AXIS Dance Company
Encyclopedia
AXIS Dance Company is a professional physically integrated
contemporary dance
company and dance education organization founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California
. It is one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography
that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities
. Their work has received seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards
and nine additional nominations for both their artistry and production values.
AXIS dancers who are not disabled come with extensive training in a variety of contemporary dance, improvisation
and other movement practices. Through interactions between these dancers and nondisabled dancers, a new dance vocabulary began to be developed. This started a trend, which eventually became known as physically integrated dance, which 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, which recognizes and celebrates the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical-model
construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, literary, and other creative means. The AXIS Dance Company has commissioned works by a number of renowned choreographers, including Ann Carlson, Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Margaret Jenkins, Bill T. Jones
, Victoria Marks, and Stephen Petronio
.
, Bates Dance Festival
, San Francisco Exploratorium
, and CAL Performances-UAM/PFA.
AXIS has performed in more than sixty cities, Europe, and Siberia. Notable performances include the Olympic Arts Festival, 2002; Meredith Monk’s 40th Anniversary Celebrations at St. Marks & the World Financial Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
; Scottsdale Center for the Arts; UC Santa Barbara; Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
; SF Internat’l Arts Festival; The Kentucky Center
for the Arts; Paralympics 1997; Walker Arts Center; Dartmouth College
; Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; UMass Fine Arts Center; University of Koln, Germany; Dance Umbrella’s Internat’l Festival of Aerial Dance; and Railroad Theater, Novosibirsk, Siberia.
AXIS’ education programs, Dance Access and Dance Access/KIDS! offer an extensive array of events for adults and youth of all abilities. AXIS is working with CSU East Bay to develop and launch the first BA program in Physically Integrated Dance in the US.
AXIS has received numerous Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (IZZIES) including:
The company has also received numerous IZZIE nominations for artistic work and production elements.
Physically integrated dance
The physically integrated dance movement is part of the disability culture movement, which recognizes and celebrates the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical model construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, literary, and other creative means.Examples of dance...
contemporary dance
Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...
company and dance education organization founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. It is one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities
Physical disability
A physical disability is any impairment which limits the physical function of one or more limbs or fine or gross motor ability. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders and epilepsy....
. Their work has received seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards
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 set design. The awards are presented annually...
and nine additional nominations for both their artistry and production values.
Physically integrated dance
Founded in 1987 by Thais Mazur, Bonnie Lewkowicz, Judith Smith and others, AXIS was one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities, while maintaining a strong commitment to excellence in physical and emotional expression. AXIS dancers with disabilities have included wheelchair users (both manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs), crutch users, and people with amputations using prosthetic limbs.AXIS dancers who are not disabled come with extensive training in a variety of contemporary dance, improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
and other movement practices. Through interactions between these dancers and nondisabled dancers, a new dance vocabulary began to be developed. This started a trend, which eventually became known as physically integrated dance, which 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, which recognizes and celebrates the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical-model
Medical model of disability
The medical model of disability is a sociopolitical model by which illness or disability, being the result of a physical condition, and which is intrinsic to the individual , may reduce the individual's quality of life, and causes clear disadvantages to the individual.It is today specifically...
construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, literary, and other creative means. The AXIS Dance Company has commissioned works by a number of renowned choreographers, including Ann Carlson, Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Margaret Jenkins, Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones is an American artistic director, choreographer and dancer.-Early life:Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida and his family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York, where Jones attended Wayland High School...
, Victoria Marks, and Stephen Petronio
Stephen Petronio
Stephen Petronio is an artistic company founder/director, choreographer, and an American dancer based in New York City.Born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 20, 1956. Petronio received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he began dancing in 1974...
.
Works
The Company has created more than sixty repertory works, two evening-length works, and commissions for Yerba Buena Center for the ArtsYerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary 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, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...
, Bates Dance Festival
Bates Dance Festival
The Bates Dance Festival is a dance festival held annually at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, United States. The program runs during the summer months and includes workshops and performances.It celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007....
, San Francisco Exploratorium
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco with over 475 participatory exhibits, all of them made onsite, that mix science and art. It also aims to promote museums as informal education centers....
, and CAL Performances-UAM/PFA.
AXIS has performed in more than sixty cities, Europe, and Siberia. Notable performances include the Olympic Arts Festival, 2002; Meredith Monk’s 40th Anniversary Celebrations at St. Marks & the World Financial Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary 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, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...
; Scottsdale Center for the Arts; UC Santa Barbara; Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
; SF Internat’l Arts Festival; The Kentucky Center
The Kentucky Center
The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, located in Louisville, is a major performing arts center in Kentucky.The Kentucky Center also hosts artworks by Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, John Chamberlain, Jean Dubuffet and others....
for the Arts; Paralympics 1997; Walker Arts Center; Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
; Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; UMass Fine Arts Center; University of Koln, Germany; Dance Umbrella’s Internat’l Festival of Aerial Dance; and Railroad Theater, Novosibirsk, Siberia.
AXIS’ education programs, Dance Access and Dance Access/KIDS! offer an extensive array of events for adults and youth of all abilities. AXIS is working with CSU East Bay to develop and launch the first BA program in Physically Integrated Dance in the US.
AXIS has received numerous Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (IZZIES) including:
- 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 Bewtween, 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.