Under the artistic leadership of co-founder Deborah Vaughan, DDT has become widely recognized for its presentation of traditional dances and contemporary choreography drawn from African, jazz, and modern dance idioms. The diversity and inclusiveness of DDT’s repertoire are unique to the company and have contributed significantly to its reputation for innovative dynamism. DDT has garnered national and international acclaim for its performances.
cross cultural collaborative concerts
Featured world-renowned African American poet, Nikki Giovanni.
Recognized for its presentation of traditional dances and contemporary choreography drawn from African, Jazz, and Modern dance idioms.
There was a riotous New Orleans funeral band, MJ’s Brass Boppers. A kickin’ line of mourners in turquoise and white, including the teenage talents of a junior company, Dimensions Extensions Performance Ensemble.
The company has traveled to Nigeria, Jordan, Germany, Zimbabwe, and Cuba, and has danced throughout the United States. DDT has advanced African American dance as an art form through a series of interdisciplinary collaborations with composers, musicians and singers working in a wide variety of African and African American traditions: Hugh Masekela, the Edwin Hawkins Singers (gospel), Street Sounds (a capella spirituals and blues), Cab Calloway (jazz), Chanticleer (a capella spirituals), Omar Sosa (Cuban jazz pianist), and Anthony Brown and Fifth Stream Music.
DDT has also become known for its cross cultural and issues oriented collaborations, bridging cultural, racial, and ethnic differences through the arts. In September 1994, the company staged a Full-Length cross cultural collaborative concert with Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company that confronted rising racial hostilities between the African American and Asian communities.
All Power to the people
In 1996, Dimensions premiered another issue-driven community collaboration: “Project Panther/Phase I: All Power to the People” was a large-scale effort to create a truthful portrayal of the origins, intentions, accomplishments, and significance of the Black Panther Party. DDT celebrated 25 years of artistic excellence and community involvement with a concert that featured world-renowned African American poet Nikki Giovanni.
Zimbabwe
“Between Shores” (2001) and “Mudzimu” (2002) were the first and second segments of the multi-disciplinary artistic collaboration "From Africa to America.” “From Africa to America” is an international collaboration between Dimensions Dance Theater, Cuban choreographer Isiais Rojas, and Zimbabwean mbira player Stella Chiweshe. Dimensions presented performances of “Between Shores” for sold-out theater audiences in Zimbabwe at Harare’s Mannenberg Theatre, Girl Child Network and the residents of the township Chitungwiza, and Zimbabwe Association of Community Theater’s Ken Zim Cultural Centre. The company also participated in cultural exchange dance and music workshops with Harare’s Tumbuka Dance Company. In July 2002, Dimensions performed “Mudzimu” in Santiago de Cuba’s Festival del Caribe.
congo
The most recent collaboration is Rhythms of Life/ Down the Congo Line. The concept of "Down The Congo Line" came about when Artistic Director Deborah Vaughan traveled to the Congo. The goal of this project was to build a collaboration that would recognize the extraordinary contribution that Congolese culture has made to the music and dance of the Americas by engaging traditional artists from the Diaspora to create contemporary work that is both rooted in their own community’s traditions, and that also reflects their Congolese origins. "Down The Congo Line" features four works by choreographers Isaura Oliveira (Brazil) Latanya D. Tigner (New Orleans), Jose “Cheo” Rojas (Cuba), and Herve (Kayos) Makaya ( Brazzaville, Congo. The company will be accompanied by Cuban and Congolese percussionists.
A lover of all forms of dance, Yolande Sterling has been an avid student of Haitian folkloric dance since 2008. She has studied and danced with veteran dancers and educators such as Blanche Brown, Michelle Martin and Portsha Jefferson. Ms. Sterling has traveled to Haiti on several occasions to experience the culture first hand by traveling to various parts of the country as well as learning from dance and song instructors at the Ecole Nationale des Arts (ENARTS).
Ms. Sterling joined Rara Tou Limen (RTL) in January 2014 and has been fortunate enough to travel and perform with the company both in the Bay Area and internationally in Haiti and Montreal Canada. She also participated in the 2017 cultural exchange tour to Havana Cuba where RTL collaborated with a renowned Cuban Folkloric company to explore the connection between Haitian and Cuban-Haitian dance. In 2019, Ms. Sterling had the opportunity to visit Benin West Africa with RTL and witness first hand the connection between the Beninese and Haitian cultures through dance, song and Vodou.
In keeping with her love of folkloric dance, Ms. Sterling has performed with the Afro-Cuban folkloric company Grupo Nago Experimental under the guidance of Artistic Director Temistocles Fuentes Betancourt. She has also studied with and danced in San Francisco Carnaval with Afro-Brazilian dancer/choreography Tania Santiago, Artistic Director of Aguas da Bahia Dance Company. Yolande is passionate about Haitian dance as well as the rhythms and rituals that embody the culture.
