Venza Dance
Venza Dance is a BIPOC-led interdisciplinary arts organization that creates experimental performance experiences at the intersection of dance, theater, music, film, and emerging forms. Operating as a project-based collective, we bring together diverse artists to explore memory, identity, belonging, and the connections between past, present, and future generations through innovative storytelling and movement-driven work. We are committed to artistic risk-taking, community engagement, and amplifying underrepresented voices while inspiring audiences and future generations to imagine new possibilities for themselves and the world around them.
Core Values
Core Values
Innovation & Experimentation — Continually pushing the boundaries of performance and exploring new interdisciplinary possibilities.
Community & Access — Creating meaningful opportunities for artists, youth, and audiences to engage with the arts.
Representation & Equity — Centering underrepresented voices and diverse perspectives.
Curiosity & Dialogue — Embracing complexity, contradiction, and questions rather than fixed answers.
Leadership & Care — Cultivating artistic environments rooted in honesty, kindness, mentorship, and mutual respect.
Intergenerational Impact — Honoring those who came before us while inspiring future generations of artists and cultural leaders.
Embodiment & Agency — Using movement and artistic expression to deepen self-awareness and reclaim personal and collective narratives.
Quaba V. Ernest
Quaba Venza Ernest is a Brooklyn-born, St. Lucian-American interdisciplinary artist whose work creates immersive performance worlds at the intersection of contemporary dance, theater, and sound. Drawing from movement, storytelling, and interdisciplinary collaboration, his work explores memory, human nature, and the emotional and physical architectures that shape how we move through life. He is an alum of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, and attended Springboard Danse Montréal.
His performance career spans operatic, commercial, concert, and immersive stages, including collaborations with Ballet BC, Doug Varone and Dancers, Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, Peiju Performing Arts, Sidra Bell for Derek Fordjour's SCORE, Damani Pompey, Loni Landon, Kayla Farrish, Hélène Simoneau Danse, Dual Rivet, and productions at The Metropolitan Opera.
As a choreographer and filmmaker, his work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues and festivals including Triskelion Arts, Arts On Site, BAAD!, Jamaica Dance Festival, Cinedanza (Italy), Quinzena de Dança de Almada (Portugal), Dance Camera Istanbul, Movies By Movers, Making Moves Dance Festival, Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, the 92Y Future Dance Festival, Brenau University, Ralph Pucci International, Making Moves Dance Festival, and New Century Dance Project.
Through his project-based platforms, Venza Dance and Ernest Records, he develops interdisciplinary collaborations that center experimentation, community engagement, and the support of emerging artists. In partnership with New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), he has created opportunities for young people to learn, create, and gain professional experience & compensation in the arts, helping cultivate the next generation of cultural leaders.
His artistic practice has been supported by numerous residencies and fellowships, including the Center for Performance Research Resident Artist Award (2026), Dancing While Black Fellowship (2026), Pepatián/BAAD! Dancing Futures Residency (2025), Chelsea Factory Summer Residency (2024), Jacob's Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship (2021), and the Thayer Fellowship in the Arts (2019).
His performance career spans operatic, commercial, concert, and immersive stages, including collaborations with Ballet BC, Doug Varone and Dancers, Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, Peiju Performing Arts, Sidra Bell for Derek Fordjour's SCORE, Damani Pompey, Loni Landon, Kayla Farrish, Hélène Simoneau Danse, Dual Rivet, and productions at The Metropolitan Opera.
As a choreographer and filmmaker, his work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues and festivals including Triskelion Arts, Arts On Site, BAAD!, Jamaica Dance Festival, Cinedanza (Italy), Quinzena de Dança de Almada (Portugal), Dance Camera Istanbul, Movies By Movers, Making Moves Dance Festival, Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, the 92Y Future Dance Festival, Brenau University, Ralph Pucci International, Making Moves Dance Festival, and New Century Dance Project.
Through his project-based platforms, Venza Dance and Ernest Records, he develops interdisciplinary collaborations that center experimentation, community engagement, and the support of emerging artists. In partnership with New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), he has created opportunities for young people to learn, create, and gain professional experience & compensation in the arts, helping cultivate the next generation of cultural leaders.
His artistic practice has been supported by numerous residencies and fellowships, including the Center for Performance Research Resident Artist Award (2026), Dancing While Black Fellowship (2026), Pepatián/BAAD! Dancing Futures Residency (2025), Chelsea Factory Summer Residency (2024), Jacob's Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship (2021), and the Thayer Fellowship in the Arts (2019).