Arianna Russ grew up dancing in Milwaukee. Between college and grad school at the University of Iowa, she returned for a short time to her home city to dance with the Milwaukee Bucks.
She first auditioned for MADCO in 2018.
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“When I graduated with my masters, I was looking for professional companies that were pretty close to Iowa City,” she says, “I kind of just went for it. It was the day after my thesis concert. I left Iowa City at 3:30 in the morning to get to the audition.”
As MADCO’s current artistic director, Russ is a prime example of why the company continues to thrive. In 1976, Alcine Wiltz and Ross Winter launched the Mid America Dance Company, now exclusively known by their acronym, with a goal to provide opportunities for professional dancers from the region.
Just three years into the role, this first-time artistic director is still early in her career. And she’s responsible for shepherding a beloved St. Louis institution through a big milestone year at a precarious time for the arts.
“It’s been challenging,” she says. “At the core of it all, I believe in MADCO. And I believe it’s lasted this long for a reason.”
But survival was not guaranteed. Stacy West’s 2017 departure after three decades in the director’s chair left the company effectively rudderless. Then a reorganization at the University of Missouri St. Louis rendered them homeless, scrapping a long-standing residency that had provided for consistent rehearsal and performance space. Then came the pandemic. Most of the dancers, including Russ, left in 2020. And the financial bottom has since fallen out, with several key funders dropping their support.
Russ says there were hard conversations about whether the company could continue—or if it was responsible to try. She says everyone in the organization is “fiercely on board.”
“That, to me, felt like MADCO to its core,” Russ says.
Rebuilding has required evolving and repairing relationships with funders, audience members, and alumni. Russ’ relatively short time with the company has been an asset, she says, allowing her to make hard decisions about how it’s going without feeling too precious about how it was.
An example: Last season, Russ created her own full-length work, which MADCO performed at The Luminary art gallery—the exact opposite of the cavernous Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL.
“The intimacy of that space was exactly what the company needed at the time,” Russ says, “We’re going to make the art no matter where we are—and we’re going to make it through whatever this is.”
MADCO’s 50th anniversary season kick-off on October 10-12 merges the past and the present, with an evening of greatest hits in COCA’s Berges Theatre in University City. A non-negotiable in planning the program was something from one of the company’s founders. Ticking that box is Wiltz’s 1989 Crimson Momentum.
“It’s a classic MADCO piece of rep,” Russ says. “I think lovers of MADCO will remember that piece and be happy to see it again.”
Russ consulted with the alumni network to hear what they felt should come back. They’ve restaged two punchy, playful romps from the aughts: Janice Garrett’s Fast Brass and The Carpet by Michael Foley. And world-renowned choreographer Jennifer Archibald’s kinship with MADCO is represented through her powerhouse 2017 work, Dirt. An excerpt from Russ’ work at The Luminary is also on the bill.
“I think it’s been really important to return back to the people who have made MADCO what it is,” she says, “The company was created to give space and opportunity for dancers in the Midwest. They had a home here in St. Louis that was making great work and exciting artistic decision making. That’s still the focus.”
On November 22, the company will throw a gala inspired by MADCO’s ever-popular Madcracker. Productions in January and April at COCA glimpse the future, with new works by emerging choreographers on the vanguard. And community outreach initiatives such as the long-running Books in Motion program are still going strong—with the company now basing operations out of the St. Louis Academy of Dance.
Considered together, MADCO’s golden anniversary aims to celebrate the past without dwelling on it—standing on the shoulders of a giant legacy while charting a new course for the next 50 years.
