Madeline Houk — Editorial by Ric Berryman

Hollywood Subway Station

Madeline Houk

Ballerina feet on subway tile. Steel, tile, and fluorescent hum wrapped around someone whose whole body is built for quiet precision. A small rebellion underground — tulle and turnout in a place built for rush-hour.

Madeline Houk is the kind of dancer who doesn’t need a stage. She carries the stage with her — in the lines of her arms, the way she lands in a shape and lets it breathe, the way she seems to hear a score even when the only soundtrack is train brakes and station announcements.

We shot this series in the Hollywood subway station, under harsh lights and patterned tile, surrounded by commuters who mostly pretended not to stare. It’s not a place built for grace — which is exactly why it works. Madeline carved out pockets of stillness in a space designed for movement, folding ballet into the geometry of the station.

Underground Lines

Fluorescent light has no mercy — which makes it perfect. No romance, no soft edges, just raw contrast. Madeline leaned into it, letting the hard shadows slice through the shapes she made, turning the tunnel into a proscenium arch for anyone paying attention.

Madeline Houk posed en pointe against tiled subway walls

Madeline Houk mid-movement under subway lighting

Wide shot of Madeline in the subway station environment

Ballet in Transit

Between trains, the station falls quiet for a beat or two. Those were the moments we chased — when the air felt briefly weightless and Madeline could stretch into the empty space, a single figure holding court over tile, metal, and distant tracks.

Silhouette of Madeline Houk against subway architecture

This wasn’t about turning a subway into a stage so much as recognizing that it already is one. People rush, wait, stare at their phones, drift through each other’s frames. Madeline stepped into that flow, slowed it down, and reminded the space — and everyone in it — that elegance can happen anywhere, even on concrete steps that smell like the city.