Originally from Santiago de Cuba, Danys "La Mora" Pérez Prades is an internationally renowned master of Afro-Cuban folkloric dance. Pérez is an expert dancer, teacher, dance ethnologist and choreographer specializing in all the unique styles of Afro-Cuban Culture and of her native region of the Oriente province in Eastern Cuba, a region whose cultural richness is attributable to its infusion of Afro- Haitian influences to an already vibrant Afro-Cuban context. Pérez began her dance training at an early age with Afro-Cuban and Afro-Haitian dance ensembles. At 13, she was asked to join the renowned national folkloric ballet company, Cutumba, with which she toured internationally with the company for 18 years.

In 1996, She was sponsored and invited from Cuba With a sponsor letter of invitation from Djoniba Dance & Drum Centre, to teach at the school. She has since then taught at The Ailey Extension program and at Cumbe African & Diaspora Dance & Drum, Humboldt University in California, Brown University, Cornell University and other prestigious institutions.