Venza Dance
Founded in 2019 by Quaba V. Ernest, Venza Dance is a project-based, interdisciplinary arts company grounded in curiosity, empathy, and care. The work begins from a personal place—a desire to better understand oneself—and grows outward with the hope of offering others moments of reflection, recognition, and connection. Creating art has long been a sustaining force in Ernest’s life, and Venza Dance continues this practice as both a means of self-discovery and a way to support and inspire others. Venza Dance functions as a rotating collective of artists, bringing together collaborators across dance, theater, music, film, and installation. Each project is shaped by the people involved, allowing form, process, and perspective to remain fluid and responsive. Through abstract storytelling and movement-driven exploration, the work invites audiences to engage emotionally rather than seek fixed answers—making space for complexity, contradiction, and quiet realization.At its core, Venza Dance is about listening, sharing, and staying in conversation—using the body as a common language to reflect lived experience and build genuine connection through art.
Quaba V. Ernest
Quaba Venza Ernest is a Brooklyn-born, St. Lucian-American multidisciplinary artist whose work merges contemporary dance, theater, and sound to create immersive performance worlds. A graduate of SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, he is also an alumnus of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, and Springboard Danse Montreal. He has worked with Ballet BC, Doug Varone & Dancers, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, Peiju Performing Arts, Sidra Bell for Derek Fordjour’s SCORE, Damani Pompey, Loni Landon, Kayla Farrish/Decent Structures Arts, Hélène Simoneau Danse, Dual Rivet, and at The Metropolitan Opera. He has danced in works by Kimberly Bartosik, George Balanchine, Ronald K. Brown, Sidra Bell, Norbert De La Cruz lll, Maxine Doyle, Sharon Eyal, Kayla Farish, Marjani Forte, Johan Inger, Loni Landon, Sidi Larbi, Ana Maria Lucaciu, Ohad Naharin, Staycee Pearl, Crystal Pite, Jerome Robbins, Ted Shawn, Cayetano Soto, Didy Veldman and Medhi Walerski. As a choreographer and movement director, he has created works for Brenau University, Ralph Pucci International, Making Moves Dance Festival, New Century Dance Project, and the Goal Keepers Hero Film. His choreography and films have been presented locally and internationally, including at Triskelion, Arts On Site, BAAD, Jamaica Dance Festival, Cinedanza (Italy), Quinzena de Dança de Almada (Portugal), Dance Camera Istanbul, ADF’s Movies By Movers (2023), Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture and the 92Y Future Dance Festival. Both independently and through companies, he has taught at Gibney, Brenau University, Adelphi University, MOVE|NYC|, Barnard University, NYU Tisch Dance Program, Steps on Broadway, Peridance, Juilliard, and is Adjunct Professor at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance.Through his project-based companies, Venza Dance and Ernest Records, he creates, explores, and supports community while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and nurturing emerging artists. His distinctions include the Center for Performance Research Resident Artist (2026), Dancing While Black Fellowship (2026), Pepatián/BAAD Dancing Futures Residency (2025), Chelsea Factory Summer Residency (2024), the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow (2021), and the Thayer Fellowship in the Arts (2019).