• Press Releases
• Chimera
• Interview with the Artistic Director

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE:  September 1, 2009

CONTACT: Stacy West

CELL:  314-341-5407

EMAIL:  swest@madcodance.com

 

Concerts, Community Outreach and Education

MADCO Brings it All in 2009-2010

 

Vicki Baum, one of the first modern best-selling authors wrote, “There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them.”  If that is the case, St. Louisans are destined for much happiness in 2009-2010 with over 30 MADCO appearances in the metro area.

 

MADCO kicks off the concert season with Music and Moves, September 18-19, 2009 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center where MADCO is the Professional Dance Company in Residence.  Performed to all live music by the University of Missouri St. Louis Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Matt Henry, MADCO will rock the Lee Theater with four world premieres by St. Louis choreographers: Rob Scoggins, Cecil Slaughter, Todd Weeks and Keith Williams.  Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for students.  Performances are 8 p.m. each evening.  For tickets call 314-516-4949 or go to www.touhill.org.

 

MADCO can be found throughout the St. Louis area in September 2009.  On September 3 the company will preview Music and Moves downtown St. Louis in the Old Post Office Plaza.  On September 11-12 MADCO will perform excerpts of its multi-media, dream inspired experience, Chimera, at the St. Louis Art Fair.  Showtimes are 9:30 p.m. each evening.  On September 26 MADCO will be on the main stage at approximately 5 p.m. at the Dancing in the Street Festival in Grand Center. 

 

In October MADCO goes full-speed with the opening of its popular residency program, Books in Motion, targeted to upper elementary and middle school students.  The 2009-2010 featured book is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Caldicott winning author, Brian Selznick. Thousands of St. Louis metro area students will participate in a variety of activities related to the book including a two week dance residency with the MADCO artists.  Selznick will help kick off the year-long event at The Big Read in Clayton on October 10. 

November marks another month of collaboration as MADCO artists show off their choreography in the 60x60 Dance Project with St. Louis’ New Music Circle.  On November 8 at the Mad Art Gallery, New York musician Rob Voisey leads the production with sixty, one minute pieces of music while fourteen MADCO artists provide much of the evening’s choreography to accompany the music.  On November 13-14 MADCO will perform at the University of Missouri St. Louis’ student dance concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

 

MADCO will bring in the New Year with performances at First Night St. Louis and is booked throughout January and February with school residency programs at Conway Elementary, Ladue Middle School, Elsberry Middle School, Louisiana Middle School, and Bowling Green Middle School.   

 

In March, MADCO will preview its spring concert at the JCPenney Auditorium for the Center for Humanities on March 15 and at Art in the Limelight Ladue on March 16.  MADCO in Concert on March 19-20 will feature both old and new repertory including a new work by Dance St. Louis’ Executive and Artistic Director, Michael Uthoff. 

 

In April, the company holds auditions for the 2010-2011 season, conducts residencies at more area schools, performs at National Dance Week and will be the featured performers for the United Methodist Women’s National Convention at America’s Center. 

 

The 2009-2010 season ends May 27-29 with a three day celebration of dance at the Spring to Dance Festival hosted by Dance St. Louis at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. 

 

For detailed information about all MADCO events visit www.madcodance.com.

 

MADCO programs are funded in part by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, the Boeing Arts and Education Council Fund, the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Trust and by other private foundations and donors.  MADCO is the Professional Dance Company in Residence at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of University of Missouri St. Louis. 

 

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click here to download a pdf of the release:
MADCO Receives International Honor at Canadian Dance Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: October 1, 2005
Contact: Stacy West
314-341-5407
swest@madcodance.com

MADCO Receives International Honor at Canadian Dance Festival

In August, the Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) performed at the fFIDA International Dance Festival in Toronto, Ontario. Out of 30 world premieres, 79 choreographers, and 250 dancers and musicians, MADCO’s performance of Movement Activities: Response! was recognized as one of the top 7 performances of the two week long festival.

The fFIDA International Dance festival took place from August 10-21, 2005 in the Distillery Historic District of Toronto. Artistic Director Stacy West applied for acceptance to the prestigious festival in December 2004. Two weeks later, the company was notified of their acceptance into the festival’s Indie Mix Series. Although technical and marketing expenses were covered by fFIDA, MADCO was responsible for travel expenses. Through increased fundraising, MADCO was able to raise $5,000 to take 10 dancers to Toronto for 6 days.

The Toronto Globe and Mail raved that “Movement Activities: Response! [is] a wonderfully clever and very funny piece, performed with high energy by MADCO’s army of terrific young dancers.” MADCO is known for its energetic, innovative, and captivating performances. It was an honor for the company to perform at the festival and receive international recognition.

Choreographer Mikey Thomas created Response! for MADCO in August of 2004. Thomas danced with the Sean Curran Dance Company in New York and is currently on the dance faculty at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

Thomas has nothing but praise for the company. “I am optimistic for the state of the arts in St. Louis, after working for Stacy West's MADCO. Having a resident company taking risks in presenting new, provocative and quality choreography is definitely filling an otherwise vacant role in this city.”

About MADCO

MADCO is based in St. Louis, Missouri and has toured throughout the United States. The company’s world class performers are college trained professional dancers who have studied dance from nationally and internationally known teachers throughout the country. MADCO is a repertory company and has gained a reputation for its athletic, entertaining, and versatile style. The company was founded in 1976 by Alcine Wiltz and Ross Winter. After Ross Winter’s death in 1994, Stacy West became the Artistic Director of the company.

