Well, lots going on in the AXIS Office per usual. The dancers are all back from Washington, DC and its nice to have them popping in during the day. They’ll be heading to Maine shortly for a residency at Bates Dance Festival. They will be conducting workshops and performing various works by choreographers David Dorfman, Alex Ketley and Joe Goode during the Bates Dance Festival.
I recently attended a lecture given at Mills College for Luna Kids Dance by Annika, our education director, and Bonnie, one of our dancers. The lecture was great seeing different clips of class/workshops and hearing different strategies/ideas for integrated dance classes.
I also attended AXIS very first Focus Group and our July board Meeting. While I can not inform you of the significant and important events which took place at our secret board meeting- ok, I’m kidding, I won’t bore you with dry administrative stuff, but there was a dancer/board mixer combined with really awesome food beforehand. The purpose of this Focus Group was to find out how AXIS could serve the community better. It was very interesting at the Focus Group hearing different ideas and opinions about dance and disability, and we’d love to hear from you!
- I don’t believe in barriers or caged beauty. There is no way in these fast times that we can define what dance is. We cannot even definer what art is. [Javier de Frutos, 2001]
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Talented, trusting and nontraditional: AXIS Dance Company
By Molly F. McGill Special to the Sun Journal
“I think it’s important to keep pushing the boundaries in any art form."
So says Judith Smith, artistic director of the California-based AXIS Dance Company, a ground-breaking contemporary dance company made up of dancers both with and without disabilities.
For more than two decades, they have challenged the traditional definitions of what contemporary dance and dancers are, and can be, by creating and exploring new movement through physically integrated dance.
“We’re not a wheelchair dance company. We’re not a disabled dance company. We’re a contemporary dance company. We do things within our company that other companies can not, and it completely broadens the palette of dance,” said Smith.
AXIS has been credited with expanding the vocabulary of contemporary dance through its innovative movement. By incorporating dancers with different abilities, it is able to create new shapes, explore space and move in nontraditional ways, bringing a unique and exciting aspect to the stage of contemporary dance.
The innovative dance troupe will perform Friday and Saturday, July 30-31, as part of the Bates Dance Festival.
“There’s a lot of trust and a lot of risk taking that happens in our company,” said Sonsheree Giles, a five-year dance member of AXIS. “When I work with Judy who uses a power chair, I can push off and perch and fly through space a little differently or with more momentum; it’s a different or extended way of partnering. It opened me up and helped me to fall in love with dance all over again.”
Challenging stereotypes to help broaden the definition of dance has not been easy.
At first, dance critics were skeptical as to whether the performances could actually be considered dance or if it was a form of therapy. Through educational and outreach services, including countless seminars, residencies, workshops and demonstrations, the company has taken its work across the nation and overseas, earning numerous accolades and helping to bring light — and acceptance — to the developing genre.
AXIS has gained the respect of the dance community, in part, because of its proven cutting-edge performances involving a number of world-renown choreographers, designers and composers. The company uses commissioned work and in-house and guest choreographers to create its touring repertory. It currently has more than 60 repertory works, two evening-length pieces and two works aimed at younger audiences. AXIS has also been commissioned to create pieces for several different dance festivals, including the Bates Dance Festival back in 2003.
Returning to the Bates stage seven years later, AXIS will present three new pieces: "Light Shelter" by well-known choreographer David Dorfman, "Vessel" created by Alex Ketley and "A Room with No View" by Sonya Delwaide.
“Our work really lends itself to a lot of different audiences,” said Smith. “Our repertory is very theatrical, very physical with really, really good dancing and (people) are going to see a vocabulary of dancing that they probably didn’t even know exists.”
Go and do:
WHAT: AXIS Dance Company lecture/demonstration
WHEN & WHERE: 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 26, Alumni Gym, Bates College
ADMISSION: Free
WHAT: AXIS Dance Company performance
WHEN & WHERE: 8 p.m. Friday, July 30, Schaeffer Theatre, Bates College
A question-and-answer session with the artists will follow.
TICKETS: $24/$12 for seniors and students
WHAT: AXIS Dance Company performance
WHEN & WHERE: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 31, Schaeffer Theatre, Bates College
A preperformance lecture, "Inside Dance," with dance writer Debra Cash will begin at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS: $24, $12 seniors/students
FOR TICKETS: Call 786-6161 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday
“I think it’s important to keep pushing the boundaries in any art form."
