Versa-Style ensemble bringing hip-hop movements to Butte
Jackie Lopez, Alumna, Lecturer, and Director of the UCLA Summer Dance/Performing Arts Institute
Versa-Style, the Los Angeles based hip-hop dance company founded by Jackie Lopez '04 (B.A., World Arts and Cultures) tours internationally. Next stop: the Montana Folk Festival. As noted by the Montana Standard, "the group isn’t just an ensemble – it’s also an educational organization driven by its founders’ desire to help young people discover a creative outlet and a possible career path in dance."
"Hip-hop is an art form that’s often misunderstood, says Jackie Lopez, co-founder of Versa-Style Dance Company, a Los Angeles-based ensemble.
The group is comprised of “young, committed and conscientious’’ artists who represent the diversity and complexity of Los Angeles.
“We create highly energetic work that fuses dances that are culturally significant to our community,’’ according to the band’s website.
Lopez started Versa-Style in 2005 with Leigh Foaad, and since then the group has blossomed into a robust arts organization, showcasing performances in 90s-era hip-hop, popping, locking, whacking, house and Boogaloo, along with Afro-Latin dance styles, such as salsa, merengue, cumbia and Afro-Cuban forms."— Annie Pentilla, July 2, 2016
Read the full article at the Montana Standard website.