Exclusive Interview · Legacy Feature · Where Are They Now

Anthony Garza: From the Bakersfield Rodeo Ring to the World Stage with Janet, Britney and Nicki

He trained horses with his father, found dance at 12, was told by a counselor he would never make it — then built a two-decade career dancing for pop’s biggest names. His rule never changed: remember where you started.

By Dance Mogul Magazine | Originally published April 2013 | Updated and expanded September 2026

Anthony Garza backstage with Janet Jackson — a full-circle moment after he turned down her Super Bowl job to join Britney Spears’ Onyx Hotel Tour. (Dance Mogul Magazine archive, 2013)

Who Is Anthony Garza?

Some dancers arrive in Los Angeles with a studio résumé as long as their arm. Anthony Garza arrived with hip-hop and jazz, a back injury, and a small-town guidance counselor’s warning still ringing in his ears. What he built from there is one of the most quietly impressive careers in commercial dance: world tours with Britney Spears, Janet Jackson and Nicki Minaj; television stages from The Tonight Show to Saturday Night Live; two Billboard Dance Club chart singles as a featured recording artist; and, today, a seat on the faculty of Broadway Dance Center.

When Dance Mogul Magazine first sat down with Garza in April 2013, he was fresh off Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday Tour and launching a music career with The KissBoyz. The sentence he gave us that year became the headline, and more than a decade later it still explains everything about him: where you come from, where you started, is something everyone should remember. This updated feature preserves that original conversation in full and adds the context, the timeline and the years that followed.

Horses, Heritage and a Grandmother Who Loved Gene Kelly

John Anthony Garza was born March 3, 1983, and raised in Bakersfield, California — farm and oil country in the southern Central Valley, a long way from Hollywood rehearsal halls. He was a kid who never stopped moving: martial arts, baseball, track and field, three-wheeling, cheerleading, gymnastics and horseback riding. From 12 to 18 he worked cattle drives and professionally trained horses alongside his father. Anyone who has watched him control his weight and timing on stage can see where some of that discipline came from.

His family is close-knit and proudly multicultural. His paternal grandparents came from Monterrey, Mexico; his maternal grandfather was Irish, German and Native American; his maternal grandmother was of Scottish and Irish descent and raised in England. Garza grew up riding in Cinco de Mayo parades on horseback, attending the Highland Games and going to local powwows — an upbringing that taught him early that identity is something you carry with pride, not something you trade in for a career.

The biggest influence was his late grandmother, Annie McAllister Olinger. She raised her grandchildren on opera, musicals and Gene Kelly films, took them to the ballet and the theater, and had them act out Disney stories as she read aloud. By 12, Garza knew dance was his calling.

Latino Heat: Dance as a Lifeline

His first real crew came through his older sister, Christina, who had him learn and fill in on her cheerleading routines. The two joined Latino Heat, a local hip-hop group created to keep underprivileged kids off the street and out of trouble. They practiced in parks, garages and backyards and paid their own way to performances and competitions with car washes and fundraisers. After three years with the group, Garza moved into serious studio training with Bakersfield teachers Kristin Doolittle and Bandy Gipson.

It is worth pausing on that detail, because it is the heart of this story and of Dance Mogul’s mission. Before the tours and the chart singles, dance was a community program that gave a group of kids somewhere to be and something to build. That is the same grassroots power DMM has documented since 2010.

“Dancers Don’t Make Any Money”

As a high school senior, Garza went to his guidance counselor excited to talk about his plans. He expected encouragement. Instead he was told that dancers do not make money, that a kid from a small town would not make it, and that he should choose another career. He chose not to listen.

The Road to Los Angeles: Risk, Injury and a Choice Between Two Legends

At 18, Garza auditioned in Los Angeles for The Ailey School’s summer intensive — a bold move for a dancer who had never taken ballet, modern, contemporary, Horton or Graham technique. A member of the organization’s board was so impressed by his audition that she approached him, was surprised to learn he had no formal training, and offered him a scholarship. One week into the program, Garza injured his back — six slipped discs and pinched nerves — and was forced to withdraw.

Three months of physical therapy later, he moved to Los Angeles, signed with an agent who believed in him, and started the grind of class and auditions. It took about a year of struggle before the first big job came in: Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl performance, choreographed by her longtime collaborator Gil Duldulao. Almost immediately, choreographer Brian Friedman called with an offer to dance on Britney Spears’ Onyx Hotel Tour. The rehearsal schedules collided, and Garza had to choose.

He took the tour and its steady paycheck — a practical decision he has called one of the hardest of his life, because dancing for Janet Jackson had always been the dream. The dream did not disappear. A few years later, he was invited to dance the first leg of Janet Jackson’s Rock Witchu Tour. The photo at the top of this page captures exactly that full-circle moment.

