Madison Ekstrand- Dancing Her Way to Stardom

People You Should Know — By Buddy Sampson on August 11, 2020 at 3:16 pm

 

By Buddy Sampson

Madison Ekstrand has been a dancer for as long as she can remember. The lovely seventeen-year old, who plays the lead role in the Suzanne De Laurentiis Production “The Curse of Stonehill,” a part of the horror series “Very Frightening Tales,” has been demonstrating her musicality in dance since the age of three. “I started in ballet,” said Madison Ekstrand, “but when I was about seven, I started branching out in different styles- I started doing hip hop.” With dancing firmly in the rhythm of her life, she learned many various styles of dance, including modern dance, contemporary and lyrical. But she loved the lyrical style of dancing. “I fell in love with it,” she said. And you will fall in love with the way she dances.

From Niagara, Wisconsin, part of the heartland of America, Madison loves the friendly, hometown atmosphere of her city. “It’s really nice here,” said Madison. “It’s really quiet. Everyone is really nice, and we have a really good bakery. A lot of cows and a lot of fields, too.”

Dancers she admires include dancer Autumn Miller, daughter of mega-dancing guru Krista Miller. Krista and Autumn have a coveted dance training studio, “The Brea Space,” in Orange County, California, which attracts the best dancers from all over the world. She is also a huge fan of Derek Hough, notorious for winning the title on the TV show “Dancing With the Stars,” a record breaking six times. “I love him so much, and he’s cute, too,” she laughed. She also has an appreciation for dancer Chris Judd and ballet dancer Dusty Button. “She’s like really doing her own thing,” she said of Dusty Button. “It’s not like the ballet you learn in class.”

As a dancer, she has already graced some large arenas. She even danced at a halftime show of the Milwaukee Bucks, an NBA team. “Our studio was invited to dance there,” said Madison, who danced with the Dance Academy of Michigan and found herself and her fellow dancers in awe of the players.  “But once you get on the court, it’s serious.” She also danced at the Orange Bowl in Miami and worked with one of her heroes. “We learned the dances in the studio, but when we got there, we trained with Chris Judd,” she said. “He even had a fun day, where we did different kinds of combinations, with different kinds of people and that was really fun.”

One of her most rewarding experiences was meeting Nick Lachey, from the boy group 98 Degrees. “They picked me out of the audience to go by him, kind of like cheer,” she laughed about sharing some camera time with the pop legend on the show “America’s Most Musical Family,” a Nickelodeon show. “He was talking to some of us, he was really nice.”

Working with actor Michael Pare and Suzanne De Laurentiis in “The Curse of Stonehill proved to be an incredible experience for Madison. “They were all very nice,” she said. “Michael Pare was really nice, I loved working with him. He helped me with my lines and was really nice,” she said. Hearing her describe the role she plays, Lauren in the horror vignette, your sense of curiosity goes into overdrive- it sounds like quite a scary production. “I play this girl that’s trying to find her mom,” Madison explained about her role, which is sure to have the audience screaming a familiar “Don’t Go In” routine. “At first she’s leery about it, she doesn’t know whether she should go in the house,” she said, “She comes to the door and Michael Pare shows up.” The vignette gets darker and all of us with curiosity will want to see what happens in her episode of “Very Frightening Tales.” Her dancing ability came in handy for the role. “It goes to the scene of me dancing and it shows the picture of my mom,” said Madison. Yikes! Get your popcorn ready and be sure to watch Suzanne De Laurentiis’s “Very Frightening Tales,” “The Curse of Stonehill.” The lovely young lady also had a role in a film, “For The Boys.”

Madison Ekstrand’s lyrical dancing and acting skill will be seen on screens soon. She will dance her way to stardom. And that’s more than enough reason for her to be one of the People You Should Know.