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.

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.

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.

Lauren Elson, MD is the Director of Dance Medicine at Spaulding Rehabilitation. Board certified in sports medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation, she attended Tufts University School of Medicine, did her residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia/Cornell, and completed a fellowship in Sports Medicine at Stanford University.

Lauren deferred medical school to apprentice with a contemporary/tap company and has taught jazz, ballet, tap, hip-hop, African, swing, and salsa.  During college, she created her own major: Dance and Human Movement Studies, and received a fellowship to travel to the Gambia to investigate how African dance is used as a form of communication among different tribal groups/religions. She danced with Rainbow Tribe from 1999-2014 (when in Boston) and has been dancing with Cambridge Dance Company since its inception in 2012.

During her medical education, she had the opportunity to train with the physicians that care for ABT and NYCB and was a clinician at the Healthy Dancer Clinic in San Francisco.  She chairs the Freelance Dancer Committee on the Dance/USA Taskforce on Dance Health and is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and the Performing Arts Medical Association.  She has given lectures, locally and internationally, on dance health and injury prevention to dancers and professional organizations.

Dr. Elson is interested in developing dance health and education programs in the Boston area as well uniting the dance medicine community to provide dancers with better access to specialized care.

In 2015, with both sons off to college, Murray returned to the performing arts after a 25 year “sabbatical.” He performs as an amateur Latin ballroom dancer and recently produced and co-directed a short film featuring contemporary and ballroom dancers, choreographers, and performance artists. He also runs a small financing consulting business.  Previously he was senior vice president of a radio station group and executive vice president, part owner and board member of a for-profit health care company. Murray has coached championship youth sports teams and served on many other nonprofit boards,including The Friends of Photography, Shearwater Association, Truro Bay Sanctuary, Children’s Ballet Theater, Boston Film/Video Foundation and Newton Central Little League.