Dancing Spirits: Haitian Dance & Wellness Retreat

April 9 – 16, 2024 | Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Immerse yourself in ancient wisdom, unleash your inner spirit, and find harmony with the ocean’s powerful energy.

Experience a deep dive into the enchanting realm of Haitian Water Spirits at the Dancing Spirits: Haitian Dance & Wellness Retreat in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Experience a life-changing journey where you’ll dance and sing to sacred rhythms honoring La Sirene, Met Agwe, Danbala, and Ayida Wedo.

Portsha T. Jefferson

Founder, Rara Tou Limen

Portsha Terae Jefferson has a 25 year history of performance, choreography, research & travel passionately rooted in African/Caribbean dance, drumming and spiritual traditions. Hailing from a blazed Dance trek, her Dancestory is truly emblazoned by that of Ancestral commission. She began her formal training at the age of six at the Marsha Woody Dance Academy. From Beaumont, Texas to the Bay Area, Ms. Jefferson also revered as, “Zetwal Ashade Bon Manbo” has cultivated a trajectory of Dance excellence, dynamic performance and a cultural legacy of training, education and cultural exchange.

Often nurtured by Bay Area Dance luminaries Lynn Coles and Blanche Brown to name a few, to Haitian Dance Masters such as Pioneer Vivianne Gauthier with consistent training at Ecole Nationale de Artes [ENARTS], transcended through the establishment of Rara Tou Limen Haitian Performing Company in 2004.

As a cultural practitioner and visionary, 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 its Rada (kingdom of Dahomey) heritage. Ms. Jefferson’s visionary Artistic leadership and RTL Company’s unforgettable presentations, classes, workshops, festivals, cultural exchange trips, and retreats, have garnered her the attention as respected colleague and established cultural gatekeeper, forging new trailways through ancient traditions — staying true to the sojourn carving pathways for many to flourish crossing boundaries and dimensions in the Dance.

Ms. Jefferson has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Conservatory for Contemporary Dance Arts, and as an artist in residence for Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and SF Unified School District. A passionate believer in education and youth development, she has worked for several youth projects and arts education programs, and has graced colleges, universities, and studios, including 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.

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Asatu Hall

Co-founder of Luna Nueva Wellness Collective

Asatu Hall is a co-founder of Luna Nueva Wellness Collective with 20 years of experience working in the Oakland community as a midwife and health educator. She desires to reintroduce Black and Brown women to holistic, safe, and empowering care provided by trained midwives. Asatu leads a full life being a home school mother, mentoring young women, and working in public and community health as an educator and provider.

Asatu has an M.S in Holistic Health Education from JFK University and Masters in Public Health. She is a 3rd generation traditional midwife with roots in Liberia, West Africa, and the United States. She is a graduate of Maternidad La Luz Midwifery School. She is the founder and director of YEWAS Rites of Passage Program for Girls of African Descent. Asatu also founded The Sacred Grove Traditions an Oakland-based, international women-led organization for young girls and women. Asatu is a certified Basu of Smai Tawi Yoga, a practice from ancient Kemet. She is a dancer, seasoned performer, choreographer and founding member of Emesè: Messengers of the African Diaspora, a collective of artists founded in 1998 to promote the African Diaspora of dance, drumming, and music.

Her background in dance incorporates over 25 years of various genres including Ballet, West African, Haitian, Congolese, Brazilian, and Cuban. She has had the honor of studying and performing with a number of master artists in the Bay Area. Her mentors include Mestre Carlos Aceituno and Mestra Regina Califa, Jorge Alabe, Blanche Brown, Titos Sompa, Malonga Casquelourd, Jose Francisco Barroso, Juan De Dios Ramos, Zak, and Naomi Diouf, Linda Faye Johnson, Isaura Oliveira, Dandha da Hora, Rosangela Silvestre, and others.

She currently dances with Rara Tou Limen Haitian Dance Company, under the direction of Portsha T. Jefferson.

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