MADCO - The Modern American Dance Company- History

MADCO, Surprising, Unpredictable, Always Entertaining
Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) creates innovative and memorable dance performances combining passion and technical excellence to provide audiences with a world-class arts experience. The company is known for its versatile and athletic style, presenting dance that is entertaining for audiences to watch and demanding for dancers to perform. MADCO has wowed audiences throughout the United States and Canada with recent engagements in New York, Orlando, and Toronto. The 15-member repertory ensemble is headed by Executive/Artistic Director, Stacy West, and Associate Artistic Director, Todd Weeks.

MADCO, Founded in 1976, Has Rich History
MADCO has a rich history. Many people and outside factors have contributed to what this dynamic company is today. The company was co-founded in 1976 by Alcine Wiltz and the Australian born Ross Winter under the name Mid America Dance Company. The mission was to provide a place for professional dancers to live and work in the Midwest; to provide high quality, entertaining dance performances by local artists and to educate about dance.

MADCO Thrives Througout the Midwest
Throughout the 1980’s the company regularly toured the Midwest presenting work primarily created by co-founders Winter and Wiltz. Wiltz, trained by Erick Hawkins, explored work influenced by Erick’s teachings while Winter became known for his witty, humorous and architecturally stunning images.

In the mid-1980’s Wiltz left the company to accept the position as Director of Dance at the University of Maryland. Winter went solo, changing the name to Ross Winter’s MADCO and focused even more on work with wry humor. Winter premiered the “Madcracker” one of the country’s first spoofs on the Nutcracker. The piece gained national attention when Newsweek featured it in an article on Nutcrackers throughout the country.

Throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s Winter collaborated with many artists including internationally known writer Stanley Elkin. Elkin created a story for the company titled “Notes Toward a Eulogy for Joan Cohen” and the two worked together to create a 45-minute dance based on Elkin’s writing. Harper’s Magazine became interested in the work and published a feature story about the project.

The End of an Era
In 1994, Winter died tragically in a car accident and long-time company member Stacy West was appointed Artistic Director. West pulled from her business background, re-structuring the organization and preparing to move into the future. West’s actions included the hiring of a wealth of guest artists to create new work for the company. MADCO began a national recruiting campaign in order to attract the best dancers it could find from throughout the country. The combination of new work and highly trained dancers resulted in a company that was artistically stronger than ever.

MADCO Steps into the National and International Spotlight
West not only recruited new dancers, but added an administrative staff to aid in the mission of thrusting MADCO more into the national and international spotlight. In 2003, the company was accepted to DanceNow NYC and performed at the Joyce Soho in Manhattan.

In 2004 the company was accepted into the Toronto International Fringe Festival for Independent Dance Artists and in 2005 was named as one of the “Best of the Best” at the two-week long festival.

In 2005 MADCO announced a name modification to Modern American Dance Company. The change more accurately reflected the scope of the company’s work as they were no longer focused solely on the Midwestern region of the United States. Other 2005 highlights included an invitation to teach master classes for Cirque du Soleil and moving MADCO’s rehearsal location to the Center for Creative Arts (COCA). This nationally known center for dance has state of the art facilities and put MADCO in an urban location.

In 2006 MADCO embarks on two large-scale projects. First is the original full-length production of “Chimera.” MADCO will push entertainment to the limit with a journey into one of the most mysterious places in human existence….dreams. In July 2006 the company will begin a year-long celebration of its 30th anniversary season.