With support from the California Arts Council, Versa Style Street Dance Company will subsidize livable wages for three members of our six-person core administrative staff. Staff members are critical to the organization’s sustainability and capacity as an anchor of Hip Hop and street dance culture and education across Southern California. VSDC staff occupy vital roles within the organization, including administrators, teaching artists, performers, mentors and cultural practitioners and represent an internal career development pipeline crucial to the organization’s ethos as a cultural institution with county-wide impact. California Arts Council funding will support VSDC’s ability to care for its artists and provide equitable pay.
Versa Style Next Generation (VSNG): Since 2009, VSNG has provided Hip Hop and Street Dance education and mentorship for LAC youth ages 15-22. Through VSNG, our teaching artists – all of whom are artists of color and alumni of the program – provide personalized instruction in Street Dance technique, history and creative industry knowledge. VSNG also builds a sense of community and cultural affirmation, as well as enhanced socioemotional learning and life skills, such as self-efficacy and resilience.
Youth Education and Outreach: We program in LAC communities with high concentrations of low-income students of color. Programming includes providing dance education on-site at the campuses of our K-12 school partners both during and after school. We also partner with the Arts for Healing and Justice Network (AHJN) to produce residencies at juvenile detention facilities throughout LAC. During the 2024-25 school year, our dance education residency programs were provided across eight K-12 schools and two juvenile detention facilities.
Dance Companies: We operate two professional dance ensembles: the original Versa-Style Street Dance Company (VSDC) and our newly-formed secondary company, Versa-Style Legacy, composed of recent VSNG graduates. VSDC performs and tours evening-length Hip Hop and Street Dance productions nationally, while VS Legacy performs locally, showcasing Origins of Hip Hop, an educational presentation on the history of Street Dance in America, at schools, community centers and festivals.
Community Programs: Our weekly Friday Night Dance Classes have been held regularly since the inception of VSDC and are co-taught by VSDC co-founders, providing access to high quality learning for our students and ensuring our organization’s leadership remains fully immersed in the community we serve. Additionally, we facilitate block party-style Let the Music Move You events 4-5 times a year across LAC, offering rich and diverse entertainment and community building opportunities that also help promote awareness of our programming.