Michelle Peacock is originally from Los Angeles, CA and enthusiastically began training 22 years ago in various dance forms. High School is where Michelle was accepted into a prestigious performing arts school, The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts where she studied with various well studied teachers and continued to perfect her skills. After graduating high school she went on to further her training in dance while getting her B.A in Broadcast communications at San Francisco State University.
After graduating college and entering into the work force, dance, her one true love and passion was calling out to her, so she sought out classes until she stumbled upon Portsha’s Haitian dance class on a bright Sunday and thus began her love affair with Haitian dance.
Michelle has been a member of Rara Tou Limen since 2011, where she has engrossed herself into Haitian folklore, with a willingness to continue to train and study as much as she can about Haitian culture through myriads of classes, workshops, performances and traveling to different countries with the company, showcasing the vibrant spirit of the Haitian culture.
“Dance is a conversation between Body and Soul”.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in Los Angeles, California, Ms. Nadreau has studied various dance styles from Africa and the diaspora, including Afro Brazilian, Afro house, Waacking, and Haitian folklore. In addition to dance, she has also studied sound design, fashion, and Earth and Environmental Sciences.
Her work has been seen on national TV, in the theater, and featured in music videos.
Halima Marshall is a recent recipient of the 2020 Alliance of California Traditional Arts (ACTA) Apprenticeship with mentor Portsha Jefferson. She was first introduced to Haitian dance at St. Mary’s College in 1995 by Blanche Brown, Haitian dance instructor and director of then Group Petit La Croix. Years later, her desire to learn more technique, rhythms, and the intricacies of their connection led her to Dance Mission in San Francisco where she took classes with instructor Michelle Martin.
In 2007, Halima first performed with Portsha Jefferson at the inception of Rara Tou Limen (RTL) prior to joining the dance company. Since that time she has performed the colorful and emotion-filled storytelling of RTL throughout the Bay Area at San Francisco Carnaval, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Black Choreographers Festival, multiple performances at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, the University of Oklahoma for the Neustadt Festival honoring a Haitian literary great, Edwidge Danticat, and internationally with Mapou Ginen Haitian Folkloric Dance Troupe in Montreal, Canada. Halima also celebrates the opportunity to teach dance classes in the Bay Area because of these diverse experiences over the years, her skills as an educator, and, most importantly, because of her love of Haitian dance and culture.
A 2014 cultural exchange trip to Ayiti was the pinnacle of her experiences, as past knowledge was given life through witnessing Vodou on the soil of Ayiti. She brings reverence for the spirit of Vodou and acknowledgement of the fullness of Ayiti’s culture to her own dance and teaching experience.
Abeje Maolud is one of three of Rara Tou Limen’s newest company members, joining the Haitian Folkloric Dance Company in 2018. She hails from the San Francisco Bay Area, where she began her lifelong dance training with notable dance teachers such as Mama Naomi Diouf (of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company) and the late Ms. Alicia Pierce (of Wajumbe Dance Collective).
Since such early exposure to dance, Abeje has embarked on a lifelong journey of studying various forms, locally and abroad, ranging from Tango to Tahitian dance. Her experience includes modern dance techniques, with an emphasis on Dunham Technique, as well as studying and working with The San Francisco Ballet School, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s summer youth program, Ailey Camp, Columbus, Ohio’s Ballet Met, Headlong Dance Theater out of Philadelphia, and such local dance companies as The Zari Le’on Dance Theater and Eloi Movement.
Abeje holds a BA in Dance from Denison University. Her experience extends beyond the velvet curtain to costume design, set design, and stage management.
She believes in the power of the arts to inspire change. In 2013, Valencia co-founded the AI_am project, which explores the application of artificial intelligence in dance. The project has been presented at several international forums, such as TEDxGoteborg in 2015, and premiered its first evening-length work in Budapest and Gothenburg in 2017. Valencia also creates solo works that explore stereotypes and colonial narratives. She has performed extensively in Hungary, Romania, Poland, France, Israel, Sweden, Argentina, and Canada. After a decade in Hungary, Valencia is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Asatu Hall is a seasoned performer, choreographer and founding member of Emesè: Messengers of the African Diaspora, a collective of artists founded in 1998 to promote and present the rich cultural traditions of the African Diaspora. Her background in dance incorporates over 25 years of various genres, including Ballet, West African, Congolese, Haitian, and Brazilian.
She has had the honor of studying and performing with a number of master artists in the Bay Area and abroad, in particular, her mentors Mestre Carlos Aceituno founder of Fogo Na Roupa Grupo Carnavalesco Cultural and Regina Califa, Jorge Alabe, Blanche Brown, Titos Sompa, Malonga Casquelourd, Jose Francisco Barroso, Juan De Dios Ramos, Linda Faye Johnson, Isaura Oliveira, and others. She feels blessed and very honored to have the opportunity to deepen her study of Haitian dance, music, and culture with the Rara Tou Limen family. Asatu currently teaches Afro Cuban and Afro Brazilian dance in Oakland and Alameda.
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