Quaba Venza Ernest

Biography

Quaba Venza Ernest is a St.Lucian American, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is an alumni of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music And Art & Performing Arts, and State University of New York at Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. He has danced in works by Kimberly Bartosik, George Balanchine, Ronald K. Brown, Sidra Bell, Norbert De La Cruz lll, Loni Landon, Ana Maria Lucaciu, Ohad Naharin, Staycee Pearl, Jerome Robbins, Ted Shawn, Cayetano Soto, Didy Veldman and Medhi Walerski. He has studied at Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Doug Varone & Dancers, Eastman, Jacob’s Pillow, and Springboard Danse Montreal under the direction of Alexandra Wells. He is a recipient of the 2019 Thayer Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography and Dance and is a 2021 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow. He began his career with Ballet BC for the 2019 season and later began working with Doug Varone & Dancers in 2021. He has been featured in HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness, the NY Times for performances at BAM Fisher & Jacob’s Pillow, the aYia Music Video Directed by Salomon Ligthelm/Choreographed by Amy Gardner and has also been a featured model in JBL’s Spring Vibes Model Campaign. He has recently begun creating works for his own company Venza Dance. As a teacher Quaba has taught contemporary & floorwork for classes at Juilliard, Juilliard Summer Intensive, Gibney, and is an adjunct professor at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. He also has assisted Dual Rivet in staging a new work at Barnard/Columbia College