About the Artist
Kati Hernández
A native of Cuba, Kati Hernández grew up surrounded by the sounds of the drum and Afro-Cuban dance traditions. Her dance studies included Afro-Cuban and international folklore, popular, modern, ballet, choreography, composition, and staging. These shaped her into the electrifying choreographer, educator, and dancer of today. Her knowledge of dance and choreography reveals her intricate and versatile style, making her a highly sought-after performer nationally and internationally. She launched her international career at an early age, touring throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas with renowned Cuban productions, musicians, and visual artists.
In her hometown of Los Angeles, Kati is a central figure in a large dance community. She was recently presented with a Community Leader of Excellence 2023 award honoring her artistry, work, and leadership. She is dedicated to spreading the treasures of her Afro-Cuban roots in the US. Her nationally acclaimed signature program Oricha Dance Therapy, which she is currently touring with, is a language of expression through movements and rhythms of the rich Afro-Cuban Dance diaspora. Hernández is founder of a pioneering online dance, and music program that preserves and promotes Cuban culture worldwide to create vibrant cross-cultural communities. She is also founder and artistic director of Kimbambula Cuban Dance and Music Ensemble, and co-founder of Kimbambula Productions. The latter serves as a platform to promote Cuban culture in LA where she produces annual events such as “Essence of Cuba '' a paramount reunion of Afro-Cuban masters, Kati’s Cuban Ganga, and The Cuban Social.
Kati has led successful Afro-Cuban “Jam Sessions” at both Grand Park and the Ford Theater, where she served as lead choreographer for several of their programs and has also co-hosted dance workshops with the acclaimed Afro-Cuban rock band, Síntesis. More recently, Kati was artistic director for the joint production “Cuba Antes y Ahora,” at Grand Park and the Getty Museum, as well as the choreographer and cultural advisor of “Tentacion” a new production at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for LA Philharmonic’s Pan-American Youth Initiative. She has choreographed and performed in music videos including “Un Poquito de Amor Every Day” with world renowned Colin Hay and San Miguel Perez, and Iris Sandra Cepeda’s “Vete Por Donde Vinistes.”
She was featured in Spotify’s Latinx Heritage Month 2021 campaign “Aquí Siempre - Retratos de una comunidad en movimiento” spotlighted in Times Square, and is currently part of the American Heart Association’s worldwide P.S.A. “Get Down with your Blood Pressure” featured in the NY Times, national American and Spanish tv, and multiple print ad campaigns. She just finished shooting as one of the actors for short film “72” which centers around a search to belong, and the ways in which immigrants find sanctuary in community, breaking away from the pervasive limited narratives about Cubans, Latinx folks, and immigrants in general.
Kati also flows between public and academic venues, teaching dance classes, intensives and lectures at colleges, dance studios, and congresses around the country. She has worked with dance and music departments like CalArts, UC Irvine, University of Oregon, Pomona College, and is a yearly guest instructor at the top Cuban dance festivals in the nation. Kati’s work is a true illustration of her heritage and an endless celebration of Cuban culture.
Campaigns, Music Videos, & Film
Productions & Collaborations
 ¡azúcar! by CONTRA-TIEMPO Guest Artist, Cultural Consultant, Movement Coach |  "Tentación" Choreographer & Cultural Consultant |  The Cuban Social by Kati Hernandez |
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 Essence of Cuba by Kati Hernandez |  3rd Annual Dia De Chango by Kati Hernandez |
Performances, Productions & Workshops
Celebrating the Fowler's 60th anniversary. Performer and choreographer for opening performance for "The House Was Too Small: Yoruba Sacred Arts from Africa and Beyond."
"Afro-Cuban Rumba & Cuban Rhythms"
Dance DTLA 2023 @ The Music Center
The Music Center's annual summer-long event at Jerry Moss Plaza in downtown Los Angeles! A night of free lessons and dancing under the stars, where Angelenos can come and explore different dance styles and learn about different LA cultures and communities. For the first time, highlight Afro-Cuban culture at this iconic program! Journeying through the rhythms and sounds of Cuban rumba, then weaving these elements into the dance and experiencing their inseparable connection.
