About Riza

Riza Renae Hernandez began dancing at the Deborah Case Dance Academy at 3 years old and consistently trained there until the age of 18 in Classical Ballet (Vaganova Method), Pas de Deux, Contemporary, Jazz, and Tap. While at DCDA, she attended numerous dance conventions and competitions and earned scholarships and accolades with Tremaine Dance, JUMP, Showtime, and the internationally known Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). She is a YAGP Finalist and performed at the STRAZ Center for the Performing Arts. She was a principal dancer for the RGV Ballet Company where she performed lead roles such as, Clara, Dew Drop, and Snow Queen.

Riza has taken master classes with acclaimed artists and educators in the dance industry including: Travis Wall, Paula Abdul, Derek Hough, Molly Long, Meghan Sanett, Claudio Muñoz, Maria Konrad, Alexei Moskalenko, Christopher Powney, Savion

Glover, Michael Dameski, Luciano Perotto, Emily Zachary, Keri LaGrand, Laurie Johnson, Derrick Schrader, Tiffany Maher, Meelis Pakri, Alisha Peek, Alex Ossadnik, Irina Vakromeeva, Florian Roullier, Emily Abrom and Kiril Kruhlov.

In addition to the numerous summer intensives at DCDA, Riza attended the Joffrey Ballet summer intensive and at the age of 15 was invited to be a part of the year round Ballet Trainee Program in New York City, but she chose to continue her academic studies and earn the International Baccalaureate Bilingual Diploma.

Currently, Riza attends the University of Texas at Austin where she is pursuing a B.F.A. in Dance and is a 3-year company member of Texas Dance Repertory Theatre where her credits include: Presente, Give Your Hands To Struggle, This All Really Happened, S.E.E.D., Rooted In Motion, and Equinox. She has completed a minor in Entrepreneurship through the McCombs School of Business and is currently working towards earning a second minor in Professional Sales and Business Development jointly through Moody College of Communication and the McCombs School of Business.