About Us

The Greater Hartford Chapter is run by a team of volunteers who enjoy promoting the mission of the Chapter in their free time.

Barbara Baran President

Barbara truly enjoys the art and challenge of dance. She has been actively studying ballroom dance and, most recently, ballet. She enjoys going out dancing and has performed at various charity and civic events as well as in dance performances at local convalescent homes and schools. She is currently studying to take the ISTD Bronze American Smooth examination and hopes to compete in the near future.

Wishing to share her passion for dance and education within the community, she has been active in the effort to reinstate and grow the Greater Hartford Chapter of USA DANCE. Applying project management and business principles, she has been working to promote the Chapter and its benefits, with an initial goal of establishing the first college educational scholarship program within USA Dance.

Barbara is a program management consultant for Fortune 500 companies and is responsible for leading major information technology initiatives. She holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an MBA. She is also a graduate of the Society of Information Management’s (SIM) Regional Leadership Forum.

Besides dancing, Barbara enjoys theatre, opera, book and philosophical discussions, roller-blading, ice-skating, gardening, spending time with her nephew, and working on do-it-yourself home projects.

John Hall

Director

John was first introduced to ballroom dancing in February, 1977 with the University of Connecticut Ballroom Dance Club, of which he is still a member. John served for nearly ten (10) years as the Ballroom Team’s faculty advisor. John began competing in November, 1989 on a pro-am as well as amateur basis. John competed in the Yankee Classic, Commonwealth Classic, Ballroom Production, Tri-State Challenge, Northeast Amateur Competition and Dancing a la Carte.

John won the Adult Bronze Modern and achieved the Highest Score Award in 1995 Ballroom Competition at the Nutmeg State Games. He also won Top Gold Male Award in 2001 at Dancing a la Carte Competition in Springfield, Massachusetts. John was a student of Margo and Peter Nielson of Gotta Dance / Studio East for more than thirteen (13) years.

John has taken numerous photos of ballroom dance, many of which have appeared in “Amateur Dancer” (the now "American Dancer")magazine.

Karin Roche

Treasurer

Karin is President and an owner of Pension Consultants, Inc. of Farmington, established in 1971 to provide administration and actuarial services for corporate Pension and 401(k) plans. Having been with the company since its inception, she has devoted her career to servicing clients and managing all aspects of the business.

Over the years Karin has served on the boards of various business related organizations as well as social clubs and has held a variety of officer positions.

Karin and her husband reside in Glastonbury and enjoy boating and traveling. In the spring of 2003 she was introduced to ballroom dancing and immediately became fascinated with the sport - its physical and mental challenge and its opportunity for competition at a mature age. She has since competed many times.

Priscilla McGuire

VP/ Communications

Priscilla discovered ballroom dancing in 2001 when looking for something fun to do. She loved this dance sport and the people she met at the dances. Her favorite accomplishment was telling her ex-husband’s friend, who told her she couldn’t dance and not even try, that she won a competition!!!

Now she is able to combine dancing with a great cause. In 2008 Barbara invited Priscilla to help out with the monthly dances. Profits from the dance were to go towards creating college scholarships. Some of the profits had already been given to children who needed dance shoes.

After getting to work placing notices and ads on websites and newspapers, Priscilla was asked to join the Board of USA Dance – Greater Hartford. Her greatest thrill was being in line to personally congratulate the high school graduates who received the first scholarship awards. And she got to dance that night too! Can it get any better than that?

USA Dance / Greater Hartford, CT Chapter #3056