Wade Madsen

Wade Madsen was born and raised in Albuquerque New Mexico where he attended the University of New Mexico. Wade has been in Seattle teaching, performing, and choreographing since 1977. As a professor of dance, Wade has been teaching at Cornish College of the Arts for over 25 years. He has toured nationally with the Bill Evans Dance Company (1978-1980) and with Tandy Beal & Company (1981 -1982). He has performed with, Amy O'Neal and Amii Legendre dance groups along with Dayna Hanson, A.C Petersen, and Long Nguyen. Since 1979 Wade has been producing work with his own company, 'Wade Madsen & Dancers' along with various tours nationally and internationally.

Madsen has received grants and fellowships for choreography from King County and Seattle Arts Commissions, Bossak Heilbron Foundation, and Allied Arts. Madsen has twice been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer Fellowship (1996-98), along with various grants and a choreography fellowship from Artist Trust Wade has created more than one hundred and seventy works of choreography, ranging from shorter dance gems like "The Red Shoes", "Dress", "Flame" and "Unlucky" to several full evening suites including the acclaimed works "Vampire" "Salon" "Dons Party", "In Search of Dulcinea", "The Waiting Line", and most recently "The Four Elements".

Madsen's choreography has been commissioned by Spectrum Dance, Arc Dance Company, Dance Gallery, Co-Motion Dance, Rockhopper Dance Company, Third Avenue Dance Company, D-9 Dance Collective, Lehua dance theatre, and Bill Evans Dance Company, His work has been seen at the Seattle Repertory Theater, Act Theater, and Intiman Theater, Seattle Opera, along with the University of Washington, Riverside Community College, Bellevue Community College, Newcomb College, Cabrillo College, Mt Holyoke College, and University of California/Fresno. Madsen has also premiered over twenty works for Cornish Dance Theater. Wade also has been teaching at various Seattle studios since 1977, and is currently teaching at Velocity dance center.

Of "The Waiting Line" Mary Murfin Bayley in the Seattle Times wrote "(the work) is a beautifully realized vision of what it means to be human and vulnerable...'The Waiting Line' is the work of a choreographer in complete control of his art." And Gigi Berardi of Dance Magazine offered: "Madsen makes good use of the burgeoning dance talent in Seattle, and showed that his dancers can act ---with tremendous focus...he showed his talent for highlighting the vulnerability of the human character be it embarrassingly inane (Don's Party) or tragically beautiful (Dulcinea)."

Wade has also performed as the second half of the duo; Vic & Phoenicia in the seventeen-year running cabaret act 'Phoenicia & Vic. at the Holiday Lounge'. He has also performed in Mary Zimmerman's 'The Notebooks of Leonardo de Vinci' at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and has a of number film credits along with an appearance on 'Star search'.