also helped choreograph. Their collaboration is a study in contrast and cohesion—bridging spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic divides to better understand not only each other, but the world.

The Versa-Style Street Dance Company was founded by Los Angeles natives and co–artistic directors Jackie “Miss Funk” Lopez and Leigh “Breeze-Lee” Foaad to promote, empower, and celebrate the artistry of hip hop and street dance culture. Named “Los Angeles’ Best Dance Troupe for Hip Hop Empowerment” by the LA Weekly, Versa-Style is recognized for its electrifying performances and inspiring engagement activities for schools and local communities. Consisting of committed, highly skilled street dance artists and educators representing the diversity and beautiful complexity of Los Angeles, Versa-Style harnesses the exhilarating energy of street dance on the concert stage for an unforgettable evening of dance.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices and the USC Kaufman School of Dance.

Photo (CONTRA-TIEMPO): Steve Wylie