REVIEWS

Jenkins's "Waypoint" accepted their ethos and made maximum use of the diversity of the group, and somehow by taking some things to their limit created a world that was simultaneously peaceful and exciting. The piece was brief and packed with material and actually left you wanting more.

Paul Parish, Dance View Times, November 2006
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A program of cannily constructed and masterfully executed dances awaits anyone venturing into the home season of AXIS Dance Company this weekend at Oakland¹s Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts. This is the troupe, now 15 years old, that conjoins the talents of disabled and non-disabled dancers, but so irresistible has been AXIS¹ rise that one long ago stopped marveling at how these performers transcend handicaps. In fact, one attends their concerts with the expectations one brings to any superior repertory modern dance company.

Alan Ulrich, Voice of Dance, October 2005
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This California-based modern-dance troupe consists of able-bodied artists and dancers in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs who achieve a level of technical proficiency, phrasing and emotion often associated with traditional dancers.

Lucia Mauro, Chicago Tribune, April 2004
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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. Ann Carlson's 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, November 2004

One audience member described the dancers as fearless, another spoke of the playfulness of the performers, still another of the agility of the wheelchairs (actually of their operators), and one more was struck by the range of movement qualities presented; all were right. But when Bastos bends forward downstage, unfastens her prosthetic lower leg at the knee, and sets it to stand alone upright before her the tension in the audience was palpable. And when she glances at us, leans forward and slowly pokes the leg and tips it over, the evening peaked.

Tarin Chaplin, The Barre Times/Montpelier Argus, October 22, 2004
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Thursday night's performance was technically flawless and artistically stunning. If you missed AXIS, you missed a chance to see how compelling contemporary dance and improvisational movement can be.

Kristen Andresen, Bangor Daily News, October 22, 2004
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I like to think of an AXIS commission as structural boot camp for mid-career dance makers. Working with dancers who may not be able to move in quite the way the choreographer is accustomed has forced such luminaries as Alonzo King, Stephen Petronio and Bill T. Jones to reinvestigate their habitual movement vocabularies and find a new clarity of expression.

Rachel Howard, In Dance, Jan/Feb 2004
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Dust brims with so many moments of derring-do it doesn't have any time to play on your sympathies. These six dancers, two in wheelchairs, traverse the stage like a force of nature, often altering direction as if guided by a higher force, Eve Beglarian contributed an exceptional score, which starts with barely perceptible burbles, and evolves into rich, electronic textures, festooned with aggressive pizzicatos and spiced by the composer's live vocals. One encounters tender moments here: supplicatory gestures and gentle lifts, and the deceptive opening, with a couple of dancers bathed in squares of light.

Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance, November 21, 2003
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