Jackie Lopez aka Miss Funk

Co- Artistic Director/ Choreographer/ Dancer:

Jackie Lopez aka Miss Funk is a Los Angeles native. She graduated in June of 2004 from the Department of World Arts and Cultures, UCLA with a dance emphasis. Jackie is a professional dancer, choreographer, and cultural educator who has worked with students and artists of all ages from LA, NYC, Philly, and Israel. She has a wide range of training and knowledge within Salsa and Hip-Hop styles.

She is currently the Program Director for The Flourish Foundation, which is non-profit private philanthropic organization, which begun as a response to lack of funding in the arts. She has been working w/ Rennie Harris “Puremovement” since 2005 and owes much of her training to him. Lastly, she is fortunate to be leading a company like Versa-Style, where every dancer brings their own unique talent into practice. She hopes to inspire and motivate at least one soul at a time.

Leigh Foaad aka Breeze Lee

Co-Artistic Director/ Choreographer/Dancer:

Leigh Foaad aka Breeze-Lee since birth has been exposed to dance. His vocabulary ranges from a wide variety of styles from Classical Ballet to Hip-Hop. He currently teaches Hip-Hop at the Jonette Swider Dance Center, where he takes pride in teaching the history and culture of Hip-Hop to the young community of today.

He is currently touring nationally and internationally with John Tesh as the first and only featured Hip-Hop dancer. He choreographed & was featured in the PBS special “ALIVE Music & Dance”, as well as setting choreography in numerous states in the USA. He has been working w/ Rennie Harris “Puremovement” since 2005 and is grateful for all the opportunities. As a leader and member of Versa-Style Dance Company he is determined to express and share the knowledge and importance of Hiphop culture, while providing high intensity movement and passion for all artists around him.

Onisha Moore

Dancer:

Onisha started taking ballet and tap at age three. In high school, she attended Orange County High School of Performing Arts for piano. Thereafter, she attended UCLA in which she graduated with a degree in World Arts and Cultures. Onisha continued to perform all over the world with the Lucent Dossier Cirque based out of downtown Los Angeles. She teaches ballet at Westside Ballet school in Santa Monica, CA and is currently finishing her comprehensive pilates certificate through Body Arts and Science International.

Angelo Paulos

Dancer:

Angelo is a founding member of Sourpatch Dance Crew, which was involved in performances & teaching for underprivileged youth at various American Indian reservations nationally. By his early 20’s he found the art of House dance, this dance style gave him the freedom to combine multiple styles of dance he has learned into one, pulling from his experiences in Salsa, Modern, Hip Hop and Experimental.

Recently Angelo has competed on a world scale level at Paris’s Juste Debout, House Dance Conference in San Fransisco and in New York at House Dance International. In all the events he placed in the top 16 and advanced to the semi-finals. Currently Angelo is a member of the group SoulShifters, as well as a proud member of a Los Angeles based dance company Versa Style, where he has been contributing all his experiences.

Harry Weston

Dancer:

Harry Weston was born on December 23, 1989 in San Francisco but moved to Santa Cruz at a very young age and has lived there ever since. He is a second year dance major at UCLA and has been doing hip hop dance off and on for a little over 10 years, although he recently begun to devote his life to it. He also has trained in West African dance and has spent time in Africa studying. He looks forward to continue working with the hip hop community and wants to share this art form with those who need it most.

Alli Grey

Dancer:

Allison Gray is a senior at UCLA majoring in World Arts and Culture with a Dance Concentration. She stepped onto the stage at the age of five, and has continued to pursue dance as one of her greatest life passions. She has studied various dance forms including Hip Hop, West African, Jazz, and Modern. She is ever growing and expanding her horizons around movement, choreography, and performance. She plans to continue strengthening her training and skills as a developing artist, and gives thanks to all those who believe in her.

Ray Basa

Dancer:

Ray Basa was born and raised in Los Angeles California and started freestyling in high school. It wasn’t until the age of 20 when he decided to pursue a career in dance. He has trained in many styles of dance in studios like Debbie Reynolds and the Edge Performing Arts. He has also been fortunate to train under the Versastyle dance company in house dance and various styles of hip hop and has also traveled to Philadelphia and New York to get a deeper understanding of House. Ray has worked with choreographers such as Miss Funk, Breeze Lee, Marty Kudelka, Harry Shum, Scotty Nguyen and Robert Schultz. Ray Basa is currently represented by MSA dance agency and is still working in the dance industry.

Lilian Ortega

Dancer:

Lilian Ortega was born in 1992 in Mission Hills and was raised in San Fernando, California. She is currently seventeen years old and is a senior at Community Charter Early College High School. Through the help of The Flourish Foundation, a non profit organization Lilian has been receiving scholarships to take hip-hop classes with choreographer Leigh Foaad at the Jonette Swider Dance Center and has been training dance there for five years. Her training is based on broad variety of styles such as: Hip-Hop, Lockin’, Poppin’, House, Salsa and Ballet. In 2007 Lilian was featured with “Versa-Style” in the John Tesh PBS Special “Alive, Music & Dance” and in 2009 she performed with them in “The Second Annual Hip-Hop J.U.I.C.E. Festival” and she is currently a part of the “Versa-Style” Dance Company.

Diane Palaganas

Founding Member/ Dancer

Diane aka Danga, has been dancing for the past 9 years. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in the World of Arts and Cultures major (dance concentration). She is trained in Hip Hop choreography, breaking, locking, wacking, house, and freestyle. She has danced with many crews including ACA Hip Hop, Samahang Modern, Undefined, and DVS. She received most of her training with VersaStyle Dance Company, Culture Shock Los Angeles, and The Syrenz. She is also signed with DDO Agency. Diane shares her passion through teaching in the community,in-school and afterschool programs, throughout the Los Angeles area. Diane is currently the Artistic Director for Future Shock Los Angeles. She continues to push her dancing to great limits, and shares her love of Hip Hop in hopes to inspire whoever comes her way.

Maya Zellman

Dancer:

MAYA ZELLMAN, graduated from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and
Cultures with a concentration in dance in 2005, she has since beenvery active in the dance education and performance world. Maya has been a member of VersaStyle for over 3 years and is also co-founderof IN/EX Dance Project, a contemporary dance company based in LA. Other LA based companies she has worked for include Ballet Folklorico Do Brasil and Contra-tiempo. With each dance company Maya has had the privilege of touring nationally and internationally including performances in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Along side VeraStyle, Maya danced for John Tesh and appeared in his PBS Special “ALIVE: Music and Dance”. She was invited to teach at the University of Curitiba, Brasil in 2006 and in October 2008 with Contra-tiempo, Maya was invited to teach in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. In 2009 Maya had the honor of assisting Jackie Lopez in a House Workshop taught in TelAviv, Israel, she remained in Tel Aviv for 6 months studying alongside the Batsheva Dance Company learning repertory and training in GAGA. Back in Los Angeles, Maya teaches dance at Echo Horizon Elementary School, UCLA’s Krieger Pre-School, and several studios around Los Angeles.

Longka “Michael” Lor

Dancer:

Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Longka (Michael) Lor has been B-boying with Underground Flow since 2001. He has competed with Underground Flow in numerous Breaking competitions in United States and in other countries. Some of their biggest victories are placing first at “Temple of Styles 2006”, an international Bboy/Bgirl competition held in Paris, France and winning the Hip Hop International World Bboy/Bgirl Championship for 2009. Currently, Longka is one of the Co-Artistic Directors for Future Shock Los Angeles, and a full time student at Cal State Long Beach working on his undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry.