Patricia Rivera

Patricia Elisa Rivera began dancing salsa during her youth in Santo Domingo. She has been dancing Casino and Afro Cuban folkloric dance for the past 10 years and has been teaching classes infused with Afro elements for the past 5 years. She was a gymnast for fifteen years and also trained in ballet and modern dance.

Patty began her training in Afro Cuban folkloric dance during her undergraduate studies at George Mason University. Since then she has trained in Afro Cuban folkloric and Cuban Popular dance in the USA, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Spain with various Master instructors, and was a principal disciple of the world renowned Afro Cuban dance instructor, Oscar Rousseux Pons, as a member of Ashe Moyuba. She also trained extensively under master of Afro Cuban folklore, Danys “La Mora” Perez, who was a member of Cuba’s national folklore ballet company, Cutumba, and who is the director of Oyu Oro. Patty is also a top flight dancer at Urban Artistry, DC’s premier organization for the preservation of urban dance forms, and is a trainer and instructor for the DC Casineros, DC’s top school for Cuban style popular dancing.

Patty is a Fulbright alumni, currently completing her PhD in Sociology in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. As such, she can only be found teaching in DC for a few months out of the year.