When Jackie Lopez (aka Miss Funk) and Leigh Foaad (aka Breeze-lee) met at UCLA in 2005, they didn’t know they were about to embark on two decades and counting of artistic collaboration. But that’s just what they’ve done. As the co-Artistic Directors of Versa-Style Street Dance Company—performing February 15 at the Center for the Arts—their Los Angeles-based troupe is committed to promoting, empowering, and celebrating the artistry of Hip Hop and street dance culture. Its power is so compelling, they content, that it transcends age, race, and other differences.
“The thing that brings us together is this music and this heartbeat that makes us just nod our head all at the same time, and we're all one for an instant second,” Lopez said in an interview with LAist.
To mark Versa-Style’s 20th anniversary, the troupe will perform Rooted Rhythms here at the Center for the Arts. It’s a mixed repertory program of their most popular works, paying homage to street dance styles such as whacking, popping, and house dance, as well as a blend of Afro-Latin styles including salsa and West African.
“Dance evolves because music changes all the time,” Foaad said in an interview with LA Splash. “From the roots of African and Latin music, it’s always mixing and changing. When we create a new sound, we also create a new movement.”
Versa-Style is one of this season’s Mason Artists-in-Residence, and will spend a week of meaningful engagement with George Mason University students, as well as community members. The planned events include a class at Dance Place, which will be open to the public; a speaking engagement co-hosted by the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict and the Women and Gender Studies program; and a lecture/demonstration co-presented by the City of Fairfax at the Sherwood Community Center on February 11.
We invite you to join in and come experience the energy and inspiration of Versa-Style Street Dance Company!