HISTORY
MADCO 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 while also providing entertaining dance performances by local artists and educational opportunities for the community. Touring throughout the Midwest in the 80’s, the company primarily performed work by Wiltz, who explored and drew inspiration from his work with Erick Hawkins, as well as Winter, who was known for his witty and humorous style and his ability to create stunning architectural images. Winter also premiered one the country’s first spoofs of the Nutcracker called “Madcracker” which gained national attention in an article in Newsweek Magazine.
Wiltz left the company in the mid 1980’s to accept the position of Director of Dance at the University of Maryland. The company continued to thrive under the direction of Winter until he lost his life in a tragic car accident in 1994. Long-time company member Stacy West was appointed Artistic Director in his place and she began to pull from her business background to re-structure the organization, preparing it for the future. She hired a wealth of guest artists to create new works for the company and worked towards bringing the best dancers from throughout the country, resulting in a company that was artistically stronger than it had ever been.
In 2003 the company was chosen to perform at DanceNow NYC at the Joyce Soho in Manhattan. In 2005 the company traveled to Toronto, Canada to perform at the International Fringe Festival for Independent Dance Artists where it was named “Best of the Best” at the two-week long festival. In 2005 West also modified the name of the company to Modern American Dance Company to reflect the scope of the company’s work and their new national and international focus. The company soon moved to the Center for Creative Arts (COCA), which put MADCO in an urban location with state of the art facilities. In 2007 MADCO was invited to become the Professional Dance Company in Residence at the prestigious Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of University of Missouri St. Louis. The Touhill is the home for the company’s daily activities including rehearsals, internship programs and its concert season.