Mariya (Masha) Dashkina Maddux is a professional concert dance performer and educator. A native of Kiev, Ukraine she was first introduced to dance through the classical Vaganova ballet technique. After relocating to the United States, she studied under the direction of Ruth Weisen at the Armour Dance Theatre of Miami, FL, and graduated summa cum laude with a BFA from New World School of the Arts under the directorship of Daniel Lewis.
In 2007, Ms. Dashkina Maddux joined the prestigious Martha Graham Dance Company, and rose to the rank of principal dancer, performing iconic roles in the classical Graham repertoire, as well as works created by some of the most renowned contemporary choreographers.
Ms. Dashkina Maddux has been featured in Dance Magazine’s “Dancer’s Choice” and has appeared in several notable projects, including the Martha Graham Dance Technique videos, directed by Miki Orihara and Susan Kikuchi, and the feature film Fall to Rise, written and directed by Jayce Bartok. She has also collaborated with photographers to capture the essence of dance, with her image featured on the covers of Dior Magazine (Issue #26), and The Art of Movement, a dance photography book by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory of NYC Dance Project.
As the Founder and Director of the Wake Forest Dance Festival in North Carolina, Ms. Dashkina Maddux is dedicated to using dance as a platform for community engagement and inspiring the next generation of professional dancers. She is one of the founding members of the North Carolina-based Movement Migration Dance Collective and serves on the boards of the Dancing Angels Foundation and the High Point University Inaugural Advisory Board.
In recognition of her contributions to the art of dance, Ms. Dashkina Maddux was honored with the Alto Jonio Best Dancer Award in Calabria, Italy, in the summer of 2018.
Ms. Dashkina Maddux works as a regisseur with the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, where she has the privilege of staging Martha Graham's iconic works on professional dance companies and university dance programs.