Now, I've come to see disability as a trait that completes someone, as a component of their identity. I have tried to stop but it keeps coming back. Under her creative leadership, AXIS has grown into a dynamic ensemble … At The Axis Centre for Dance, we believe that the dancer comes first. AXIS Dance Company’s Divide by Marc Brew (2014). Sonsherée Giles, AXIS Rehearsal Director, Artistic Advisor & Performing/Teaching Artist. In 1987, she cofounded AXIS Dance Company (then AXIS Dance Troupe), which pioneered physically integrated dance created through the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities. AXIS Dance Company celebrated 30 years this weekend with their home season, “Onward and Upward,” at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland. AXIS has received numerous Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (IZZIES) including: The company has also received numerous IZZIE nominations for artistic work and production elements. How did AXIS Dance Company get started? I feel that a radically inclusive dance sector generally looks at creating spaces with the least amount of barriers that keep people of all body types and abilities from dance. This innovative yet traditional event promises to be a combination of fun, professionalism and passion. Just Published! Our first director, Thais Mazur, was a dancer who was bored with what she was doing and seeing in dance. Interview, Judith Smith, “Artistic Director, AXIS Dance Company” conducted by Esther Ehrlich in 2005, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. AXIS Dance Company exists to change the face of dance and disability. The work premiered in 1999 and is an important milestone in the history of AXIS Dance … Continue reading → Add a bio, recollection, and more. AXIS Dance Company celebrated 30 years this weekend with their home season, “Onward and Upward,” at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland. That has shaped my ability and knowledge over time and allowed me to grow as a dancer. AXIS has paved the way for a powerful contemporary dance form—physically integrated dance—performing in over 100 cities in the US, Israel, UK, Europe, and Russia. Update information for AXIS Dance Company >> Dance History Project Articles. Founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California, AXIS has become a jewel of contemporary dance and disability culture. AXIS has been a home that is impossible to find in any organization that is not physically integrated. When we started AXIS we didn’t know people setting choreography, but we knew contact improv was happening between people with and without disabilities. Complexions performs worldwide, provides dance education, and was America's first [citation needed] fully multicultural ballet company. While browsing the internet I came across this article about the premiere of Bill t. Jones work for AXIS Dance Company: “Fantasie in C”. AXIS’ education programs, Dance Access and Dance Access/KIDS! If you represent AXIS Dance Company or have material relevant to this organization, we invite you to contribute. The two founded Axis soon after in 1987, creating a dance that the company performed a year later at a festival. AXIS has performed in more than sixty cities, Europe, and Siberia. Over the years, I have been exposed to many powerful and intelligent artists that I may have not met in a more traditional dance company. Causes: Arts & Culture, Arts Education, Dance. AXIS Dance Company hits the stage in San Francisco with The Radical Impact Tour May 4-6, 2018 at Z Space. However, ironically, we ended up engaging the community in different ways that allowed us to reach people that we might not under normal circumstances. Unfortunately I have spent more time facilitating online dance classes and work sessions in Zoom rooms on the computer then I have in my entire life; I miss contact and partnering. AXIS Dance Company. Dancing Wheels, Infinity Dance Theater, Joint Forces, Spitzer Dance Company, and Axis are part of a growing trend where wheelchairs and crutches expand choreographic possibilities. Being in a space where I feel invited and not excluded is for me the ideal space for everyone to enjoy movement. AXIS Dance Company Artistic Director Marc Brew is photographed against a white background. As company member Sonsherée Giles noted in an e-mail interview, “The language I use and the choices I make to be more accessible and inclusive have been directly informed by my history with AXIS.” Here, in their own words, are Giles, JanpiStar, DeMarco Sleeper, and Yuko Monden Juma on what they’ve learned about dance and about disability from being part of AXIS, what an inclusive dance field looks like to them, and—in a nod to the current times—how the pandemic has impacted their relationship to dance. As noted in its vision statement, the long-time National Endowment for the Arts grantee aims to “create a radically inclusive dance sector and world by removing barriers and showcasing the beauty of difference.” Axis Dance Studio. She has an MFA in Fine Art from the California College of Art and a BFA in Theater and Film from the University of Colorado. [4][5] 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. Who decides who belongs in a community? AXIS will perform the headline work Radical Impact created by internationally renowned AXIS Artistic Director and Choreographer Marc Brew, in collaboration with JooWan Kim Artistic Director o Dancers: Sonsherée Giles, Joel Brown & Sebastian Grubb. While Dancing Wheels, based in Cleveland, OH, was the first repertory dance company to train and present dancers with and without disabilities (Austin, 2011), AXIS has built an exceptional repertory by commissioning established, well-known contemporary choreographers to create works for the company (e.g. [2][3] AXIS dancers with disabilities have included wheelchair users (both manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs), crutch users, and people with amputations using prosthetic limbs. Rehearsal Director Sonsherée Giles and company dancer DeMarco Sleeper will hold a virtual master class hosted by the Harvard Dance … [7] This event was supported by the Doris Duke 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 nondisabled choreographers to work with disabled dancers or integrated ensembles.”