Napa Regional Dance Foundation

Enriching Napa Valley youth and the community through dance education, performance, and artistic collaboration.

Napa Regional Dance Foundation is striving to combine music and dance with the 2019 Nutcracker-Symphony Project.  Napa Regional Dance Foundation has set a goal to raise $20,000 by November, 2019 to have the Symphony Orchestra of Northern California to accompany the Napa Regional Dance Company’s 2018 Nutcracker performance held in December at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville.  This partnership benefits the young dancers and musicians and greatly enhances the audience experience.  Napa Regional Dance Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) California non-profit public benefit corporation.

Wendi Moore - President

Wendi has three children who have grown up dancing at Napa Regional Dance Company, giving her an intimate understanding of the benefits of a ballet education for children, extending into their success as students and young adults with drive and focus in all subjects and a lasting love of the arts. Wendi arrived in Napa in 1996 and has been involved in supporting education, the arts and healthcare in the Valley

ever since. She has been an active participant and chair of several nonprofit fundraisers, including Healthy Moms and Babies and Clinic Ole. Wendi served on the Blue Oak School Board of Trustees for six years, three as chair; she was board president of the St. Helena Cooperative Nursery School; and president of the Vichy Elementary School Parent Club.  She holds a BA in development studies from the University of California Berkeley and a Masters in Latin American Studies from New York University.

Michael Parsons - Secretary

In 1997 when his daughter began taking lessons at Napa Regional Dance Company, Mike became a self-professed “Ballet Dad,” volunteering as a set builder and all around handyman for NRDC. Eventually, Mike brought his artistic eye and passion for photography to work for the studio, capturing and sharing thousands of images of the young dancers performing over the years. Mike is retired from a distinguished 28-year career in law enforcement, during which he was a police officer, park ranger and investigator. He holds a BA in Natural Science from San Jose State University and a California Teaching Credential for Law Enforcement.   Mike finished his career as investigator and educator with the California Computer Crimes Task Force, focused on identity theft and internet safety.  

Gloria Gutierrez - Treasurer

Gloria is a lifelong arts enthusiast.  She has lived in Napa for 35 years with her husband Thomas Edwards. She is Partner and Office Manager in their family design and construction business. For ten years she owned and operated the Carriage House restaurant in downtown Napa, before “restaurateur” was a career aspiration.  For thirteen years she expressed her artistic side as a stylist at Anemone in Yountville. She has a degree in Art Design from San Francisco State University.  While Gloria has no children of her own, she believes passionately that children should be art-educated to enrich their lives as they grow to become artists as well as art-lovers.

Wanda Martin McGill -  Artistic Advisor

Wanda is the Executive Director of Napa Regional Dance Company, providing professional dance education to hundreds of students each year. She has taught Classical Ballet, Jazz, and Contemporary dance in the Bay Area and Napa Valley for the past 30 years. She received her professional dance education with Dance Theater of Harlem in New York City and studied contemporary dance at The Alvin Ailey School and Lines Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco. Wanda holds graduate level K-12 and Community College credentials in Fine Art and Dance. She has taught at Napa and Solano Colleges and has been a member of the dance faculty at Diablo Valley College since 1981. She directed her own contemporary ballet company, Visual Moves, which performed in the Bay Area along with producing numerous dance productions for the colleges and the community.