Staff & Board
STAFF
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Eric Klaxton - Artistic Director
Eric joined The Dance Hall team in 2023 and is a multi-instrumentalist and composer residing in the stretch of Seacoast where New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts meet. Eric has become a recognizable figure in a broad and prolific community of musicians and artists. Working as a freelance saxophonist, pianist, and educator, he has played with and arranged for a substantial number of ensembles. When he isn’t performing or teaching, Klaxton is an active producer and studio engineer.
Eric is a founding member of The Soggy Po Boys, a group known for their personal and exciting presentation of the music of New Orleans. The Po Boys tour nationally and have 5 studio releases to date since 2012.
As a sideman, Eric can be found playing a variety of reeds in Sojoy (a chordless septet featuring the music of drummer and composer Jonny Peiffer) and OurBigBand (a collective large ensemble intent on debuting new works that support the evolution of the big band tradition). In recent years, Eric has performed with renowned musicians and composers including: Dave Douglas, Ben Allison, Matt Wilson, Frank Carlberg, Matt Ulery, and Curtis Hasselbring.
In addition to his work with collective ensembles, Eric writes and arranges original works for various groups of his own, imbued with traditions from jazz, rock, folk, and electronic music. His electroacoustic group Rhegos has a debut release planned for summer 2022.
Valuing his role as a music educator, Eric offers private lessons for saxophone, piano, composition, improvisation, and music production. He teaches and coaches ensembles at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center, Concord Community Music School, and also keeps a busy private studio. Eric is available to lead workshops, coach ensembles, adjudicate middle and high school festivals, and give lectures.
Eric earned a Masters Degree in Jazz and Contemporary Music from Longy School of Music in the spring of ‘22. Notably, Klaxton has studied saxophone with Noah Preminger and Bill McHenry, as well as composition with Ben Allison and Frank Carlberg. He earned his BA in Saxophone Performance at the University of New Hampshire where he had the opportunity to work with many inspiring musicians including Clark Terry, Frank Wess, Terell Stafford, Jimmy Heath, and Stjepko Gut.
Eric broadly enjoys the arts across the spectrum and continues to seek inspiration from the works of great philosophers, classical composers, modern authors, directors, and visual artists.
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Emily Bowes - Operations Manager
Emily was introduced to The Dance Hall through Seacoast West African Drum and Dance classes, after meeting dance instructor and UNH librarian, Liz Fowler, while researching for a paper on West African music. She’s been hooked on classes and programming at The Dance Hall ever since - for the quality, variety and the unique experience of the space itself. Having spent many years in an orchestra environment, she loves The Dance Hall for the way sound envelopes the listeners, drawing them into its center, whether there are ten performers or just one. She joined The Dance Hall team as an administrative assistant in 2019 and now coordinates event operations, marketing and institutional advancement.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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Terie Norelli - President
Board Chair Terie Norelli served 18 years in the NH House, including three terms as Speaker of the House. She was also elected president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a non-partisan organization of all state legislators and legislative staff. After her resignation from the legislature she became the first CEO of the New Hampshire Women's Foundation, a merger of 4 long-standing statewide women's groups. She has served on many area and state Boards of Directors and is an avid worldwide traveler and culture lover.
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Molly Hodgson - Vice President
Molly Hodgson is a seasoned executive with an extensive track record of successful leadership in nonprofit business operations. She has an extraordinary depth of experience in organizational strategy, program design and development, event management and fund procurement. Molly is a results-oriented leader with the highest level of professionalism and integrity.
Molly served as the President of the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director of New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, and was the first Executive Director of New Hampshire Made Inc.
Molly has served as a Hoffman Haas Fellowship Mentor, participated in the Institute for Advanced Nonprofit Leadership, served on the Advisory Board of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Piscataqua Region and Chaired the Leadership Seacoast Board.
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Sam Renshaw - Secretary
Sam Renshaw has served on The Dance Hall Kittery Board since 2015, and has acted as Secretary since 2017. As a lifelong musician and New England resident, he understands the need for a vibrant and diverse community that fosters appreciation for the arts, and he enjoys contributing to that community through his work at The Dance Hall. Sam works for the Grammy-nominated record label PARMA Recordings, plays drums in a few seacoast bands (Lily Tank, Peter Squires, B.A. Canning Band), and in his free time he enjoys hiking in the White Mountains, reading about ancient history, and hanging out with his family and two dogs, Dixie and Clyde.
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Ben Lord - Treasurer
Benjamin Lord serves as The Dance Hall Kittery Treasurer. A local restaurateur, he enjoys live music, dim lighting and Italian cuisine.
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Hon. Paul W. Hodes - Former President
Paul W. Hodes has combined careers in politics, law, business, the arts and not-for-profit institutional leadership. He was the first Chair of the board at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH. Hodes served New Hampshire’s second district in The U.S. House from 2007-2011 and was elected President of the historic freshman class of 2006. He was a national co-chair of the Obama for President campaign in 2008. Congressman Hodes was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire in 2010. He serves on the National Council on the Arts. He is Of Counsel to the law firm Shaheen & Gordon, P.A. He and his wife Peggo are recording artists and performers, winners of Parent’s Choice awards for groundbreaking music for kids and families. He is host of “Off the Record with Paul Hodes” a radio show/podcast heard weekly on WKXL AM-FM and has appeared frequently as a commentator in the national media including MSNBC, Bloomberg and Huffington Post.
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Peter Michaud
A native of New Hampshire, Peter Michaud is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire in Durham. He began his career as an architectural historian as the Portsmouth & Exeter Site Manager for Historic New England, working out of Portsmouth’s Governor John Langdon House. He later served over twelve years as the National Register, Preservation Tax Incentives, and Easements Coordinator at the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. He now works as a cultural resource manager for the federal government. He is a founding board member of the Piscataqua Decorative Arts Society, is on the National Council of Strawbery Banke Museum, and is the vice president of the Portsmouth Historical Society where he also served as chair of their collections committee. Peter previously served on the board of the Players’ Ring where he helped oversee the building’s exterior rehabilitation. Peter has given various lectures on the region’s architecture and has published essays in Early American Life Magazine, Historic New England Magazine, and A History of Portsmouth in 101 Objects. Peter lives in Dover where he is slowly restoring a 1930s house with his husband Paul and dog Louis LeChien.