Award-winning AfroIndigenous Borikua/ Puerto Rican choreographer Marsha Parrilla is the founding Artistic Director of Danza Orgánica. After obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Languages ​​from the University of Puerto Rico, Marsha moved to New York, where she completed a Master's Degree in Dance Education at New York University. Now a resident of Boston, Parrilla is a recipient of several awards from the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Boston Foundation, among others. Marsha is also a Luminary artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she has been commissioned to create artistic work. In 2017, Parrilla received the Brother Thomas Fellowship Award from the Boston Foundation. She also received a Creative Development Residency at Jacob's Pillow, and performed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Inside/Out Festival. Parrilla is the founder and producer of the Boston-based acclaimed annual festival: We Create! Celebrating Women in the Arts. In 2018, Marsha was selected for the city of Boston AIR program (artist in residence), with a focus on environmental justice. Currently, she is collaborating with local Native American communities in Massachusetts, with a focus on best practices towards decolonization and environmental justice. She is also collaborating with Puerto Rico-based artists on a residency-based cultural exchange towards the development of Proyecto Melaza: a project that explores the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States of North America. Most recently (2019), Parrilla was awarded an Outstanding Community Arts Collaboration Award in Dance from the Arts/Learning Organization. 

Marsha has taught dance in Boston and NYC public schools, Boston University, New York State University at Stony Brook, Wesleyan University, Roxbury Community College and Green Street Studios, to name a few. Marsha's production history includes annual company concerts since 2007, as well as the annual festival: We Create! She is also the founder of the Dance Research Online Forum- a site dedicated to free and progressive dance education.
For awards and recognition, please click here.


Director's Artist Statement

I'm the descendant of Indigenous Peoples (Taíno, Arawaks) from the Americas and the Caribbean by way of Borikén (colonized name Puerto Rico); of African people (by way of Central and West Africa) who were forcibly displaced to the Caribbean, and of Portuguese/Spanish people. I identify as AfroIndigenous Borikua/ Puerto Rican.

 I'm a dance theater and movement artist. In 2007, I founded the dance theater company Danza Orgánica (DO) with a focus on social justice oriented performance and practice. Through DO we amplify experiences that are underrepresented, as we envision an equitable society free of oppression. Danza Orgánica excavates complex issues through intensive research and collaboration and embodies these findings to create challenging dance theater experiences.

My relationship with dance is filled with risk-taking, love, struggle, curiosity and surprise. I am intrigued by the way we embody our experiences, and how they become alive for others through multidisciplinary forms. I’m equally intrigued by the collectivity of movement, and the power it has to shift paradigms and inspire new realities. My work explores the imprint of colonizing systems of oppression in our mind, spirit, and bodies. The goal is to rewrite our own narratives; reinvent our way of experiencing the world, and create spaces of liberation for this generation and  future generations to come.

My dance creations are a reflection of my eclectic training in Modern and Contemporary dance forms, Classical Ballet, Improvisation, Theater, and my deep-rooted influences of Afro Caribbean and Indigenous movement. However, what sets Danza Orgánica apart is that the movement is not easily codified. Our organic movement creations are based on embodied research, collectivity, and community-based experiences.

 In addition to creating work for DO, I have created spaces for other artists to develop work and build   community through the arts. I am particularly interested in developing containers for self-identified     women and gender non-conforming artists as creators, and have consistently organized the annual                        multidisciplinary arts festival, We Create: Celebrating Women in the Arts.    


Choreographic Highlights

Massachusetts- Aquinnah Cultural Center (Aquinnah, Martha's Vineyard), Institute of Contemporary Art, Bessie Schonberg Choreographic Residency at The Yard, Jacob's Pillow Dance Inside/Out Festival, Jacob's Pillow's Creative Development Residency, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Harvard School of Law, Museum of Fine Arts, Mobius, The Dance Complex, John Hancock Hall, Green Street Studios, Jose Mateo Ballet's Dance for World Community Festival, Cambridge River Arts Festival, Figment, Boston Center for the Arts, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mills Gallery (through Boston Center for the Arts), Wellesley College, Roxbury Community College, Spontaneous Celebrations, Third Life Studio, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Hibernian Hall, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

NYC- The Brooklyn Museum, Judson Church (through Movement Research), Gibney Dance, Dixon Place, Mark Morris Dance Center, Cloud City, The Far Space, The Flea, SOB's, Spoke the Hub, the State University of NY, Djoniba Dance and Drum Center, Dance New Amsterdam, NYC Dance Parade, University Settlement, HERE, Clemente Soto Velez, Dance Theater Workshop (through Movement Research), and Downtown Arts. 

Additionally, Marsha has performed in venues such as: WaterFire Arts Center (Rhode Island), Alvin Ailey, Symphony Space, DNA, New York University, Long Island University, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts  (Philadelphia), the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and Andanza, in Puerto Rico.