She grew up in Shawnee. Now, she takes the stage alongside Tate McRae in KC
It’s a homecoming for Shawnee-born professional dancer Maycee Steele.
After getting her first big break in the entertainment industry shimmying alongside superstar Taylor Swift during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, she’s since toured all over the world with some of the biggest musicians.
Now, though, she’ll be on stage in Kansas City for the first time ever with one of her closest friends who’s also never performed here.
Rising Canadian pop star Tate McRae headlines a sold-out concert at T-Mobile Center Tuesday, Oct. 28, marking the first time she’ll perform in KC after two previous attempts were canceled due to elements out of her control.
Maycee Steele has danced with Doja Cat for the pop star’s 2022 Coachella performance, was featured in “This Is Me... Now: A Love Story,” the 2024 musical film starring Jennifer Lopez, and performed on stage with Colombian superstar Maluma during his Don Juan tour in 2023.
The 26-year-old has been on stage at the Oscars, Grammys and Latin American Music Awards — but never in her hometown since starting her professional career and moving to Los Angeles at age 18.
But her mom, Shelley Steele, and sister, Sydnee Wilson, would argue that Maycee’s been a pro since she started dancing in front of the family when she was just 3 years old.
“I’ve watched her dance since she was little, literally from in the living room, on top of tables, in the kitchen,” Wilson said “Seeing her live out the dream that she used to talk about all the time is crazy.”
The shows Maycee Steele would put on inspired her mom to enroll her in dance classes alongside her sibling. But it was Maycee who thrived. She started dancing competitively, which later turned into attending dance conventions on the weekends.
The obsession, as Shelley Steele put it, continued as Maycee’s skills grew. She enrolled in ballet classes to help with her technique and split time between attending Shawnee Mission Northwest High School and taking homeschool classes, giving her more time to work on her craft, travel out-of-town to more dance conventions and make connections with people in the industry.
Instead of spending spring break with friends her freshman year of high school, Maycee Steele was in Los Angeles auditioning for “The X-Factor,” a reality TV competition show. While she didn’t make the show, her efforts didn’t get unnoticed. She was signed by an agency at just 14 years old.
“I said to her, ‘Do you want to go homecoming or do you want to go to New Orleans and do this convention?’” Shelley Steele said. “And she’d say every time, ‘I want to go out of town.’”
“It was amazing to watch the commitment.”
Dancing on her own
Adjusting to life in Los Angeles immediately after graduating from high school was tough for Maycee Steele. She said the first two years were the hardest, since she was so young and didn’t know herself fully yet. On top of that, she had to adjust to making her own schedule and having enough money to pay all her bills.
She spent those first two years going to every audition she could before landing the role as Swift’s backup dancer, which she called “the big one” at the time. From there, her career snowballed into more gigs, like dancing with singer and Kansas City, Kansas, native Janelle Monáe at the 2020 Oscars.
COVID-19 halted her momentum, but the connections she made over the years came in handy when more artists began to return to live performances. That’s how she ended up on McRae’s team, a spot she’s had since 2024.
She was aware of McRae through dance, since the pop star first gained notoriety on the American competition series “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2016, finishing in third place and becoming the first Canadian finalist in the show’s history. The two connected backstage in 2023 at iHeartRadio’s annual Jingle Ball, a concert featuring artists who perform the top hits of the year.
The connection happened at the perfect time: McRae was set to perform during one of the intermissions of the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. McRae’s team reached out to Steele to see if she was available to join her for the performance, which set plans in motion for Steele to join McRae on her Think Later tour in April 2024.
Steele now considers the 22-year-old pop star and the rest of the eight-person dance crew on tour some of her best friends. The work feels like traveling the world with loved ones instead of a job, she said.
“It’s definitely awesome that I’m in this position where she’s also a friend and an amazing person, and they treat us just so nicely because she used to be a dancer,” Maycee Steele said. “She understands what dancers have to go through and what dancing takes out of your body.”
“They’ve just experienced a lot together and had a lot of first time moments together,” Shelley Steele said. “They’re all pretty close, and they’re all really funny and entertaining and really, really cool people.”
Managing fame as a kid from Shawnee
Tate McRae has surged to worldwide fame since her 2023 album “THINK LATER” — but her backups dancers get a lot of love from the fans, too.
Maycee Steele currently has 73,000 followers on Instagram and 250,000 followers on TikTok, and has gone viral multiple times for her solo dance section on McRae’s Miss Possessive Tour. Fans have even tried to replicate her moves.
Despite the newfound fame, Maycee Steele stays grounded thanks to her family, many of who will be in attendance for Kansas City’s show. She’s flying in a day earlier for Tuesday’s show to get as much family time as possible, since FaceTimes and photos can only do so much to fill the void while she’s touring all over the world.
“It’s very heartwarming and sweet that people connect with me, but my family has really always kept me down to earth, and that matters the most to me,” Maycee Steele said. “Whatever happens with my career, family will always be most important to me.”
The Oct. 11 show in St. Louis was extra special since her mom, sister and her sister’s two kids were able to come see her perform. Wilson’s kids are 3 and 4 years old, and Wilson’s glad they have a role model to look up to in “aunt May-May.”
It also brings Wilson great joy to brag about her little sister when she’s teaching and overhears kids talking about going to McRae’s show and hoping to see Maycee Steele in action.
“I get filled with so much pride when they’re talking about her, or anytime I hear her name brought up,” Wilson said. “It’s just so crazy to me. But, it’s also not surprising at all, though, because she was born to be a star.”
Kansas City’s show will have a lot more of the Steele family in the crowd, along with Maycee and Sydnee’s high school friends and former dance teachers. The concert won’t be the biggest crowd she’s performed in front of, but it might be her most important.
“The whole point of what I do is to make my family proud and pursue what I love and what they’ve seen me do since I was three,” Maycee Steele said.
“It’s cool to see that come to fruition and make them proud.”
