The Dance Inn Faculty
Thelma Larkin Goldberg, Director, started The Dance Inn in 1983 while on a leave of absence from teaching in the Boston Public Schools. Her early dance training was in Cambridge with Grace Bates and Joan O'Brien. She taught dance while earning her B.S. Ed. From Lesley College and then taught special needs students in Boston while earning her M.S. Sp.Ed. from Regis College.
In addition to being the Artistic Director and Tap Coach of the Legacy Dancers, Thelma is on the staff of the NYC Tap Festival and has been coordinating the Pre-Professional Program since it began in 2005. She continues to study with master teachers and is an active participant at numerous tap and jazz festivals.
Thelma is also Executive Director of Dance Inn Productions, Inc., a non-profit organization whose mission is to pass on the artistry and traditions of dance. Through Dance Inn Productions, she produces several community dance events, including Rhythm at the Regent, the annual International Tap Dance Day celebration in May, the Tom and Catherine Larkin Youth Ballroom Program, and weekend workshops with master teachers. She continues to teach numerous classes a week while supervising and mentoring her young staff.
Deborah Bowman began studying dance at the age of 5. Her early training was in tap, ballet, and jazz under Jeannette Strauss. She has taught tap classes, exercise classes and step aerobic classes. Currently she is furthering her tap education by studying with Thelma Goldberg, Jamie Sherman, and attending master classes in the area. Debbie holds a BS degree in Music Therapy from Elizabethtown College and is also a private piano teacher.
Sheila Brotherston received her BFA in acting from Emerson College where she also studied dance with Tracy Tedesco. Her background includes significant experience with the Boston Children's Theater, where she was a performer and teacher as well as choreographer for Oliver and The Wizard of Oz. You may have enjoyed her arias when she was an opera singer at Romano's Macaroni Grill. Sheila studies regularly with Hip Hop master teachers, such as Brian Friedman and Jimmy Locust. In addition to her regular teaching duties, Sheila is Director of the Hip Hop program as well as the Dance Inn Dance and Theatre Camp.
Lisa Charest acquired her formal ballet training from various studios in NH and expanded her repetoire of styles to include hip hop, modern, and contemporary at Tufts University while earning a BS in Civil Engineering. She continues to train and work with her peers in various styles, but has grown to love teaching and developing the skills of young dancers.
Rommel Childress
Crystal D'Abbraccio has worn many hats during her 25 years at The Dance Inn. A member of the first Legacy Dance Company in 1987, Crystal served as Captain for two years and later became Manager of the company. In the early years, Crystal was also instrumental in starting our Dance Technique Program, which was called the Performance Workshop. After graduating from Lexington High School in 1995, Crystal became a licensed massage therapist. In addition to her responsibilities as a teacher, Crystal directs the Preschool Program and is the coordinator of the Birthday Party Program. She recently assumed the role of Costume Coordinator for all Dance Inn events. When not at The Dance Inn, she is home with her two young children.
Adrienne Hawkins received her BA from Arizona State University and her MFA from Connecticut College. Adrienne has been artistic director of Impulse Dance for 27 years and has taught at the American Dance Festival and extensively in Japan and Europe. She is an award-winning concert choreographer who has also choreographed rock musicals and videos.
Josh Hilberman - Guest Teacher - A highly pedigreed performer who has appeared alongside most every hoofer of note, Joshua Hilberman received the 2005 National College Choreography Initiative award from the National Endowment for the Arts/Dance USA. In May, 2006 he received the "Premi Claqueta," Barcelona's International Tap Day Award, in recognition of his decade of contributions to tap in Catalunya.
Hilberman has been a featured soloist at New York's Lincoln Center and in jazz festivals from Australia to Barcelona and all over New England; was a principal dancer for three years in Manhattan Tap and has performed in Brenda Bufalino's Other Tap Dance Orchestra; teaches and performs at tap festivals including Tap City (NYC), Finland's Feet Beat, Vancouver, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, and annually at The North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival and The Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival.
Josh collaborated on "Clara's Dream: A Jazz Nutcracker," celebrating six seasons as the Jazz Nut. He is also a collaborator in Thomas Marek's "About Tap," multi-media portraits of tap dancers, which plays for a third season in 2007 in Germany's prestigious modern dance center, Kampnagel.
In addition to a choreographic residency with the Canadian company Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Hilberman has set works on groups in Germany, Holland, and Spain, and on four nationally recognized youth ensembles: The North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, Washington DC's Tappers with Attitude, the Jefferson Dancers (OR), and The Legacy Dancers(MA).