So says Judith Smith, artistic director of the California-based AXIS Dance Company, a ground-breaking contemporary dance company made up of dancers both with and without disabilities.
For more than two decades, they have challenged the traditional definitions of what contemporary dance and dancers are, and can be, by creating and exploring new movement through physically integrated dance.
“We’re not a wheelchair dance company. We’re not a disabled dance company. We’re a contemporary dance company. We do things within our company that other companies can not, and it completely broadens the palette of dance,” said Smith.
AXIS has been credited with expanding the vocabulary of contemporary dance through its innovative movement. By incorporating dancers with different abilities, it is able to create new shapes, explore space and move in nontraditional ways, bringing a unique and exciting aspect to the stage of contemporary dance.
The innovative dance troupe will perform Friday and Saturday, July 30-31, as part of the Bates Dance Festival.
“There’s a lot of trust and a lot of risk taking that happens in our company,” said Sonsheree Giles, a five-year dance member of AXIS. “When I work with Judy who uses a power chair, I can push off and perch and fly through space a little differently or with more momentum; it’s a different or extended way of partnering. It opened me up and helped me to fall in love with dance all over again.”
Challenging stereotypes to help broaden the definition of dance has not been easy.
At first, dance critics were skeptical as to whether the performances could actually be considered dance or if it was a form of therapy. Through educational and outreach services, including countless seminars, residencies, workshops and demonstrations, the company has taken its work across the nation and overseas, earning numerous accolades and helping to bring light — and acceptance — to the developing genre.
AXIS has gained the respect of the dance community, in part, because of its proven cutting-edge performances involving a number of world-renown choreographers, designers and composers. The company uses commissioned work and in-house and guest choreographers to create its touring repertory. It currently has more than 60 repertory works, two evening-length pieces and two works aimed at younger audiences. AXIS has also been commissioned to create pieces for several different dance festivals, including the Bates Dance Festival back in 2003.
Returning to the Bates stage seven years later, AXIS will present three new pieces: "Light Shelter" by well-known choreographer David Dorfman, "Vessel" created by Alex Ketley and "A Room with No View" by Sonya Delwaide.
“Our work really lends itself to a lot of different audiences,” said Smith. “Our repertory is very theatrical, very physical with really, really good dancing and (people) are going to see a vocabulary of dancing that they probably didn’t even know exists.”
Go and do:
WHAT: AXIS Dance Company lecture/demonstration
WHEN & WHERE: 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 26, Alumni Gym, Bates College
ADMISSION: Free
WHAT: AXIS Dance Company performance
WHEN & WHERE: 8 p.m. Friday, July 30, Schaeffer Theatre, Bates College
A question-and-answer session with the artists will follow.
TICKETS: $24/$12 for seniors and students
WHAT: AXIS Dance Company performance
WHEN & WHERE: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 31, Schaeffer Theatre, Bates College
A preperformance lecture, "Inside Dance," with dance writer Debra Cash will begin at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS: $24, $12 seniors/students
FOR TICKETS: Call 786-6161 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
find new ways to fall by Amber DiPietra
A few dozen volunteer dancers, disabled and non-disabled, myself included, joined Axis Dance for a site-based performance at Yerba Buena Gardens. We rehearsed for a few weeks in the park on weekday evenings. The summer-scape of downtown San Francisco. Rush hour, trash can drums, church bells, sudden bright gusts of wind, fog beveling the park into quartz and moonstone facets, the bougainvillea along the railings above the falls, rushing up into that fuscia underbrush glow to lean over the railing and undulate in unison. Coppery green, glinting from reflecting pools. But mostly the white noise of the falls. And then, the day of the performance, the droning, whirly-gigging, keening, cuckoo clock set free sounds of Caroline Penwarden and her orchestra. Sonsheree Giles of Axis directed the choreography.
This experience made me happier than anything. Closest I've come to really being able to meditate. And, skim out endlessly on a (tide) line (in a poem) without any words. Almost home, almost the gulf, being beside the waterfall and with others. Aquatic, hot, breathing under other elements. (Not making it to Florida this summer--but enclosed a little prayer for the waters in this doing, over and over again.)
read more
This experience made me happier than anything. Closest I've come to really being able to meditate. And, skim out endlessly on a (tide) line (in a poem) without any words. Almost home, almost the gulf, being beside the waterfall and with others. Aquatic, hot, breathing under other elements. (Not making it to Florida this summer--but enclosed a little prayer for the waters in this doing, over and over again.)
read more
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