MADCO programs are funded by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, the Arts & Education Council of St. Louis, and by corporations, foundations and private donors. The company is currently a participant in the COCA dance space initiative and rehearses daily in University City.

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Chimera

~> Stacy West on KWMU's Cityscape January 30, 2009

Chimera is a greek word meaning an illusion or fabrication of the mind.  MADCO welcomes audiences to the world of dreams, where inner most thoughts, desires, and fears are reality…a world whose inhabitants are creatures of your own making.  A place where nothing…and yet…everything is what it seems. 

“Dreams have been here as long as mankind.  One third of your life is spent sleeping and in your lifetime you will spend 6 years of it dreaming, yet 5 minutes after the end of the dream, half of the content is forgotten.  After 10 minutes 90% is lost.  Dreams are a fascinating aspect of human existence that everyone can relate to.”
Associate Artistic Director and Chimera creator Todd Weeks.

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“MADCO stands at a new era in the company’s existence. We have celebrated our 30th Anniversary Season, and have recently modified our name. We received critical acclaim in our international debut in Toronto. Chimera is no regular dance performance.  It is a theatrical event incorporating dance, aerial work, video and cutting edge design.”
Stacy West, MADCO Artistic Director

MADCO has hired the production team of Brawner & Associates to take imagination to reality.  Brawner & Associates offers exciting, colorful, monumental creations for the full entertainment spectrum.  Brawner’s seasoned design professionals will transform the Lee Theatre into a unique layout that will disperse the audience throughout the venue; thereby making the audience feel as if they are in the middle of a dream or land of fantasy.

Make-up and costume design artists from Associated Theatrical Contractors were given the task of creating elaborate costumes for each dancer that combined human, animal and creature-like characteristics.  Their amazing work has resulted in unique costumes that are pieces of wearable art.  They include headpieces, three-dimensional design and extraordinary make-up.  These one of a kind creations play a vital role in creating the illusions within Chimera. 

The production will be further layered with the incorporation of four large projection surfaces built into the set.  Woodland Media has taken on the creative task of designing video images that will aid in bringing Chimera’s dream world to life.  

MADCO, founded in St. Louis in 1976, 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.

MADCO programs are made possible with financial assistance from the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, the Missouri Arts Council, the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis, Ronald McDonald House Charities and by other private, foundation and corporate donors.  The company rehearses daily at COCA in University City as part of the COCA Dance Space Initiative Program.

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Interview with the Artistic Director

Click here for the Interview in PDF format| full text below

What can audiences expect to see at a MADCO concert?
MADCO audiences can expect to be entertained.  It is very important to us that the audiences like what we do.  Modern dance sometimes has a reputation for being boring, too deep or self indulgent.  The MADCO dancers are amazing athletes.  We like to show off that athleticism in the performances we do.  Because we are a repertory company the work is very versatile.  Music is also very important to us.  We love music that makes audiences want to get up and join us.  MADCO is a great company for people who love theatre and music but aren’t sure if they like dance. 

What does it mean to be a repertory company?
MADCO is a repertory company which means we collect works from a variety of guest choreographers from across the country. Some dance companies mostly perform the work of the Artistic Director but MADCO performs work created for the company by many, many different choreographers.  I usually compare us to an art museum but instead of collecting and showing paintings or sculptures, we collect and show dances.   I think it’s fun to watch a rep company because you never know what you are going to get.  There is usually something for everyone.

The East and West Coasts have always had a reputation for attracting high quality artists and dance companies.  What is it like to be a contemporary dance company in the Midwest?  
It is true that the coasts have always had this reputation.  MADCO was founded in 1976 because there were so many dancers who were being trained at colleges in St. Louis but after graduation the only choice was for them to move to New York or LA.  MADCO was created based on the belief that a city the size of St. Louis deserved to have artists living and working here and artists deserved the opportunity to have choices about where they wanted to live.  Today, dancers have so many more choices.  New York and LA are definitely not the only places to be for great dance.  There are regional companies thriving in almost every major city and MADCO is one of them.  We do work outside of St. Louis but we are proud to call it home.”

If there are many choices of places for dancers to work, what attracts dancers to MADCO?
MADCO is a great place for dancers.  The field is very competitive, especially for women.  Most dancers begin auditioning for a variety of companies their senior year in college.  Many dance companies operate on a “pick-up” basis meaning they hire dancers as needed for projects.  MADCO dancers are on a 10-month contract during which they have daily technique classes, work with guest artists, and teach a variety of MADCO’s education programs. The company rehearses and performs in the beautiful Touhill Performing Arts Center and MADCO dancers substitute teach and set choreography on students at the university. MADCO also provides access to physical therapy and personal training at a very low cost.  St. Louis is attractive to young dancers because it is a mid-sized city and the cost of living is low compared to many other places. Each year I have the great opportunity to see some of the best young dancers in the country and invite them to work with MADCO. Many of them stay with MADCO for years and end up making St. Louis their permanent home.  I’ve been here 21 years now!

What advice do you have for young dancers who are making their way into the professional world of dance?
Don’t be arrogant.  No matter how much you think you know and no matter how good you are there is always more to learn.  I would rather work with a less talented dancer who has a great attitude and work ethic than one who thinks they know everything. 

What are your hopes for MADCO’s future?
It is so difficult for arts organizations to survive in the long run.  MADCO’s co-founders did an amazing job when they set up the company.  They didn’t name it after themselves which suggested hope for longevity and they were a rep company from the very beginning – so nothing was too tied up in one person making or breaking the operation.  I have served as the Executive and Artistic Director since 1994.  My hope is that MADCO survives well beyond any one person, including me!