[8]. Choreographers include Karen Peterson and KPD dancer Oscar Trujillo; video artists include Dinorah de Jesus Rodriguez and Heber Siqueiros; and guest dancers include JanpiStar from AXIS Dance Company and Dwyane Scheuneman from REVolutions Dance. If you represent AXIS Dance Company or have material relevant to this organization, we invite you to contribute. Their work has received nine Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and nine additional nominations for both their artistry and production values. Bill T. Jones, Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Alex Ketley, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Joanna … First female choreographer to be given this honor ... Yellow Labs Software Inc. History. The work premiered in 1999 and is an important milestone in the history of AXIS Dance … Continue reading → ... Our studio was built from the ground up through hard work and dedication, and it’s a place with a lot of history. Inside AXIS Dance Company: A Conversation with the Company. offer an extensive array of events for adults and youth of all abilities. AXIS Dance Company began when a group of dancers with and without physical disabilities came together to explore dance. Mar 29, 1991. Trying different teachers and dance studios in Puerto Rico, Latin America, and around the world, I found the information about physically integrated dance and AXIS Dance Company's Summer Intensive and that's how I joined the company. What this looks like to me is providing levels of education for different dance abilities that can be scaffolded and built upon, allowing artists with different body types and abilities to build foundation and training that leads them to a professional-level company. Founded in 1987, AXIS is the nation’s most acclaimed ensembles of disabled and non-disabled performers based in Oakland, CA. Working with AXIS has allowed me to see more of what the disability community can bring to the table and has to offer, but mostly just expanding my outlook and allowing me to see dance and other forms of art from a different perspective. With support from the California Arts Council, AXIS Dance Company will offer subsidized assemblies (free for students) to 15 selected […] There will also be a brief retrospective look at the company's three-decade history. Through interactions between these dancers and nondisabled dancers, a new dance vocabulary began to be developed. I first joined AXIS in 2005. Dancers: Sonsherée Giles, Joel Brown & Sebastian Grubb. At Axis Dance Studio our mission isn’t just to build skilled dancers. In some ways, due to the challenges that everyone is/was facing, dance became even more important for expression and connecting with the community. She has shown her work at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution and the Armory show in New York. Also we want to break with all the stereotypes that we have in the dance world [that say] you need to have specific parts of the body to achieve specific tasks. 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 in New York. The pandemic has [helped] me recognize how important the space we are moving in is, and moreso when you're using a wheelchair to move. I am sad for performing arts in general and theaters. It's a way of life—my first true love. The two founded Axis soon after in 1987, creating a dance that the company performed a year later at a festival. My journey to becoming a dancer started when I was very young. AXIS dancers who are not disabled come with training in a variety of contemporary dance, improvisation and other movement practices. 1991 Trisha Brown awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. We use the sport and art of dance to instill our core values of training, talent, tenacity, and teamwork so that our dancers can grow as athletes, artists, and human beings. Mission: AXIS Dance Company’s mission is to create and perform high quality contemporary dance that is developed through the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities.AXIS teaches dance and educates about collaboration and disability through community education and outreach programs. [9]. ... AXIS Artistic Director Judith Smith and MANCC Director Carla Peterson honor AXIS’s 27 year history with a conversation about the legacy of repertory companies. I used to think of disability as a negative attribute, in terms of something that's missing. I have been working with AXIS for more than three years now, and in that time, I have developed a strong interest in including everyone in dance. AXIS Dance Company grew out of a movement class into a jewel of contemporary dance, featuring work by leading choreographers performed by brilliant—and diverse—dancers. Contribute to The Dance History Project of Southern California. 