AYIBOBO!!!
Rara Tou Limen (RTL) has performed at festivals as well as cultural and academic institutions throughout the Bay Area including: The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, The Black Choreographer's Festival, The Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, The San Francisco Black Film Festival, the deYoung Museum, Ashkenaz, CubaCaribe Dance & Music Festival, Hastings to Haiti Celebration, San Francisco Carnival, Hamlin School, Mills College, University of California at Berkeley, California State University at Chico and the Berkeley Public Library.
Accompanied by dancers, vocalists and celebrated musicians, the company brings to the stage a wide spectrum of diverse Haitian dance forms, from vibrant rituals of Vodou, the turbulent legacy of political struggle, to the celebratory and festive dances of Carnival, Rara Tou Limen is at the cutting edge of the evolution of Haitian dance and music in the Bay Area. The use of traditional rhythms, chants and movement integrates the grace, strength, fluidity and precision of Haitian folkloric dance.
Established in 2004 by Artistic Director Portsha Jefferson, Rara Tou Limen has continually offered Bay Area residents, as well as people from all over the United States, the opportunity to experience Haitian music, dance and culture through classes, workshops, performances and educational events in both the United States and in Haiti. Our mission is to educate audiences about the richness of Haitian culture through artistic expression, while building and enhancing working relationships with other Haitian cultural groups in the U.S. and Haiti. The company is carrying on the long legacy of creating strength and solidarity within the Haitian community, while actively raising awareness (and funds) for Haitian organizations.
Our objective is to help nurture and grow Haitian dance and musical traditions in the Bay Area. The company is committed to showcasing the best of folkloric dance and music, which carries in it the stories, struggles, and spirit of the first free Black Republic in the world. Rara Tou Limen continues to uplift a country whose culture has increasingly sustained the Bay Area's artistic community and beyond.
[click on image to see Rara in Festivity!]
Rara Tou Limen continues to further the company’s vision, to Uplift, Inspire, & Inform in our community work and studies locally and abroad. Each year offers new opportunities to learn, stretch, and grow through RTL Vodou Voyage, a research/study travel excursion to further artistic growth, and aid in both personal and professional development. RTL Vodou Voyages have included Haiti (2014), Montreal, Canada (2016), Havana Cuba (2017), NOLA (2018), and most recently, Benin, West Africa, to gain an ethnographic perspective of Benin’s dances and drum rhythms, Vodoun ceremonial practices in relation to those of Haiti and its diaspora.
Rara Tou Limen presents:
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Rara Tou Limen presents:
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photo credit: Juan Gomez
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photo credit: Juan Gomez
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YBCA and SKIN World Wide Present:
“Radical Ancestry”
A Closing Finale of Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Arts Exhibit
Rara Tou Limen present:
Evolution x 9
To celebrate the closing of the exhibition "Radical Presence", SKIN World Wide and YBCA present "Radical Ancestry", a dance floor journey through sound, art, tradition, and folklore. We invite you to this gorgeous, visceral celebration that weaves through the African and Latin-American diasporas. Featuring a mixture of live performances, dance, visual art, and DJ’s, we pay homage to our common bonds of ancestry and rhythm.
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Portsha T. Jefferson + Rara Tou Limen's
artistic, cultural, and education work has been recognized
and supported through numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, including:
Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) - Apprenticeship Program (2020)
AKONADI Foundation (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023)
American Folklore Society (2015)
FOKAL - Fondasyon Konesans Ak Libète (2014)
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2011, 2012, 2013)
Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) - Living Cultures Grant
(2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2026)
Zellerbach Family Foundation
(2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Theatre Bay Area - CA$H Grant (2011)
The Eastbay Community Foundation (2007, 2026)
World Arts West Cultural Dance Catalyst (2026)
Rara Tou Limen performs "ReBIRTH" at the
SF Ethnic Dance Festival
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"The dance (Yanvalou) often featured powerful waves traveling up and down the dancers' spines. Footwork and a ritual that could be followed like a story, but it was the way those women were convulsed by simultaneous convex and concave bends of the body that stays keenest in the memory."
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Portsha Terae Jefferson - Founder & Artistic Director
Portsha Terae Jefferson is a professional dancer and choreographer trained in Ballet, Modern, Jazz and African derived styles, who specializes in Haitian Folkloric Dance. She began her formal training at the age of six at the Marsha Woody Dance Academy in Beaumont, Texas. Established in 2004, Ms. Jefferson is the founder and artistic director of Rara Tou Limen (RTL), an arts organization that presents Haitian music, dance & culture through classes, workshops, and performances.
A passionate believer in education and youth development, she has worked
for several youth organizations including The Young Performers Theater, The San Francisco Arts Education Project, Westlake School of the Arts, Opera
Picolla, DanceVersity, Swivel Arts, and most recently, Music In Schools Today (MUST). Ms. Jefferson has taught creative movement and Haitian Folkloric dance in schools, universities, community centers and dance studios for twenty five years.
Ms. Jefferson was a principle dancer and vocalist with Group Petit La Croix (1996-2003) under the leadership of veteran dancer and educator Blanche Brown. She's graced stages with Project Reconnect, Ase Dance Theater Collective, Feet of Rhythm and El Wah Movement. In Haiti, she has had the privilege to perform with Compagnie Culturelle Des Arts and Ayiti Dans Ansanm (ADA). Guest performances with Afro-Cuban companies include: EMESE: Messengers of the African Diaspora, along with Jose Francisco Barroso & Obakoso.
