Neri Torres

Born in Havana, Cuba, Lecturer Torres holds an M.F.A. in dance with a minor in film from the University of Colorado at Boulder and honed her craft at the Instituto Superior de Artes and Escuela Nacional de Instructores de Artes in Havana. The founder and artistic director of IFE-ILE Afro-Cuban Dance Company, based in Miami, she has crafted a unique repertoire that blends traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms with contemporary dance forms. Since 1998, she has been the driving force behind the IFE-ILE Afro-Cuban Dance Festival, a summer celebration in Miami that attracts global participants and scholars alike. 

Lecturer Torres has graced international stages and collaborated on film, television, and live performances with artists such as Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan. Her choreography for Estefan’s Grammy-winning music video “No Me Dejes de Querer” is evidence of her dedicated work. In 2002, Glamour en Español recognized Lecturer Torres as one of its "Women of the Year,” and she was honored with the State of Florida Folk Heritage Award in 2013—an acknowledgment of her contributions to Florida's cultural heritage and advocacy for Afro-Cuban traditional dance.

The Knight Foundation has awarded Lecturer Torres’s company two grants: one in 2015 for the premiere of Contra Viento y Marea (Under Heaven and Earth), a multidisciplinary piece about the Cuban Mariel boatlift, and another in 2017 for Ni de Aquí ni de Allá (Neither from Here Nor There), featuring Cuban dancers from Cuba and the United States. Throughout her career in community outreach and creative initiatives, Lecturer Torres has collaborated with painters, videographers, musicians, singers, and actors on interdisciplinary projects.

As the dance program coordinator at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, Lecturer Torres founded and chaired the International Biennial Conference on Caribbean Dance, an event that drew scholars from around the world. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in cultural studies at the same university.  In her research, she delves into the intersections of dance and migration, cultural appropriation, multimedia art, Afrofuturism, and Caribbean popular culture. Lecturer Torres edited the book Perspectives on Dance Fusion in the Caribbean and Dance Sustainability: Rituals of Modern Society ( 2019, Cambridge Publishers) from the conference proceedings. Her research focuses on dance and migration, cultural appropriation, multimedia projects, Afrofuturism, and Caribbean and popular culture.

Teaching Interests

Afro-Cuban dance technique, dance history, dance and society, choreography, and mentoring creative identities.

Selected Fellowships, Grants, and Awards (also see above)

Graduate Research Grant Award. University of the West Indies (UWI), Barbados. (2018)

Film, Recording and Entertainment Council Award: Choreographer of the Year, Miami, Florida (2006)

Proclamation. City of Miami to BAILA USA’s Dance Festival, which featured Katherine Dunham; Miami, Florida (2004)

State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship; Florida State Award (2000)

Certificate of Artistic Merit; Florida State Award (1999)

Proclamation of September 28 as Neri Torres’s Day, City of Miami (Miami, Florida (1999)