Our Story

The Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) entertains, educates, and collaborates through innovative dance experiences to delight audiences and build a better community.

Originally under the name Mid America Dance Company, Alcine Wiltz and Ross Winter co-founded MADCO in 1976 to provide a space for professional dancers to live and work in the Midwest while providing entertaining performances and educational opportunities to the local community.

In the 1980’s MADCO began touring, primarily performing work by Wiltz and Winter. Winter premiered one of the country’s first parodies of The Nutcracker called The Madcracker which gained national attention in Newsweek Magazine. Though Wiltz left the company in the mid- 1980’s to become the Director of Dance at the University of Maryland, MADCO continued to thrive under the direction of Winter until he lost his life in a tragic car accident in 1994.

Longtime company member Stacy West was appointed Artistic Director and began to restructure the organization by hiring a wealth of nationally known guest artists to create new work. The result was a company that was artistically stronger than ever. MADCO received rave reviews and has been honored with numerous awards including two regional Emmy Awards, an International Telly Award, Best of the Best at the Toronto International Dance Festival and Best Dance Company by the St. Louis Post – Dispatch and Riverfront Times.

In 2017 West announced her 30-year tenure was coming to an end. Artistic Direction was transitioned to Nicole Whitesell who has eight years of experience with MADCO; first as a dancer, Rehearsal Director, and as Associate Artistic Director. Administrative leader Emilee Morton has been with the company for four years, beginning with MADCO as an intern and then Company Manager. Both Whitesell and Morton resigned at the beginning of COVID.

In the spring of 2020, long time company member Belicia Beck stepped in as the Interim Artistic Director, in addition to her role as Rehearsal Director. For the 2021-2022 season, Belicia Beck was joined by Arianna Russ and embarked on their partnership as the new leaders of the Modern American Dance Company. 

Arianna Russ became the Artistic Director in the 2022-2023 season. Her leadership brought exciting energy and innovative ideas to the company. Faced with the realities of decreased grant funding, she has lead the transformation and rejuvenation of the company to bring visceral and fresh company performances to venues like The Luminary, who has been a great partner to MADCO.

In 2023, we also brought back the fan favorite MADcracker, at least part of it, for a successful Gala celebrating MADCO's long continuous run in St. Louis.

We've had a long standing relationship with the St Louis Academy of Dance, where we rehearse and teach classes. At the beginning of 2024, the St Louis Academy of Dance moved to it's new facility at 9656 Olive Blvd, Olivette, MO 63132, and welcomed MADCO to their new facility (which is amazing we must say!). We're looking forward to performing in their Black Box Theater as well!

Season 2024-2025 will be our 49th Season!

“MADCO left the audience laughing, gasping for breath, in awe of beauty and in deep contemplation: all any modern dance company could hope to achieve in one evening's production. " - Jennifer Fried, NYC Broadway World