Multiple Venues
Guest Artist, Cultural Consultant, Movement Coach
CONTRA-TIEMPO's ¡azúcar! is a courageous naming of, confrontation with, and intentional obliteration of the often unspoken undercurrent of anti-Blackness in latinidad. Questions are continuing to drive the process as we begin to understand the complicated history of sugar and the messages from our ancestors. What does it feel like to individually and collectively heal, what does it move like? Twenty brilliant artists and collaborators take audiences through a journey of Celia Cruz’s vibrations, unearthing history embedded in our bodies. Through ¡azúcar!, we explore ancestral wisdoms about a plant that once aided in our healing, used as a way to sweeten medicinal concoctions, now extracted, refined, and used as weaponized poison. This courageous work is rooted in and inspired by the sacred feminine, personal narratives of food, labor, community, sabor, and explorations of “familying” and healing as practices.
"Tentación" Pan-American Music Initiative
LA Philharmonic
Choreographer, Cultural Consultant
This performance brings the thrilling sounds of Afro-Cuban dance music to the orchestral stage. MacArthur Genius Grant winner and composer Dafnis Prieto, dynamic Latin Dance band People of Earth, and the masterful musicians of the LA Phil tell the story of a young dancer discovering her own art, passions, and capabilities as she moves to Prieto’s unforgettable music. The audience will learn along with the young dancer all the sounds and flavors that make Latin dance music unique and expand what they can expect to see and hear when they visit an orchestral concert hall.
"Journey through Cuba"
2023 MOLAA Afro-Latinx Festival
MOLAA’s Afro-Latinx Festival celebrates the cultural diversity of the Americas and the African influence in Latin America! MOLAA’s Afro-Latinx Festival highlights the importance of African legacy in Latin America through food, art workshops, live performances, Afro-Latinx owned businesses, and a live DJ performance.
Angel City FC "Celebración de Culturas"
BMO Stadium
Highlighting Cuban dance and music at Angel City FC's 2nd Annual Celebración de Culturas! A tribute to Hispanic Heritage Month and the diverse Latinx and Caribbean communities here in Los Angeles and beyond. Performance for both the Pregame Street Fair and match Half-Time on the field of BMO Stadium in downtown Los Angeles.
"Cuba Sabor Kimbambula"
(de) Color-Es Performance Festival
This biannual event brings artists of color together to highlight the multifaceted and multimedia depictions of minoritarian art and art-making. Highlighting, questioning, and considering what it means to be artist of color and how that shows up the world, how we contend with it, how we craft in, beyond, through, and with it. In doing so, (de) Color-Es works to build networks of connectivity between different forms, of art-makers, genres, artistry, and art localities, centering this coalition as an evening of radical performance.
Film Short
Supporting Actress
"A short proof of concept film for the feature debut of the same title that is part of Sundance’s Feature Film Development Track and PGA’s Create Fellowship by Marissa Chibas, a Cuban American 1st generation writer and filmmaker. It is a middle-class immigrant story that breaks away from limited narratives about Cubans, Latinx folks, and immigrants in general, showing how immigrants navigate living in a culture that is often hostile to them. An intergenerational project that attracts audiences of all ages, but will also be a source of pride for the Latino and immigrant communities.
A Celebration of Afro-Latinx Culture
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation Presents “La Vida Es Un Festival!“ An Afro-Latinx Festival at the Mercado La Paloma celebrating the rich and diverse Afro-Latinx culture in Los Angeles that promotes black and brown solidarity, and fosters wellness, education, and entertainment from the local and international diaspora.
This festival aims to create an annual platform for Afro-Latinx communities and allies to come together, recognize and celebrate shared heritage and culture from the Caribbean to Central America and wherever the Afro-Latinx diaspora is found in the world. Through various forms of performance, workshops, and wellness activities, this festival seeks to provide a space where artists, activists, and educators can share their talents, experiences, and knowledge of culture with the Los Angeles community.
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Afro-Cuban JAM Session
The Ford Theater (2018 & 2019)
“Cuban choreographer and educator Kati Hernandez will take you on a high-energy journey through the dances and music of the Afro-Cuban diaspora. Let the live traditional percussion of Maestro Lazaro Galarraga and Bobby Wilmore inspire you to get on your feet and move your body to the upbeat rhythms.”
Artist in Residence
CNP Duende CalArts Center of New Performance
Open to all CalArts School of Theater students, Kati Hernandez leads a special, six-session workshop Afro-Cuban Dance / Oricha Therapy as a Way of Knowing.
"Essence of Cuba"
Production
Produced by Kati Hernandez in Los Angeles, this event is a paramount reunion of world-renowned Afro-Cuban masters. Highlighting iconic ensemble "Los Muñequitos de Matanzas."