Marissa Parmenter

Marissa Parmenter joined the Conservatory in 2017 and is an associate professor of dance.

Parmenter has danced for Festival Ballet Providence, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montreal, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, and BalletMet Columbus. She has performed as a guest artist with numerous companies in the United States including Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, and Boston Ballet. She has worked alongside leading choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, James Kudelka, Mauro Bigonzetti, Edwaard Liang, Dominic Walsh, and Viktor Plotnikov. Parmenter has also performed works by icons such as Christopher Wheeldon, Jiri Kylian, George Balanchine, Sir Frederick Ashton, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Amy Seiwert, and Darrell Grand Moultrie. In 2008, she performed at the prestigious festival Les Étés de la Danse in Paris and appeared in Quelques Pas a Paris, a documentary about the festival directed by Ezra Belotte-Cousineau.

Parmenter’s choreography and staged works have been performed at Festival Ballet Providence School, Wheaton College, and Hollins University. She has been featured in articles in Pointe and Dance Magazine and has received both the Caroline Newhouse and Sono Onsato awards for artists in higher education.

Parmenter trained at Boston Ballet, José Mateo Ballet Theatre, and London Studio Centre under Margaret Barbieri. She received her M.F.A. from Hollins University in 2014 in association with the American Dance Festival, Frankfurt Conservatory of Performing Arts, and the Forsythe Company.

Parmenter lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is the interim director of dance education at Festival Ballet Providence.