Ernesto Galarza

Teaching Artist

Ernesto was born on January 7, 1993 and has lived in the San Fernando Valley his entire life. Ernesto’s dance career started when he first met Jackie Lopez, co-director of Versa-Style Dance Company, through an after-school program in the sixth grade at his middle school. Later, Ernesto received scholarships from the Flourish Foundation to take Hip-hop dance courses at the Jonette Swider Dance Center where Jackie then introduced him to Leigh Foaad, the other co-director of Versa-Style. In 2009, Ernesto was one of the original members of Versa-Style Next Generation, but is now a Principle Dancer and Social Media and Marketing Director for the Company, and Co-Director of Versa-Style Next Generation. He graduated from UCLA in 2015 and has now been dancing Hip-hop for about 12 years. Ernesto’s goal now is to pass on his knowledge and inspire the future generations through hip-hop and its culture.