Artistic Board
ARTISTIC GUIDANCE · CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE · SHARED PRACTICE
Meet Our Master Teachers and Artistic Advisors
Click the plus icon on a photo to open the full biography, videos and artist links.
Master Teacher; Choreographer; Director of All Stars Santiago de Cuba
Jorge Luna Roque is the founder, director and choreographer of All Stars Santiago de Cuba. For more than twenty years, he has shared Casino, Rueda de Casino and Cuban popular dance through performances, festivals, workshops and international exchange.
His choreography grows from the social foundations of Casino and a close relationship between movement and music. With All Stars, he has developed a distinctive approach to group choreography that combines traditional dance with creative staging, musical interpretation and the collective energy of the rueda.
For DC Casineros, Jorge and All Stars are part of our longstanding artistic family in Santiago de Cuba. Our relationship connects company training, cultural exchange and a shared commitment to Cuban dance as a living community practice.
Watch & Learn
Explore the All Stars’ Casino choreography in this performance featured in Jorge’s published interview.
Watch on YouTube · Read Jorge’s interview
Portrait source: Iroko’s visiting artist profile.
Meet our master teachers and artistic advisors · Explore our international work
Master Teacher in Afro-Cuban Dance; Choreographer; Cultural Educator
Marisol Blanco is a Cuban-born dancer, choreographer and master teacher based in Miami. She directs Sikán Afro Cuban Dance Project and shares the history, music and movement of Afro-Cuban folkloric and popular dance with students and audiences across the United States.
Raised in Guanabacoa, Havana, in a family of musicians, she developed her knowledge through family traditions, formal arts training and professional performance. Her experience includes Obiní Batá, Cuba’s pioneering women’s percussion and dance ensemble. Her teaching connects movement with the songs, rhythms, stories and cultural meanings that give each dance its character.
Marisol received the 2024 Florida Folk Heritage Award in recognition of her work preserving and sharing Cuban cultural traditions. Her knowledge offers a valuable resource for dancers seeking a deeper understanding of Afro-Cuban dance and its musical foundations.
Watch & Learn
Meet Marisol through her official Florida Folk Heritage Award video profile.
Watch on YouTube · Visit Marisol and Sikán
Portrait source: HistoryMiami Museum’s artist profile. Learn about the Florida Folk Heritage Award.
Master Teacher · Cuban Dance Educator · Director of Energetic Soul
Duane Wrenn is the founder and director of Energetic Soul, a Detroit-area dance and movement practice established in 2000. For more than 25 years, he has taught and performed, sharing an approach grounded in Cuban music, popular dance and Afro-Cuban traditions.
His teachers include Roberto Borrell, René Thompson and the late Félix “Pupy” Insua. His teaching has taken him across the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. He helps dancers develop musicality, body control and a responsive connection with their partners, approaching dance as a conversation.
Wrenn created the soUl°sa method and co-developed AFRO-tImBa with Kati Hernández. His work brings rhythm, movement awareness and adaptable partner dancing together for students from beginners to experienced performers.
Watch Duane Dance
Duane appears alongside Kati Hernández and other dancers in Iris Sandra Cepeda’s music video Vete por donde viniste, choreographed by Hernández.
Explore His Work
Energetic Soul — biography · Teaching and dance programs
Additional biography source: Ritmos y Raíces Athens. Photograph: Energetic Soul.
Master Teacher in Afro-Cuban Dance · Choreographer · Educator · Artistic Director of KimBambula Cuban Dance & Music Ensemble
Born and raised in Cuba and now based in Los Angeles, Kati Hernández is a dancer, choreographer, educator and cultural consultant whose work shares the richness of Afro-Cuban dance and music. Her practice draws on Cuban folkloric and popular traditions, alongside training in ballet, contemporary dance and choreography.
Hernández founded and directs KimBambula Cuban Dance & Music Ensemble. She teaches Afro-Cuban dance as Special Faculty at California Institute of the Arts and has shared her work at universities, festivals and cultural venues across the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean.
Her projects include Oricha Dance Therapy, the AFRO-tImBa program developed with Duane Wrenn, and choreography and cultural advising for Tentación at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2024, she served as an Alliance for California Traditional Arts apprenticeship mentor in Orisha dance, continuing her commitment to teaching and transmitting these traditions.
Watch Kati Dance
Hernández choreographed Iris Sandra Cepeda’s music video Vete por donde viniste and performs in it alongside Duane Wrenn and other dancers.
Explore Her Work
Kati Cuban Dance — biography and projects · CalArts faculty profile · ACTA artist profile
Portrait source: LA Philharmonic artist profile.
Our artistic circle connects DC Casineros with master teachers and choreographers whose experience supports our dancers’ growth. Their knowledge helps us deepen the relationship between Cuban music, dance and the cultural traditions behind our work.
Jorge Luna Roque
Director, Choreographer and Instructor · All Stars Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Jorge Luna Roque is the founder and director of All Stars Santiago de Cuba, a dance company rooted in Casino and Rueda de Casino. He has spent more than twenty years teaching, choreographing and sharing Cuban dance through performances, festivals and international exchange.
His approach pays close attention to the relationship between movement and music. In speaking about All Stars’ work, he emphasizes the social foundations of Casino alongside the creative possibilities of group choreography. That combination of musicality, tradition and invention makes his practice an important resource for dancers.
For DC Casineros, Jorge and All Stars are sister family. Our longstanding exchange includes training in Santiago, shared artistic development, and the All Stars artists’ 2017 residency with DC Casineros at Dance Place and George Mason University.
Read Jorge’s interview with Son y Casino · Explore our Santiago relationship
Marisol Blanco
Afro-Cuban Dance Teacher, Choreographer and Cultural Educator · Sikán Afro-Cuban Dance Project
Miami, Florida
Born and trained in Cuba, Marisol Blanco is a dancer, choreographer and teacher whose work brings Afro-Cuban traditions into classrooms, community spaces and performance. Her training includes Cuba’s national arts education system and the Instituto Superior de Arte. She also performed with Obiní Batá, the pioneering women’s percussion ensemble.
Based in Miami, she leads the Sikán Afro-Cuban Dance Project and teaches through a practice that connects movement with history, percussion and song. Her work welcomes people across generations and backgrounds while keeping cultural knowledge at the center of the learning experience.
Marisol received the 2024 Florida Folk Heritage Award, recognizing her contribution to Florida’s traditional arts. Her teaching offers our artistic circle an important perspective on Afro-Cuban movement, musical understanding and the transmission of cultural heritage.
Explore Marisol’s work · Read her Florida Folk Heritage Award profile
Meet DC Casineros’ current team · Explore our international work