REPERTORY

Light Shelter (2009)

Choreography by David Dorfman in collaboration with the dancers.

While justifiably acclaimed for its integration of gifted dancers and performers with and without disabilities, it is really the standards that AXIS expects their performers to adhere to that sets the tone for the performances themselves. Those who come into the theater will be pulled in by the speed, daring and physical skill that are the hallmarks of a dance company committed to the pursuit of artistic excellence.

Vessel (2008)

Choreography by Alex Ketley in collaboration with the dancers.

VESSEL is a performance work using dance and voice to explore the concept that all aspects of our bodies, each and every cell, retain our memories and underlie our imaginations. In collaboration with AXIS, choreographer Alex Ketley and poet Carol Snow explored the idea that actual spoken language resides in movement and that a unique text could be accessed and accumulated through choreographed dance and directed improvisation. VESSEL offered a fascinating collection of voices generated by the dancers from many different perspectives. The dancers¹ spoken improvisations, drawn directly from movement, were recorded and then edited and organized by Carol Snow to provide the work¹s score.

A Room with No View (2008)

Choreography by Sonya Delwaide

Dancers: Rodney Bell, Janet Das, Sonsherée Giles, Alice Sheppard Music: Trilobita, Mapa, and Bolero by Uakti Lighting Design: Alex Nichols Costume Design: Sonsherée Giles Special Thanks: Sonya Delwaide would like to thank the dancers for being such a great source of inspiration.

the beauty that was mine, through the middle, without stopping (2007)

choreographed by Joe Goode

"What do we see?  Is the actuality of the “seen” entity ever close to what we presume it to be? Is “seeing” somehow limited? Does it imply an unnecessary separation between viewer and viewed?  It has been my delight to explore these questions with my AXIS collaborators. I am indebted to them for their willingness to reveal themselves and to take this journey with me." - Joe Goode

Foregone (2007)

choreographed by Kate Weare

I love the main ingredients of good dancing: physical courage and heartfelt choices.  While creating Foregone in the studio, it was so exciting to watch the AXIS dancers explore my movement in their gorgeous, unexpected and meaningful ways.  Foregone is a dance about loving - how painful, raucous and foolish it can be, and how we go on doing it no matter what. I dedicate this dance to Judith Smith, a visionary thinker with the heart of a wild horse. -Kate Weare

Waypoint (2006)

choreographed by Margaret Jenkins

"Set to a superior, commissioned score by guitarist Fred Frith, music that incorporates the sound of a wheelchair, (Margaret Jenkins) 'Waypoint' evolves into an intensely layered sequence of lifts, catches, rolls and descents. Abled dancers melt into sculptured arrangements on the wheel chairs and they sweep the stage in eddying circles. It all comes at you so fast that the very unpredictability and underlying rigor of the choreography sustain the piece for all of its 20 minutes. Jenkins has furnished AXIS with a work it will be dancing for years."
-Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance

Dancing to Music (2006)

choreographed by Victoria Marks

"To an electronic score by Wim Mertens, the performers launch a series of unison arm gestures, head turns and torso manipulations. What they're not doing at first is relating to each other. However, gradually, like one of Steve Reich's score, the elements slip out of phase, and the dancers find themselves looking over their neighbor's shoulder and, finally connecting with their gazes."
-Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance

Terre Brune (2005)

choreographed by Sonya Delwaide

Set to an original music score by former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanreneaud, choreographer Sonya Delwaide found her inspiration for this trio in the haunting words of a short poem of the same name by French Canadian writer Marie Savard.

"Delwaide's rough hewn modernist language is efficient and focused... Jeanrenaud carves out pizzicato passages with uncommon vigor."
-Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance

Decorum (2005)

choreographed by Katie Faulkner

"The list of choreographers who have fashioned dances for AXIS over the past several seasons reads like the creme of the dance world. Yet, it was Katie Faulkner's clever sampling of 'house' choreography that proved notably appealing."
- Alan Ulrich, Voice of Dance

Flesh (2004)

choreographed by Ann Carlson

Choreographer Ann Carlson takes her inspiration from music by Meredith Monk and a 1909 futuristic story by E.M. Forster concerning humanity living underground in a mechanized complex, a young man longing to get free. "Flesh" was co-commissioned by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, UC Riverside Presents and UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures.

"Performers in moter-driven wheelchairs pursued each other in rhythmically paced trajectories. They were also part of human pyramids created by non disabled dancers who positioned themselves on the wheelchairs. (Flesh) is a piece that had surprisingly strong emotional undercurrents. 'I still have my mind' Ms. (Meredith) Monk sang out in music that came from 'Turtle Dreams', 'Dolmen Music' and 'Do You Be'."
- Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times

Dust (2003)

choreographed by Victoria Marks

With Victoria Marks ground breaking choreography and Eve Beglarian's stunning score, "Dust" explores questions of "power" and virtuosity, who gets to have it and how it gets used. Dust was made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts, with additional support by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller MAP Fund.

"These six dancers traverse the stage like a force of nature, often altering direction as if guided by a higher force."
- Dance Insider