Josh developed his teaching chops at the prestigious Leon Collins Dance Studio, and has been a faculty member at Roger Williams and Mount Holyoke Universities as well as the Boston Conservatory of Music and Dance. Currently, Hilberman freelances internationally.
Further propaganda can be found on his website: www.Hilbermania.com.
Rony Jacques
Lori LoTurco
Claire McGregor is from the Philadelphia area and trained at the school of the First State Ballet Theatre under the direction of Pasha and Kristina Kambalov. She received additional training from American Ballet Theatre and Boston Ballet. In 2002, Claire competed at the New York City Finals of the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition. As Boston University, she performed with Dance Theatre Group and The Edge Dance Co., as well as was Co-Founder and Director of the Variations Project. She graduated from BU in May 2008 with a degree in History and works in the Development Office at the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Claire currently performs with Urbanity Dance Project and choreographs competition pieces for The Dance Center in Winchendon, MA.
Drika Overton’s career has spanned over 25 years and includes work as a performer, teacher, choreographer, producer, and presenter. She is the creator and artistic director of the internationally recognized Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival and MaD Theatricals, a unique collaboration of nationally and internationally recognized jazz and tap artists creating the critically acclaimed productions Clara's Dream a jazz nutcracker, and Music Hall Follies: A Vaudeville in 9 Acts with special guest artists Bill Irwin and Fayard Nicholas.
Since 1990 she has produced and performed in concerts to promote jazz and tap to wide audiences throughout the region. In 2003 Drika created The Portsmouth Vaudeville Project, a community project that included the Intergenerational Jazz Project and documentary, as well as the documentary 4 Theatres: Remembering Portsmouth in the Age of Vaudeville which aired on NH Public Television and at film festivals around the country.
Drika has shared the stage with such acclaimed artists as Savion Glover, Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne Walker, and Keith Terry. She has been a featured soloist at the Duke Theater in New York as part of the New York City Tap Festival; the Southeastern TapExplosion in Atlanta; RhythmExplosion, Bozeman, MT; the Bates Dance Festival; the New England Artist’s Congress; The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Shipyard Project; on Public Television; and at numerous jazz clubs, concerts, and festivals.
Drika has received four Spotlight on the Arts Awards from the Seacoast Newspapers as Best Dancer and for Best Dance Production for Clara's Dream a jazz nutcracker, a production also featured in the BBC documentary "Fascinating Rhythms." She has received an Artist Fellowship and New Works grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts as well as grants from the Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation, Art Builds Community! funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, and The New England Foundation for the Arts. In 2007 she was awarded the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Distinguished Arts Leadership.
In 2007 Drika was selected to participate in the first New England Dance Lab, a Regional Dance Development Initiative of the National Dance Project. Also in 2007 New England Presenters commissioned her and composer Paul Arslanian, with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, to create a new touring project. Off the Beaten Path: A Jazz & Tap Odyssey was created in collaboration with Brenda Bufalino and Josh Hilberman and toured New England in 2008-2009.
Drika teaches master classes and residencies at schools, colleges and universities, studios and festivals throughout the United States. Most recently she was commissioned to teach and choreograph work for dance companies at Rhode Island College in Providence and at Auburn University in Alabama.
Rebecca Robichaud is a former Rockette and Dance Captain of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. She began teaching at The Dance Inn in 1986 and shortly thereafter, started the Legacy Dance Company with Thelma. She has directed and choreographed numerous productions and serves as a special production assistant for the Legacy Dance Company. The proud mother of four boys, Becky also performs with and choreographs for the Reagle Players and most recently danced in Singing in the Rain and 42nd Street.
Alicia Robillard graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance/ Performance from Roger Williams University in May, 1996 and immediately joined The Dance Inn staff as a full-time teacher and production assistant. She served as Team Co-Manager of the Legacy Dance Company form 1997 - 2000 and she started the Legacy Hip-Hop Team. Alicia returns to The Dance Inn after having three children. She is currently teaching jazz and tap in the teen program.
Robin Sol has been dancing at The Dance Inn since it first opened in her living room. In addition to studying with her mother and other faculty of The Dance Inn, Robin has been strongly influenced by Joan O'Brien, Billy Siegenfeld, Jimmy Locust and the numerous master teachers that she has studied with. She was a member of the original Legacy Dance Company and served as captain from 1996-1997. Robin has performed with the Reagle Players, Ballet Theatre of Boston, Rainbow Tribe, Jeanette Neill Repertory Shows and for Reebok. Robin graduated from UMass Boston with a BS in Exercise Physiology in 2001.