Originally from Havana, Cuba, Itzel Hernandez began training at the Escuela Provincial de Ballet Alejo Carpentier. At age 12, she moved to the United States and earned a full scholarship at the Orlando Ballet School under Peter Stark, where she performed as Clara in Bruce Mark’s The Nutcracker. At the Harid Conservatory, Hernandez trained under Victoria Schneider, Olivier Pardina and Svetlana Osiyeva, and appeared in Mark Godden’s Fable and Corazon de La Llama. After graduating, she joined Orlando Ballet where she performed in La Danse by Telmo Moreira, the lead roles in Robert Hill’s Allegretto and Huapango, as well as Abdur Rahim Jackson’s premiere of aGain fOr tHe firSt tImE. Hernandez has competed in the Youth American Grand Prix, winning 3rd place in 2009 and 1st place Senior Contemporary in 2014. She joined the Nancy Einhorn Milwaukee Ballet II Program in 2014, where she danced in Michael Pink’s Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Giselle and Cinderella before being promoted to the Company in 2015. In 2016, she danced the title role in Kathryn Posin’s Scheherazade. This is her sixth season in Milwaukee Ballet’s Company.