We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Madison Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Madison below.

Hi Madison, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

My first dollar earned as a creative was in my second year of university. Cirque Du Soleil had asked myself and about 9 other dance artists from across Toronto & Montreal to perform at the 2016 NBA All-Star Opening Ceremony. This would be choreographed my Montreal native, Steve Bolton.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi everyone! My name is Madison Williams. Human first, artist second. My mom knew right away that she should put me in dance for two reasons. One of them being my mom, unfortunately, can’t dance (her words, not mine. Love you, mommy). And secondly, I would try to mimic every Michael Jackson move that popped up on TV. Who doesn’t want to dance when MJ comes on? I mean this only makes sense.

I’ve always known I wanted to work in the dance industry. I have enormous goals about which direction I want to pursue whether it’s dancing on tour with Beyoncé (or Michael Jackson if I had the chance to), being a celebrity movement coach, choreographer, an artistic director and the list goes on. However, in order to reach my objectives as a professional dancer, I’ve taken the time to truly grow who I am and what I think dance truly means to me. My focus on differentiating myself and my work from other dancers is incorporating the “human” behind the movement. To put simply, if the ‘ordinary eye’ were to watch my work, they would understand where my movement or emotion is coming from rather than a cluster of arbitrary steps strung together (although, I’m almost never opposed to the latter half). And, as humans, we share a lot more similarities than we realize. This is why through dancing. I’ve been able to create and share how those same, real emotions and feelings can be communicated. Dance, in my opinion, should be relatable to ordinary human experiences rather than being a perfect or difficult art form. This is it exactly, the human connection behind the art form.

This focus has prompted me to create the nickname MadMovement so people realize that “Madison” is the one showing parts of herself behind the movement. What was once just an Instagram handle for my students to follow me, has now become a statement on what I would like to share with those who are interested. With that, I am proud that I’ve shifted my perspective of dance from being strictly a performing art to now an emotional art.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As mentioned above, I’ve also wanted to pursue dance as a career. So, I took the route of teaching at many local studios. This was exciting for me because not only did I have full-time work straight out of university but I got to do what I loved and didn’t settle for just any job. Teaching was nothing new to me; I started at 16-years-old all the way through university and made it a career after I graduated. For a while, working six days a week was exhilarating (I know, weird). It allowed me to get other work done throughout the day and teach at night. It was the perfect balance.

Then the pandemic followed. Like many, it offered me the opportunity to reflect on who I am and how I might live the life I really desired. By then, I realized that I had to make a shift in my career and essentially my life. And that’s to pursue a dance career in Los Angeles. Although my path has taken longer than others and undoubtedly longer than anticipated, my trajectory toward the goals I have is ideal for my time frame. I have no regrets about the steps I took to get here.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There are three books that definitely come to mind. Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson (or really any book by Mark Manson) and lastly The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.dacostatalent.com/madison-williams
• Instagram: madisonwilliamsxo_
• Instagram: _madmovement

Image Credits
Aidan Tooth (@aidan.tooth) Roya DelSol (@royadelsol)