Artistic Director

Meet Max (she/her)

Madeline Maxine Roman is talkative and loud. That’s partly due to being hard of hearing, but primarily because she embraces her identity as a queer, disabled, and neurodivergent human.

Featured in Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, Max is the founder and Artistic Director of GRIDLOCK Dance in Washington, DC. Her choreography is “intellectually probing, politically minded, and personally revelatory” (Dance Magazine), "boldly explores technology's downsides" (Washington City Paper), and provides "a searing comment on how pervasive social media and mobile devices affect human behavior" (Arts ATL).

In the upcoming 2024/2025 season, Max will be the Artist-in-Residence at the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center (MD), present work at the 41st Annual Choreographer’s Showcase (MD), showcase at the 2025 APAP Conference as part of the Pentacle Tour Ready Lab (NY), create new work for the National Portrait Gallery (DC), be the guest choreographer for James Madison University’s Virginia Repertory Dance Company (VA), teach for the Georgetown University Dance Company (DC), lead a masterclass for the National ACDA Conference, and premiere her one-woman show Between Myself through support from Dance Loft on 14 and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (DC).

In 2024, Max presented work at the 40th Annual Choreographer’s Showcase (MD), the Koresh Dance Showcase (PA), the SoloDuo Dance Festival (NY), the Rutgers University Integrated ChoreoLab Fellowship (NJ), the Maryland Youth Ballet S.H.E./Moves Program (MD), and the Dance Canvas Choreographer Career Development Initiative at Georgia Tech (GA).

In 2023, Max was an inaugural Atlas Arts Lab Fellow and her work Veritas was in the 2023 Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival. In 2022, Max was Local Motion Project’s Artist in Residence and Dance Place’s inaugural Dance and Disability Residency recipient. During the Dance Place residency, she partnered with Art Enables, a nonprofit that provides resources for artists with disabilities, to connect with and compensate other artists with disabilities for sharing their feedback on a beginning stages of Between Myself.

In 2021, she was commissioned by Joe’s Movement Emporium to present Veritas. Through interactive technology and misinformation, Veritas mirrors how voyeurism, escapism, and sensationalism influence understandings of truth in everyday life. In 2019, Max’s self-produced and sold-out show ADDICT raised more than $4,000 for a new homeless shelter in Baltimore, specifically serving women affected by addiction. An ADDICT excerpt was voted Audience Favorite in the Ascending Choreographer’s Festival. ​

As an educator, Max has taught a diverse range of populations, including pre-professional dancers, seasoned movers, college football players, and theater actors. Max currently leads an open company class at CityDance Studios in Washington DC and 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. Max 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.