ABOUT AXIS

Since 1987, AXIS Dance Company has created an exciting body of work developed by dancers with and without disabilities. They are pioneers of a powerful and inclusive dance form, "physically integrated dance". More than any other physically integrated company in the U.S., AXIS has been a bridge between contemporary dance and physically integrated dance. AXIS has performed in theaters and dance spaces at its home base in the Bay Area, on tour throughout the U.S., as well as in Germany and Siberia. Described as a "visual and physical discovery, creating fascinating works of movement art, " the Company has become internationally known for its high artistic and educational standards and innovative movement vocabulary. Under the Artistic Direction of Judith Smith, their stellar repertory includes works by Stephen Petronio, Bill T. Jones, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Sonya Delwaide, Victoria Marks, Ann Carlson, Margaret Jenkins as well as by AXIS choreographers.

AXIS has received numerous Isadora Duncan Dance Awards including Ensemble Performance to dancers Nadia Adame and Jacques Poulin-Denis in '02 for "Sans Instruments" choreographed by Sonya Delwaide; Company Performance in '00 for AXIS' entire Home Season; Choreography in '00 for Bill T. Jones' "Fantasy in C Major"; Individual Performance in '00 to Uli Schmitz, the first disabled dancer to receive this award; and Costume Design in '01 to Mario Alonzo. AXIS has received Izzie nominations for Ensemble Performance by Megan Schirle & David McCauley in 'Dance in a Wing Chair' in '03, Lighting Design in '01 and '02, design by Alexander V. Nichols; Music in '02 for acapella group SoVoSo's composition for "Sans Instruments", Choreography in '01 for "Suite sans Suite" by Sonya Delwaide; Choreography in '99 for "Takala" by Nicole Richter and Stephanie McGlynn; and for Choreography in '96/'97 for "Hidden Histories/Visible Differences" by Thais Mazur. In 2000, AXIS was honored with a Goldie for Dance from the San Francisco Bay Guardian's Outstanding Local Discovery Awards. Oakland's Mayor Jerry Brown awarded AXIS a 'Key to Creativity' in 2002 in honor of their artistic achievements.

The Company has created over forty repertory works, two evening length works and two works for young audiences. AXIS has been commissioned to create works for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, San Francisco Exploratorium and the CAL Performances and UAM/PFA's Off the Wall series. They've been featured in several national and local broadcasts including public television KQED's Spark program in 2004, WNET's nationally-broadcast production of People In Motion as well as in a documentary video, Dancing From the Inside Out, which won over a dozen awards including Dance On Camera in New York and the National Educational Film and Video Festival. AXIS dancers have also served as consultants and models for the creation of Life Forms choreography software used to introduce disabled students to dance and choreography.

Among the Company's most notable performances are the Olympic Arts Festival, Salt Lake City; Meredith Monk's 40th Anniversary Celebration at St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery & the World Financial Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; New York; Central Park Summerstage, New York; Paralympics, Atlanta; Florida Dance Festival, Miami; Walker Arts Center/Southern Theater, Minneapolis; Cal Performances and UAM/PFA, Berkeley; The Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT; UMass Fine Arts Center, Amherst, MA; University of Koln, Germany; Dance Umbrella's International Festival of Aerial Dance in Boston; and Railroad Theater, Novosibirsk, Siberia. In collaboration with Dance Umbrella, AXIS planned and curated the International Festival of Wheelchair Dance in June 1997. This was the first event ever of this magnitude and prestige in the history of this relatively new dance form.

AXIS' extensive community education/outreach program, Dance Access and its youth component Dance Access/KIDS! offers classes and workshops for adults and youth of all abilities, school assemblies, presentations, lecture demonstrations, and residencies locally and abroad. Dance Access is a model program that was presented in the Kennedy Center's national Imagination Celebration at the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival, received the CA Arts Council Exemplary Arts award in 2002, is currently on the roster of Young Audiences Northern California, and is featured on the Young Audience's national Arts4Learning website.

AXIS Dance Company has been supported through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; National Dance Project, Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Creative Work Fund; Walter and Elise Haas Fund; San Francisco Foundation; National Performance Network; Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and Zellerbach Family Fund, to name a few.