Staffs

Thelma Goldberg, Boston Dance Alliance’s 2015 Dr. Michael Shannon Dance Champion, is a tap teacher, choreographer, producer, and pedagogue committed to bringing the best of tap to the Boston metropolitan community. She is the founder of The Dance Inn in Lexington, Mass.

Gretchen Hayden, a senior disciple of the late kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das, has fostered this classical north Indian dance form across New England through teaching, scholarship, and performances with her company, Chhandika.

Kieran Jordan is a lifelong Irish step dancer with a specialty in sean-nós, the improvised “old-style” tradition from Ireland. A choreographer, teacher, and performer, she has collaborated with some of today’s finest Celtic musicians and produced two DVDs.

Essence McGill Arzu (Co-President) is a transactional lawyer who focuses on corporate finance, business combinations, banking and nonprofit governance. Essence was first introduced to BDA in 2006 through the Arts and Business Council’s Business on Board program. In addition to her service on BDA’s board, she has served on numerous other nonprofit boards, including the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, The Partnership, Inc., Boston Bar Foundation, Harvard Club of Boston, Celebrity Series of Boston, Boston Children’s Museum and Boston Educational Development Foundation. Essence received her B.A. from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, her M.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Davis Center for Russian Studies, and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Essence studied classical ballet and other dance forms for twelve years and now is an enthusiastic dance audience member. She is proud of BDA’s role as convener and connector within and outside of the dance community.

Erinn King, CFA, (Co-President) is a principal at the international investment services firm of Payden & Rygel. Based in the firm’s Boston office, she is a portfolio manager serving institutional clients including insurance companies, corporations, and health care entities. She earned an MBA in Finance at Boston University and also holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Oklahoma. Erinn is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society and chairs its fixed-income programming subcommittee. A former professional ballerina with the Oklahoma Festival Ballet and Royal Winnepeg Ballet, she is also a member of the board of directors of Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre.

Marsha Parrilla is the Founding Artistic Director of Danza Orgánica. She was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to NYC in 1998. Since then she has been choreographing, teaching, training, and performing internationally. Marsha holds a Master’s degree in Dance Education from NYU, and is a Massachusetts Certified Dance Teacher. Marsha Parrilla was selected as a Luminary Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Neighborhood Salon. She has received Creative City Grants, and the New England Dance Fund awarded by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Marsha has taught Dance in NYC and Boston Public Schools, Boston University, the State University of New York in Stony Brook, Roxbury Community College, and Green Street Studios. Parrilla founded the Dance Research Online Forum, a site dedicated to free and progressive dance education, and is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization.  Marsha also leads the award-winning We Create! Celebrating Women in the Arts festival,now entering its 6th season.

Connie Chin is Executive Director of Global Arts Live. Prior to this, she was President of The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library. She has also served as Chief Operating Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and as General Manager at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She has also held arts administration positions at Oregon Mozart Players, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. Connie worked in brand management at Kraft Foods on two Jell-O businesses, and at Ocean Spray on cranberry drinks. She grew up dancing in Boston and Harvard College, going on to perform nationally and internationally with Ze’eva Cohen, Sincha Hong, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bill T. Jones, The Yard and others. Connie has been on the board of Berkshire Creative, served on the Advisory Board of The Yard, and has been a grant panelist for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and Arts Westchester. Connie earned an A.B. from Harvard and an M.B.A. from Yale.

Angela Gomes is an associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group in the Boston office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she advises clients on a broad range of corporate and securities matters, including securities law compliance, disclosure and periodic reporting and corporate governance. Angela holds a B.A. in psychology from Boston University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where she served as a member of the Black Law Students Association, as well as president of the Journal of Science and Technology Law. Angela also serves on the Associates Advisory Council of the United Way, the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, as co-chair of the Affinity Bar Relations Subcommittee of the Boston Bar Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee and on the Board of Directors of The Midas Collaborative. Although not a dancer, Angela enjoys the performing arts and is excited to give back to the Boston community by serving on BDA’s board.

David Parker spent his childhood in Lynnfield, Massachusetts and started his career studying tap and ballet in Boston.  He moved to New York City in 1979 and performed tap, modern, post-modern, folk, ballet and experimental tap before forming his own company, The Bang Group in 1995,which tours widely throughout the United States and Europe. TBG has enjoyed a second home in Boston since being resident company at Summer Stages Dance for 13 seasons, in addition to appearing at the ICA, Out on the Edge Festival (Theater Offensive,) First Night Boston, and elsewhere.  TBG Group is currently company-in-residence at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard where Parker serves as co-curator for the percussive dance festival Tap the Yard.

Recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, Parker has created over 40 commissioned works for ballet and modern companies, universities, soloists and theater artists.  He launched Dance Now Boston, a branch of Dance Now NYC, which commissions innovative dance for cabaret spaces such as Oberon at the American Repertory Theater.  David has taught at Princeton, SUNY Purchase and Hunter College and at the Ailey School, Juilliard and Barnard College. He writes regularly for Dance Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail and several blogs, serves in the board of Danspace Project, has been a member of The New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Awards committee as well as several community and granting panels.

Award-winning choreographer Marsha Parrilla is the Founding Artistic Director of Danza Orgánica. She was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to NYC in 1998. Since then she has been choreographing, teaching, training, and performing internationally. Marsha holds a Master’s degree in Dance Education from NYU, and is a Massachusetts Certified Dance Teacher. Marsha Parrilla was selected as a Luminary Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Neighborhood Salon. She is also a proud recipient of the Creative City Grant, and the New England Dance Fund awarded by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Marsha has taught Dance in NYC and Boston Public Schools, Boston University, the State University of New York in Stony Brook, Roxbury Community College, and Green Street Studios. Parrilla is the founder of the Dance Research Online Forum, a site dedicated to free and progressive dance education, and is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization. In addition, Marsha’s production history includes three evening-length company concerts, as well as the award-winning Annual Festival: We Create! Celebrating Women in the Arts, now entering its 4th season.