Artistic Staff

Eriberto Jimenez

Director

Born in Bogota, Colombia, with a training in Classical Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Contemporary dance, he began his dance training at Triknia Kabhelioz Contemporary School of Dance, becoming a member of the Company and participating in many of their national and international tours. Jimenez obtained a scholarship to study at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York and at the Miami Hispanic Ballet. A regular guest artist throughout the US Southern region he dances with several touring entertainment companies, works on musical videos, TV, and tours with different artists. Eriberto is also a resident guest artist for the Carolina Ballet, Expressions Dance Company and South Florida Ballet Theater as well as a soloist with the International Ballet Company, Miami Hispanic Ballet and Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami. Throughout the years he has developed his career as choreographer and pedagogue with Carolina Ballet School and Company, Center for Dance Education, Lexington Dance Center, Columbia Ballet School, Miami Classical Ballet School, Ballet Concerto, Balletique, International Ballet Academy and Company, and Miami Hispanic Ballet School and Company. Mr. Jimenez is also General Assistant for the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center & Creation Art Center, Director’s assistant and Coordinator of the International Ballet Festival of Miami and Ballet Master of the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami.

Pedro Pablo Peña

Founder

Pedro Pablo Pena, dancer, choreographer, teacher, director, CEO, was a passionate proponent for the Hispanic Arts in America and a beloved, respected figure in Miami. Born in Havana, Cuba, studying and dancing with some of the most famous and important dance personalities of his era while also developing his talent as a choreographer. Mr. Pena was the founder and director of three of the more important non-profit arts organizations in Miami, as well as a respected ballet teacher and choreographer. Upon arriving in 1983 he formed his first company, the Creation Ballet, that became Miami Hispanic Ballet, marshalling the talent of local and exiled artists. In 1995 Mr. Pena created the annual International Ballet Festival of Miami, now in its twenty-third year. The Festival is recognized as one of the most important in the United States, bringing to South Florida residents and star dancers from famous ballet companies from the U.S.A., South America, Europe and Asia. In 2006, Mr. Pena formed the stellar Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami to preserve the style and technique of the famed Cuban Ballet in exile, drawing on the incredible Cuban diaspora of talented dancers that has spread internationally, many of them having passed through Mr. Pena’s doors at the start of their careers. He also created Creation Art Center presenting the best in Hispanic literature, theater and music. Throughout the years Mr. Pena had a grand vision to create a space that would feature all the Hispanic Arts for the enjoyment of both English and Hispanic audiences. In 2010, this vision became a reality. The Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center was formed with a beautiful home in the historic Miami J.W. Warner House, appropriately located in Little Havana. The Center presents theater, concerts, art exhibits, film showings, music and dance classes, and houses the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami School. For his herculean efforts and struggles in the name of art, Pedro Pablo Pena received numerous awards.

Danil Tourenze

Co-Director / President

Danil Tourrenze received his primary and secondary education at the Saint George co-educational learning institution located in Quilmes, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, finishing his undergraduate degree in French Literature, Romance Languages and Art History at Sarah Lawrence College NY and the University of Miami. Mr. Tourrenze was member of the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami before engaging in a voluntary capacity as assistant curator and adviser for the Creation Art Center and all ensuing cultural activities presented at the Miami Hispanic Cultural Art. Mr. Tourrenze has extensive experience in freelance social media consulting for corporations and cultural organizations domestically and internationally, skilled in event planning, media relations, board development, planned giving and strategic partnerships.

Rolando Moreno

Resident Theater Artistic Director and Playwright

Mr. Moreno theater career began in Cuba in 1961 as a Costume and Set Designer. Designing over one hundred shows to date, Mr. Moreno has experience in all genres of performing arts. In 1989, he started working in Miami as Director in the play The Nuns by Eduardo Monet. He later emerged as a play writer when in 1991 he created Como en la Havana, a monologue within the show Vivir del Cuento which he also directed for Creation Art Center. He also wrote the play Habanera Tu Habanero Yo and has been directing it. He was honored with the distinguished South Florida Carbonell Award in 1992 for his direction of Jose Triana’s play La Noche de los Asesinos. It was the first Carbonell Award to a Hispanic director. The honor was duplicated in 1994 when he won another Carbonell Award for Virgilio Pinera’s play Jesus. Mr. Moreno has participated in various prestigious International Theater Festivals in Cuba, United States, Japan, France, Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Costa Rica. He also received the Individual Artistic Fellowship Award from the State of Florida for Design. Most recently, Mr. Moreno has directed El Malentendido by Albert Camus, La Casa de Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorca; El Hombre que Vino del Mar; La Visita de la Vieja Dama and La Ultima Parada.

