Rita Littrean traded her tennis, track, and netball sneakers for dance shoes after attending a performance of the renowned Julia Edwards Dance Group in her native country of Trinidad and Tobago. Shortly thereafter, she migrated to the USA and began her dance studies at New Dance Group Studios in the late 1960s where she was exposed to a diversity of dance techniques taught by Jean Leon Destine, Jill Albert-Williams, Lenore Latimer, Polli Rodgers, and Anna Sokolow to name a few. She also attended Corvinos' The Dance Circle Ballet School. As New Dance Group began to phase out around 1970, she migrated her dance education to the Ailey School and Graham School, where for many years, on a part time basis, she expanded her dance knowledge of Graham and Horton techniques and got the privilege to experience the teachings of Ms. Graham, Mr. Ailey, Ms. Jamison, and other members of the then Ailey Dance Company, along with the many summers of intensive workshop series around NYC taught by other luminary instructors such as Talley Beatty, Mary Anthony, Daniel Maloney, and Joan Peters, among others. 

One day, she decided to try the Dunham Technique that was being taught at the Ailey School by Charles Moore. After the class, Charles invited her to visit his class in Brooklyn at the Hanson Place United Methodist Church and the rest is history because she became a member of his company soon thereafter and performed with Charles Moore Dances and Drums of Africa (a/k/a Charles Moore Dance Theatre) for over 20 years. Charles was a strong believer of studying diverse dance techniques and preached that rule continuously. He also taught the Dunham Technique at Clark Center for the Performing Arts.

As a student at Clark Center from 1977, she was drawn to the teachings of Pepsi Bethel, Charles (Cookie) Cook, Eleanor Harris, Loremil Machado, Lucinda Ransom and Charles & Ella Moore. She performed for the 1988 Latoya Jackson Show, was a former member of Malaki Ma Congo Dance Ensemble, and is currently a proud member of MoJazz Dance Ensemble since 2016. She has performed at Jacobs Pillow, Dance Africa, Dance Black America, Avery Fisher Hall, NYS University Touring program, Women’s Press Collective and ModArts Dance Collective Thread among others. Rita also has over 31 years’ experience within financial services, real estate, government, and insurance industries.