Anthony Garza (left) on stage with Britney Spears — the Onyx Hotel Tour was his first major touring job. (Dance Mogul Magazine archive, 2013)

From there the credits multiplied: Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya, Snoop Dogg, the Ying Yang Twins, Ricky Martin, Erika Jayne, Nicole Scherzinger, Lil Wayne and the Black Eyed Peas, plus television appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the NBA All-Star Game. By the time of our 2013 interview he had traveled to more than 28 countries teaching, dancing and performing, and had just come off the Nicki Minaj Pink Friday Tour.

Garza on stage with Nicki Minaj during the Pink Friday Tour. (Dance Mogul Magazine archive, 2013)

Career Timeline

From Dancer to Recording Artist

Garza’s music career grew out of the same place his dancing did: he could never sit still when music was playing. He played instruments and sang in chorus as a kid, but dance was what he chose to share — until the early 2010s, when he signed with Citrusonic as a writer, rapper and singer.

Credited simply as “Garza,” he was featured on two singles with DJ-producer Eddie Amador and singer Kimberly Cole. “Arrow Through My Heart” (2011), which he co-wrote, climbed to No. 16 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. The follow-up, “U Make Me Wanna,” went higher, landed on VH1’s Basketball Wives and NBC’s 2012 fall preview, and became a favorite in dance classrooms — Brian Friedman, one of Garza’s own mentors, has taught choreography to it.

Alongside dancer-choreographer Johnny Rice, Garza formed The KissBoyz. The two began writing raps and rhymes while on tour with Erika Jayne, were developed by Orlando Puerta for Citrusonic’s Citrusonic Flavor imprint, and released “We Party” and “Shady,” both produced by Amador (the B-side with Automatic Panic), followed by “I Know You Want It” featuring Jonte and Keisha Renee in March 2013. The group later grew into a trio with Julio Marcelino and continued releasing music, including “Throw It Up” with Erin Yvonne.

The Dance Mogul Exclusive Interview (2013)

Dance Mogul Magazine is honored that Anthony took time out of his schedule to offer inspiration and empowerment to the next generation. In an industry where it is easy to lose focus and a sense of reality, Garza shows that a constant commitment to humility is what led to his success. Attitude and reliability are everything — a lesson we hope the next generation embraces. The original interview appears below as published in April 2013.

Where Is Anthony Garza Now?

More than a decade after our interview, Garza is still based in Los Angeles and still working. His current biography on Broadway Dance Center’s faculty page, which he supplies himself, now lists tours and performances with Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Nicki Minaj, Tinashe, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Katy Perry, Todrick Hall and Taylor Swift, and television work on Glee, Shake It Up, Lucifer, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Ellen, The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live. He has also been featured in Paper, Flaunt and Gay Times in the UK and US.

The biggest shift is in how much of his work now goes to teaching — the thing he told us in 2013 kept him grounded. At Broadway Dance Center he teaches Street Styles, and his classes are built around care for the dancer: a full-body warm-up of stretching, strengthening, conditioning and cardio before a single eight-count of choreography, in what he describes as a safe space where dancers can learn and enjoy themselves. For an artist whose own training was nearly derailed by a back injury at 18, that emphasis on preparing the body carries real weight.

His choreography reels show the range he has built: heels and commercial work set to Janet Jackson’s “Strawberry Bounce,” Sabrina Claudio, Banks and KAYTRANADA with Tinashe. Janet’s music, it turns out, never left his story.

The KissBoyz also kept going. By 2019, Dazed described the collective as a trio of Garza, Johnny Rice and Julio Marcelino that had become a favorite of artists from Janet Jackson to RuPaul’s Drag Race stars. Their catalog on streaming platforms includes “Throw It Up” with Erin Yvonne, credited to writers including John Anthony Garza.

What the Next Generation Should Learn from Anthony Garza

Why Anthony Garza’s Story Matters to Dance Mogul Magazine

Dance Mogul Magazine exists to document lived stories that help people become better versions of themselves, and Garza’s story does that on almost every page. It is a story about a grandmother who put the arts in front of her grandchildren, a neighborhood crew that kept kids off the street, and a young man who refused to let one adult’s low expectations write his future. It is also a practical lesson in career-building: take care of your body, keep your word, and choose stability when you need it without letting go of the dream.

He also said something in 2013 that goes to the core of why this publication exists: when dancers’ voices are heard, it creates a chain reaction. That is the work behind our Exclusive Interviews archive, our coverage of hip-hop and street dance, and our Alvin Ailey Hip Hop Program coverage. For dancers navigating representation, contracts and their first agent, our guide to dance agencies picks up where Garza’s story of that first believer in Los Angeles leaves off.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Story Continues

Anthony Garza has been dancing professionally for more than twenty years. He has shared stages with the artists who first inspired him, turned down a dream job and watched it return, charted as a recording artist, and moved into the classroom where the next generation now learns from him. By any measure, the counselor was wrong.

But the part of his story worth keeping is the one he gave us in 2013. The rodeo ring, the Cinco de Mayo parades, the garage rehearsals with Latino Heat and a grandmother’s Gene Kelly films are not things he left behind to get where he is. They are how he got there. Where you come from, where you started, is something everyone should remember.

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