Hi, I’M Max

Or Madeline Maxine Roman if you want to get technical about it.

The formal bio

Madeline Maxine Roman is talkative and loud. That's partly due to being hard of hearing, but primarily because she's an outspoken lesbian armed with a dedicated prop closet. She is also the Artistic Director of GRIDLOCK Dance, a National Dance Project Grant recipient, a Creative Capital State of the Art Prize winner, and one of Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch. She stages fraught yet fruitful conversations about what it means to be human in the digital age.

Max creates work across Canada and the United States, primarily in Toronto and New York City, following her early career in Washington, DC. A standout force among Gen Z choreographers, her art is “intellectually probing, politically minded, and personally revelatory” (Dance Magazine), “conceptually rich and ambitious” (Maryland Theatre Guide), and provides "a searing comment on how pervasive social media and mobile devices affect human behavior" (Arts ATL).

Max’s recent credits include commissions from the National Portrait Gallery, James Madison University, Dance Loft, and Joe's Movement Emporium; residencies with Montgomery College, Rutgers University, Atlas Performing Arts Center, and Dance Place; presentations with 92NY, Pentacle’s Tour Ready Lab, and Steps on Broadway; and support from the New England Council for the Arts, Creative Capital, Maryland State Arts Council, and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

As an educator, Max has taught a diverse range of populations, including pre-professional dancers, seasoned movers, college football players, and theater actors. She partners with On Our Own of Maryland, a behavioral health nonprofit, to create and conduct workshops on arts advocacy and movement for self-care to young adults with mental health and substance use struggles. She has also led workshops on arts advocacy to young adults with disabilities through the nonprofit Independence Now.

Max graduated as commencement speaker from Towson University with her B.F.A. in Dance Performance & Choreography and B.S. in Mass Communication. During college, she received the Honors College Award, the Kaplan Award, the Research Impact Award, and the Outstanding Choreography Award.