Today we’d like to introduce you to Madilyn Hill.
Hi Madilyn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve been dancing in Dallas since I was born so I will try to make this as concise as I can!
I got serious about ballet while I was at Tuzer’s, attended the Kirov Academy of Ballet for a year, and completed my training at the Ballet Academy of Texas. I then pursued a dance performance major at SMU. After college, I joined Dallas NeoClassical Ballet and loved it. Met some really talented dancers, and had a great director, Emilie Skinner. Unfortunately, when Emilie moved to California, Erin Boone took over as director and relocated the company to Houston, taking with her our floors, costumes – everything. Dallas NeoClassical dancers were going to have to scramble to find positions in other local professional companies.
I joined Ballet North Texas as a founding company member in the summer of 2018. However, (this will sound fake but it’s true) just two days after I heard the news that I was cast as the Sugar Plum Fairy in BNT’s Nutcracker, my husband and I were in a pretty serious motorcycle accident. I was in a coma for three days and underwent facial reconstruction and double knee surgery. We’re both ok now, in fact, I recovered pretty miraculously quickly. However, COVID-19 was right around the corner which, as we all know, was not kind to the arts. But, BNT was quick on the draw and preemptively began terminating dancers’ contracts over FaceTime in March of 2020. I was one of them.
This was…very motivating for me. There was no chance that I was going to accept a forced retirement from the stage after everything I had just gone through to get back on it. It was also incredibly frustrating to think about how many other talented professional dancers were now in Dallas with nowhere to dance. If all of us were to get together, we’d instantly have a perfectly diverse and well-rounded professional dance company. *lightbulb* So, in 2021, with the help of two other founding members of BNT, Hannah Kleimeyer and Heather Dods, we rounded up the troops and established Bishop Street Ballet.
Since then, our company has more than tripled in size, and we are getting ready for our third season in action. I am so grateful for the dancers who have trusted me as a director and have shared their talents with us onstage with Bishop Street Ballet. I am having so much fun creating and collaborating with all of these amazing artists and can’t wait to see what the future has to offer!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well – Being hit by a car was definitely a bit of a roadblock for me as a ballet dancer, but I learned a lot from the experience, and it ultimately put me in a position where I could really get Bishop Street Ballet up and running. Full disclosure: every production we’ve put on has been out of my pocket, which hasn’t been easy to pull off as a ballet teacher. But it’s been worth it. Can’t complain. No regrets.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In 2022, Emilie Skinner passed the torch to me and Bishop Street Ballet to continue the DNCB tradition of Halloween performances at the Texas Theatre. It has been an honor and a hoot and a half performing for the anniversaries of films like Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. Our December performance for the 60th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds was a huge success as well. I’m not sure who enjoyed themselves more – the dancers or the audience! Besides our Texas Theatre film pre shows, Bishop Street Ballet provides ballerinas and bespoke ballet performances for luxury brands, productions and events. While we love the traditional classical ballets, we also have a passion for creating new, more contemporary works. We create beautifully costumed and choreographed performances tailor-made to our client’s specific needs.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Ballet is old and set in her ways. So, I don’t foresee any huge changes industrywide. But I’m hoping BSB will be a trendsetter and introduce some positive changes in the Dallas dance community as we grow, so keep an eye on us!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @bishopstreetballet
- Other: https://www.gigsalad.com/bishop_street_ballet_dallas