Ms. Jefferson's dedication and exploration of Haitian culture have brought her to Haiti, where she has traveled throughout the country to research regional dance, rhythms and musical traditions since 2003. Specific interest and concentration of study took place in Gonaives at Lakou Badjo, where Nago (Yoruba) traditions are preserved, and at Tanp Souvenance Mistik, a Vodou community that celebrates it's Rada (ancient kingdom of Dahomey) heritage. Further studies at Ecole Nationale des Arts (ENARTS), Vivian Gauthier's School of Dance and Artcho Danse, the official dance school of internationally renowned dance troupe Ayikodans, provided a rich foundation into the Folkloric aspect of Haitian culture. Lynn Coles, Blanche Brown, Peniel Guerrier, Cadet Jean Evens, Emmanuel Louis, Metayer Frantz, Ramses Pierre, Lee Hetelson and Daniel Brevil, among others, have played a key role in her artistic growth.
Ms. Jefferson has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Conservatory for Contemporary Dance Arts (CCD) and is an artist in residence for Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and SF Unified School District. In addition, she is an instructor at East Bay Dance Center, Dance Mission Theater and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. She also serves as a Cultural Arts Specialist with Oakland Parks and Recreation where she continues to share her love of dance with Oakland youth. Ms. Jefferson is a recent grant recipient from the American Folklore Society to continue her fieldwork in Haitian Folkloric Dance & Musical Traditions.
A passionate believer in education and youth development, she has worked
for several youth organizations including The Young Performers Theater, The San Francisco Arts Education Project, Westlake School of the Arts, Opera
Picolla, DanceVersity, Swivel Arts, and most recently, Music In Schools Today (MUST). Ms. Jefferson has taught creative movement and Haitian Folkloric dance in schools, universities, community centers and dance studios for twenty five years.
Ms. Jefferson was a principle dancer and vocalist with Group Petit La Croix (1996-2003) under the leadership of veteran dancer and educator Blanche Brown. She's graced stages with Project Reconnect, Ase Dance Theater Collective, Feet of Rhythm and El Wah Movement. In Haiti, she has had the privilege to perform with Compagnie Culturelle Des Arts and Ayiti Dans Ansanm (ADA). Guest performances with Afro-Cuban companies include: EMESE: Messengers of the African Diaspora, along with Jose Francisco Barroso & Obakoso.
Ms. Jefferson's dedication and exploration of Haitian culture have brought her to Haiti, where she has traveled throughout the country to research regional dance, rhythms and musical traditions since 2003. Specific interest and concentration of study took place in Gonaives at Lakou Badjo, where Nago (Yoruba) traditions are preserved, and at Tanp Souvenance Mistik, a Vodou community that celebrates it's Rada (ancient kingdom of Dahomey) heritage. Further studies at Ecole Nationale des Arts (ENARTS), Vivian Gauthier's School of Dance and Artcho Danse, the official dance school of internationally renowned dance troupe Ayikodans, provided a rich foundation into the Folkloric aspect of Haitian culture. Lynn Coles, Blanche Brown, Peniel Guerrier, Cadet Jean Evens, Emmanuel Louis, Metayer Frantz, Ramses Pierre, Lee Hetelson and Daniel Brevil, among others, have played a key role in her artistic growth.
Ms. Jefferson has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Conservatory for Contemporary Dance Arts (CCD) and is an artist in residence for Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and SF Unified School District. In addition, she is an instructor at East Bay Dance Center, Dance Mission Theater and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. She also serves as a Cultural Arts Specialist with Oakland Parks and Recreation where she continues to share her love of dance with Oakland youth. Ms. Jefferson is a recent grant recipient from the American Folklore Society to continue her fieldwork in Haitian Folkloric Dance & Musical Traditions.
"To dance was at once to worship and to pray...
the gods themselves danced, as the stars dance in the sky
...and to dance is therefore to imitate the gods,
to work with them, perhaps to persuade them to work in the direction of our desire...
Havelock Ellis, Dance of Life
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Minokan - RTL Report Back from Haiti - Photo Credit: Yuri Kasinsky
Mizik Se Lanmou!
Sponsored by SKIN
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Rara Tou Limen embodies a deep and cherished legacy, developing strength and solidarity within its Haitian communities...
Rara Tou Limen continues to uplift a country whose culture has increasingly sustained the Bay Area's artistic community and beyond!
Cultural Exchange to Haiti participants (2009)
Our objective is to help nurture and cultivate Haitian dance and music traditions in the Bay Area through building & enhancing working relationships between artists promoting Haitian culture across the U.S. and in Haiti.
In keeping with this tradition of exchange, Rara Tou Limen, in partnership with Daniel Brevil, conducted its first cultural exchange tour to Haiti with 10 members in April '09 and 3 subsequently after the Earthquake in Haiti, to further investigate & research Haitian cultural traditions. [click pic 4 video]
A Historic Anniversary Celebration/Concert Performance was RTL's latest milestone envisioned in partnership with Artistic Director, Portsha Jefferson, and Musical Director, Daniel Brevil accompanying Rara Tou Limen to Haiti, in celebration of their 10th Anniversary. Aug./ Sept. 2014.
In keeping with this tradition of exchange, Rara Tou Limen, in partnership with Daniel Brevil, conducted its first cultural exchange tour to Haiti with 10 members in April '09 and 3 subsequently after the Earthquake in Haiti, to further investigate & research Haitian cultural traditions. [click pic 4 video]
A Historic Anniversary Celebration/Concert Performance was RTL's latest milestone envisioned in partnership with Artistic Director, Portsha Jefferson, and Musical Director, Daniel Brevil accompanying Rara Tou Limen to Haiti, in celebration of their 10th Anniversary. Aug./ Sept. 2014.
"Veve Sessions"