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 expanded her dance education to the Ailey School and Graham School and had the privilege to experience the teachings of Ms. Graham, Mr. Ailey, Ms. Jamison, among others. Over summers of intensive workshop series around NYC, Rita learned from other luminary instructors such as Talley Beatty, Mary Anthony, Daniel Maloney, and Joan Peters.

At the Ailey School, the Dunham Technique was being taught by Charles Moore. He invited Rita to visit his class in Brooklyn at the Hanson Place United Methodist Church. Soon thereafter, Rita became a member of his company, Charles Moore Dances and Drums of Africa (a/k/a Charles Moore Dance Theatre) for over 20 years, twelve of those years shared with Audrey Madison. Charles and Ella Moore also taught the Dunham Technique at Clark Center for the Performing Arts, where Rita was further drawn to the teachings of Pepsi Bethel, Charles (Cookie) Cook, Eleanor Harris, Loremil Machado, and Lucinda Ransom. Rita is currently a volunteer board member of the non-profit Clark Center NYC Inc., to help preserve and share the legacy. She performed for the 1988 Latoya Jackson Show and is a former member of Malaki Ma Congo Dance Ensemble.

Dancing with Audrey since the 70’s, Rita became a proud member of the MoJazz Dance ensemble in 2016 and diligently continues to take modern jazz dance classes and provide support to the company. Rita has over 31 years’ experience within financial services, real estate, government, and insurance industries. She and her husband reside in Florida and Brooklyn.