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 Cologne, Germany; Dance Umbrella’s Internat’l Festival of Aerial Dance; and Railroad Theater, Novosibirsk, Siberia. But I do fear that the urge to experience dance and be in a company the ways we are used to will start to weigh on the community before things start to run smoothly again. AXIS is a leader in integrated dance, and I would love to see that influence make an impact on all dance organizations. AXIS Dance Company Artistic Director Marc Brew is photographed against a white background. AXIS Dance Company, Dancers’ Group and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival presented Occupy – A site-specific journey through an urban garden, July 1-2, 2017. Contribute to The Dance History Project of Southern California. I feel it is a great tool this virtual access that we have now in the world because that opens the possibilities to bring people together from different parts of the world. [It] is not the same [as working together in real life] but I'm grateful that even though the world has changed the way we socialize, we as artists keep finding ways to keep doing the work. Their work has received nine Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and nine additional nominations for both their artistry and production values. This pandemic has made me realize how much we relate to other bodies to get ideas and create. The language I use and the choices I make to be more accessible and inclusive have been directly informed by my history with AXIS. After that, offers to perform and create kept coming. He looks intently at the viewer from deep-set eyes. Complexions Contemporary Ballet is a contemporary ballet company founded in 1994 by Co-Artistic Directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson based in New York City comprising about 14 classical and contemporary dancers. Founded in 1987, AXIS Dance Company is an Oakland, California-based physically integrated dance company whose ensemble comprises disabled and non-disabled performers. American Artscape: The Arts in the Time of COVID, A Look at the National Endowment for the Arts' Leadership in Accessibility. After I got tired of being told that I couldn't be a dancer, I decided that I would be a dancer in my own way. The Company has created more than sixty repertory works, two evening-length works, and commissions for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, San Francisco Exploratorium, and CAL Performances-UAM/PFA. AXIS Dance Company. As a young child I would follow music no matter where I was, and that trend continued as I grew older. Now, the nation’s most acclaimed physically-integrated dance ensemble comes to Colorado Springs with an evening of repertory that highlights the breadth of their artistry. Founded in 1987, AXIS is the nation's most acclaimed ensembles of disabled and non-disabled performers. Add a bio, recollection, and more. Founded in 1987[1] 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. I have had many roles [including] costume designer, performer, teaching artist, and associate director…. featuring physically integrated dancers, returns to MANCC for their second residency. This company by its nature of being physically integrated challenges stereotypes of what a dancer looks like and who can dance. AXIS Dance Company has become one of the world’s most acclaimed and innovative ensembles of performers with and without disabilities. Occupy is a site-specific journey inspired by the history, design and architecture of Yerba Buena Gardens and the unique movement capabilities of AXIS Dance Company and its broader community of performers. After becoming disabled I got the opportunity to be a part of two physically integrated dance companies before finding my way to AXIS. The message that AXIS shares makes an impact not only to dancers, but the community as well—changing not only what dance looks like, but people's notion of ability. Update information for AXIS Dance Company >> Dance History Project Articles. ABC-CLIO Companion to the Disability Rights Movement, p. 97, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "A Dance Company Mixes Arms, Legs and Wheels", "Review: Axis Dance Company at Malonga Casquelord", "Rebel filmmaker's movie about Burning Man screens in Oakland", Artists with Disabilities Oral History Page, "Activating National and Local Connections to Further Physically Integrated Dance", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=AXIS_Dance_Company&oldid=953972089, Articles with a promotional tone from November 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Sustained Achievement in 2014 to Judith Smith, Founding Member and Artistic Director Emerita, Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Individual in 2012 to Marc Brew for, Ensemble Performance in 2002 to Nadia Adame and Jacques Poulin-Denis in, Costume Design in 2001 to Mario Alonzo for AXIS’ entire Home Season, Company Performance in 2000 for AXIS’ entire Home Season, Choreography to Bill T. Jones in 2000 for, Individual Performance in 2000 to Uli Schmitz, the first disabled dancer to receive this award, This page was last edited on 30 April 2020, at 00:56. Photo by Ren Dodge. Welcome to AXIS Dance Competition where Linda Diamonds years of experience bring you the vitality of a new beginning. He has a trim, dark-brown beard, a piercing under his lower lip and on his ear, and wears a black cap, a flowered shirt, and … Photo by Ren Dodge. He has a trim, dark-brown beard, a piercing under his lower lip and on his ear, and wears a black cap, a flowered shirt, and … 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. Contact improvisation has a huge place in the history of physically-integrated dance. My passion for dance grew as I became an adult, learning about new types of dance and methods of expression. Located in Oakland, California, AXIS has been accomplishing this for over 30 years through three pillars of activity: Artistry, Engagement & Advocacy. I think we strive to create a “radically inclusive dance sector" through our education opportunities for people with and without disabilities, our performances that are accessible and provide access to this form of dance, and our advocacy for people with disabilities. Roots Above Ground, a 45 minute physically integrated dance program making its world premiere at AXIS’ Home Season, will explore the multiple meanings of home. My grandfather and mother were both dancers, I have been dancing since I entered this life. I had always danced on my own growing up but got more into the hip-hop genre during high school, before becoming a wheelchair user. 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