Luis de La Paz

Baltasar Santiago Martín

Resident Moderator and Host of Tertulia Apogeo

Resident Moderator and Host of Viernes de Tertulia

Born in Matanzas, Cuba, he graduated as a structural Engineer and founded ARAR (Art & Architecture) Group in Havana, in 1987. In 1993 he joined to Civil Engineering Magazine Editorial Board. After six years living at Querétaro, Mexico, where he obtained a Master's Degree in Education, he moved to Miami in the year 2000. Baltasar works as an structural engineer as well as a Professor of Computing and Fresco Painting at “Abriendo Puertas” Community Center. As a writer he has published eight books: Love each other, Waiting for the Wake, Heating the Bat, A Life, a Train, Vision 21/21 (I,II and III), Words Orgy, in US and Europe. On March 2008 he created APOGEO Foundation for Public Art, and on November 2012, Caritate magazine, about art and culture, after almost four years as columnist of Venue magazine. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine in Spanish from 2010 until 2014.

Luis de la Paz was born in Havana, Cuba. He is a writer and journalist based in Miami after having left the Island during the Mariel Exodus, in 1980. De la Paz has published many books throughout his life including; An Endless Summer (Universal Editions, Miami 1996), The Other side (Universal Editions, Miami 1999) and Timeout (Editorial Silhouette, Miami 2009). In Addition he has published Although Night Falls ((Universal Editions, Miami 2009), a collection of texts and documents about the anti-Castro writer and playwright Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban Theater Miami (Editorial Silhouette, Miami 2010), a selection of seven works of Cuba's living playwrights in Miami (July Matas, Matias Montes Huidobro, Jose Abreu Felipe, Daniel Fernandez, Ernesto Garcia, Yvonne Lopez Arenal and Julie Grandy), and Storytellers of PEN (Alexandria Library, Miami 2011), a collection of 22 stories from members of PEN Writers Cubans on Exile. One of his stories is featured in the collection Tales from Miami (Poliedro, Barcelona 2004) and Word from a Young Suicide (Editorial Silhouette, Miami 2006). He is also the author of monologues Happy Birthday Mom and The Laundry, represented in IX and XI Latin American Monologue Festival in Miami (2010 and 2012). He was a columnist for Diario Las Americas (1996-2013) and currently writes for El Nuevo Herald on art literature. He was the editor of online Cuban literature magazine El Arteje and is the recipient of the Cuban Museum's Essay Prize for his work Dulce Maria Loynaz, Journey of a Great Cuban Lady, and the Lydia Cabrera Journalism Award.

Karime C Bourzac

Editor and Publisher / Host of Veladas Furtivas

Mrs. Bourzac is a Cuban- American publisher, culture promoter, translator and activist, she attended the University of Oriente, Cuba for three years where she studied English Language and Literature. In the United States, she graduated from Western Michigan University (B.A., 2006) and Carlos Albizu University (M.Ed., 2014). During the early 1990s her career as an editor assistant included Claras Luces, a cultural and literature magazine in Cuba. She was a Presenter at ALDE Conference: 'Roadmap to a democratic Cuba - Role of the Civic society', European Parliament. Brussels, Belgium February 2015 and Delegate to VII Summit of the Americas, in Panama of the same year. Karime’s publishing work continued in 2019 after funding Ediciones Furtivas, LLC. Under her direction Ediciones Furtivas published 10 titles and held 4 international presentations in Quito, Ecuador and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She was an exhibitor at 38th Miami Book Fair, 2021 and endorse and promote literature in collaboration with Creation Arts Center at the Miami Hispanic Art Center. Karime’s works are characterized by a serious philosophical approach to various aspects of human rights, modern culture, and literature.