AXIS Dance Company is a professional physically integrated

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...

company and dance education organization founded in 1987 and based in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. It is one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

that integrates dancers with and without

physical disabilities A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disability, disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living skills, daily living, such as respiratory ...

. Their work has received nine

Isadora Duncan Dance Awards The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards or Izzies honor San Francisco Bay Area dance artists for outstanding achievements in a range of categories including: choreography, sustained achievement, individual performance, company performance, costume design, ...

and nine additional nominations for both their artistry and production values.

History

Founded in 1987 by Thais Mazur, Bonnie Lewkowicz, Judith Smith and others, AXIS is a long running contemporary dance company that consciously develops choreography that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities. Thais Mazur, the original Artistic Director, became inspired when she began working with a theater group of disabled adults to expand that work into dance. They started with a lighting and movement workshop and the experimenting expanded from there. AXIS Dance Company

AXIS dancers with disabilities have included wheelchair users (both manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs), crutch users, and people with amputations. AXIS dancers who are not disabled come with training in a variety of contemporary dance,

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

and other movement practices. Through interactions between these dancers of varying physical abilities a new dance vocabulary began to be developed. Physically integrated dance, seeks to broaden the definition of ‘dance’ and ‘dancer’ and increase opportunities for artistic expression through movement for a wide spectrum of physical attributes and disabilities. The physically integrated dance movement is part of a broader disability culture movement, the goal of which is to center and celebrate the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical-model construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, literary, and other creative means. AXIS Dance was one of the earliest companies in the international emerging field of physically integrated dance. They have commissioned works by a number of prominent choreographers, including Ann Carlson, Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood,

Margaret Jenkins Margaret Jenkins (born 1942) is a postmodern choreographer based in San Francisco, California. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1980 and in 2003, San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown, declared April 24 to be Margaret Jenkins Day. Biography Jenkins ...

, Bill T. Jones,

Victoria Marks Victoria Marks (born 1954) is a professor of choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, where she has been teaching since 1995. Before taking her post at UCLA she lived in London, where for three and a half years she worke ...

, and

Stephen Petronio Stephen Petronio (born March 20, 1956) is an American choreographer, dancer, and the artistic director of New York City-based Stephen Petronio Company. Stephen Petronio was born in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in nearby Nutley and graduated in ...

. The company has created over sixty repertory works, including multiple evening-length works. The company has also created pieces for commissions by

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, natio ...

Bates Dance Festival Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

, San Francisco Exploratorium, and CAL Performances-UAM/PFA. AXIS has performed in more than 100 U.S. cities, Europe, Israel, and Siberia. In 2002, they performed at the Olympic Arts Festival in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

for the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

. They also performed at the 2012 London paralympics. In 2015 AXIS Dance Company performed at the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

for

National Dance Day National Dance Day was launched in 2010 by Nigel Lythgoe, the co-creator of ''So You Think You Can Dance'' and co-founder of American Dance Movement (formerly the Dizzy Feet Foundation) in partnership with American congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Nor ...

Education and Outreach

Advocacy

In May 2016 during its 30th anniversary season, AXIS Dance Company hosted the first, three-day ''National Convening: The Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA'' at

Gibney Dance Gibney Dance, founded in 1991 by choreographer Gina Gibney, is a multi-faceted dance organization occupying two locations in New York City: one at 890 Broadway in the Flatiron District and the other at 280 Broadway in Tribeca. The organization’ ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. This event was supported by the

Doris Duke Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, Horticulture, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealt ...

Charitable Foundation National Project Program, and culminated in the creation of the report, ''The Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA'', which looks at “ways to 1) improve and expand training opportunities and develop pedagogy for dancers with disabilities; and 2) improve training and expand opportunities for disabled choreographers and non-disabled choreographers to work with disabled dancers or integrated ensembles.” Often when touring, AXIS will couple outreach, advocacy, and dance education into their stay at a venue. In 2017 the company had a residency with

in New York City that included a choreography intensive,

master classes A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also science, painting, drama, games, or on any other occasion where skills are being developed. "Masterclass" is also ...

, town halls, and teacher workshops.

Educational Programs

According to former Artistic Director Judith Smith, the company spends about 50% of their time on educational work. AXIS Dance Company frequent hosts master classes with the company member dancers as teachers wherever they are on tour or in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

which they call home. They also have a program in which they travel to schools across America and perform for a school assembly and teach the students afterward. For schools near the SF Bay Area, AXIS opens the doors to their theatre for an annual Dance Access Day and does in-school residencies through school district

Physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

programs.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic had a large impact on all performing arts and performing arts education industries. For AXIS, this meant the cancellation of many performances including a first time tour of Switzerland. AXIS found a few ways to continue their work while the country and state of California were in lockdown: master classes hosted over

Zoom (software) Zoom, stylized as zoom or Zoom Meetings is a proprietary videotelephony software program developed by Zoom Video Communications. The free plan allows up to 100 concurrent participants, with a 40-minute time restriction. Users have the option to ...

, virtualized school assembly visits, and small improvisational exercises and prompts posted to their Youtube channel.

Awards

AXIS has received numerous

(IZZIES) including: *Sustained Achievement in 2014 to Judith Smith, Founding Member and Artistic Director Emerita *Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Individual in 2012 to Marc Brew for ''Remember When'' *Ensemble Performance in 2008 to Rodney Bell and Sonsheree Giles in ''To Color Me Different'' by Alex Ketley *Choreography to Joe Goode in 2008 for ''the beauty that was mine, through the middle, without stopping...'' *Ensemble Performance in 2002 to Nadia Adame and Jacques Poulin-Denis in ''Sans Instruments'' choreographed by Sonya Delwaide *Costume Design in 2001 to Mario Alonzo for AXIS’ entire Home Season ''Voyages Elsewhere and Between'', choreography by Sonya Delwaide, Bill T. Jones, Stephen Petroni, AXIS’ Stephanie McGlynn and Uli Schmitz and AXIS’ Alisa Rasera and Megan Schirle *Company Performance in 2000 for AXIS’ entire Home Season ''The Ground, the Air and Places in Between'', choreography by Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood and Bill T. Jones *Choreography to Bill T. Jones in 2000 for ''Fantasy in C Major'' *Individual Performance in 2000 to Uli Schmitz, the first disabled dancer to receive this award The company has also received numerous IZZIE nominations for artistic work and production elements.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Axis Dance Company Dance companies in the United States Dance education in the United States Dance in California Contemporary dance companies Physically integrated dance