Biography

Madison Hicks holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts. She is the Director and Founder of The Moving Forward Collective where she presents original work by herself and her collaborators. She has received choreographic residencies at Dance Gallery Festival, Orsolina28, 14StreetY, Chez Bushwick, DanceLabNY, and was a Jacob’s Pillow Ann and Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow. Madison has been commissioned by universities such as Harvard, Loyola Marymount, The Fordham Ailey BFA program, Peabody University, University of Texas, and Wayne State University. She has also been commissioned by companies such as Vitacca Ballet, Ballet Arkansas, Avant Chamber Ballet, Mash-Up Contemporary Dance company, Ballet Project OC, and Water Street Dance Milwaukee. She was the choreographer for “The Elixir of Love” Opera at Curtis Institute of Music in 2023. Most recently, she worked alongside Tony Yazbeck and Chip Abbott as Associate Choreographer for Manhattan Concert Production’s Children of Eden at Lincoln Center. Madison will be an Artist in Residence at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkin's University in the Spring of 2025.

Madison is also a passionate and dedicated teacher. She was the first contemporary teacher at School of American Ballet, where she built the curriculum for the program. She has been a guest teacher in programs such as The Juilliard School, Adelphi University, California Institute of the Arts, Lindenwood University, and others. Madison joined DanceONE’s 24Seven faculty in 2022 and is a faculty member at Steps on Broadway.

She was full-time company member with LA Dance Project under the direction of Benjamin Millepied for the 2018/2019 season. Since then, Madison has been a lead dancer in both Noosa Yoghurt and Lexus Commercials along with choreographing music videos for Eleanor Kingston and the Handsome Ghost. She was a 2013 YoungArts winner for modern dance, 2014 US Presidential Scholar in the Arts Nominee and a guest artist in the 2014 YoungArts Presidential Scholar Gala under the direction of Bill T. Jones. In January of 2017, she performed as a distinguished guest alumnus in the YoungArts annual Backyard Ball under the direction of Tony Yazbeck. She received a choreography award from YAGP in 2014 and had three choreographic works chosen to perform in The Choreographic Honors show at The Juilliard School. Madison was awarded the Gene Kelly Legacy Scholarship for her choreography and jazz technique in 2016. She has performed works by Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, Emily Molnar, Kyle Abraham, Ohad Naharin, Peter Chu, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Aszure Barton, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Benjamin Millepied, and Pam Tanowitz.