For 12 years, Neri Torres has been commemorating the African roots of Cuban culture with the annual Ife-Ile Afro-Cuban Dance Festival. The festival draws dancers, drummers, scholars, and fans from across the country to celebrate the dance and drum traditions of Cuba, as well as the related traditions of Senegal, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad. Afro-Caribbean dance thrives on dance floors and in religious ceremonies across South Florida, yet, says Torres, the festival is important because “people don’t necessarily grasp the culture’s African roots.” The daytime classes those roots in social dances such as rumba, son, and salsa as well as the sacred dances of the orishas (or santos) and other Afro-Caribbean divinities.

The festival also extends those roots into the future, as Saturday night’s gala performance features three companies that fuse Afro-Caribbean influences with contemporary dance styles: Torres’ Afro-Cuban Ife-Ile, the Afro-Peruvian company led by Marcela Diaz, Afro Contempo Dance, and Jamaican-American inspired Afua Hall Dances.

Tonight, I’ll be giving my own perspective on Afro-Caribbean traditions in Miami as I put on my scholar shoes to join Yvonne Daniel from Smith College and FIU’s Jean Rahier in a panel discussion on “Multicultural Constructions in Caribbean Traditions: Past, Present, and Future.”

The Ife-Ile Afro-Cuban Dance Festival runs through Sunday, July 18. Tonight’s panel discussion is in Room RB-140 at FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus; dance classes run from 9am through 6:15pm Friday and 9am through 4:45pm Saturday and Sunday; the Gala Performance is at 8pm at the Byron Carlyle Theater, 500 71st Street, Miami Beach; tickets for the performance cost $12-$20; dance classes range from $20 for a single workshop to $240 for a full festival pass; tonight’s panel discussion is free — and followed by a cocktail reception. For more information visit www.ife-ile.org.