Keep Spinning the Wheel

by Annika Nonhebel, Education Director

One of my favorite things we do at AXIS are in-school assemblies. It's wonderful to see the kids enjoying our show, to see their exciting faces and be able to introduce them to our dance form. I love receiving letters, poems, and drawings from the students. They are art pieces in themselves. Here is one I definitely want to share with you ( i'm keeping the spelling as is).

Dancing
Dancing everywhere
even using wheelchairs
When you dance
it's so unike
springing and jumping
stunting to
double wheely
spin around
fall down too
crawling on the floor
spinning all together
stacked on top
you were so great
I liked it a lot
So keep spinning the wheel

Sincerely,
Grant
3rd grade, Old Orchard School

AXIS through the eyes of an Intern

by Marguerite
I am starting to get into the swing of things in my new role here as an intern with AXIS Dance Company. Not only am I getting into shape biking over an hour to and fro the Malonga Center every shift but am also noticing I am feeling more integrated as a part of the 'inner' team. Juan, the pleasant security guard welcomes me and bike with smiles into the Malonga Center. I make my way up the stairs for a change of attire and am greeted with cheery 'hellos' upon my entry into the office - warm interpersonal dynamics I truly appreciate!

And the learning curve continues. I have recently had opportunity to further develop itineraries for two company tours; for Denver Colorado and Chandler, Arizona. Developing itineraries typically involves securing flights, hotels, talking with event organizers, making arrangements with venues, super-shuttles and car rentals, to name a few of the details needing attention. Requesting a refund with Super-shuttle on one occasion was an involved, challenging yet in the end, satisfying experience, providing opportunity to further hone my negotiation skills!

On another note, I have had opportunity to put into practice my home renovation skills, complete with drill, a very large pair of wire cutters and wall anchors! We tried to put up a curtain to further organize and beautify the office - alas to no avail, the curtain wire hanger was not strong enough to hold the curtain! A 'to be continued' project to return to as time permits...

A highlight and challenge has been taking the Monday night classes. The highlight is to study with AXIS Dance Company's wonderful teachers. The challenge: to find pathways to learn and retain choreography! The search continues, my intention: to find a solution....

Much continues to inspire me to new levels of understanding and experience with my stint as intern with AXIS Dance Company. I look forward to more as the remaining time allows.

Live to Dance!

by Judith Smith

In late October, Rodney, Janet, Sonsheree, Alice, Sebastian and I flew down and back to Burbank for an invitation only audition for Paula’s new show Live to Dance. They found us via the internet and contacted me. I really wasn’t convinced it was the right thing for us to do for many reasons. But after many calls back and forth with casting directors and producers, they convinced me that we needed to do this.


First, Son and I got together to map our piece, 90 seconds total! I called it our 90second aim for fame. We decided since partnering is a definite strong point that we do a series of duets drawn from our favorite moves out of pieces by Sonya Delwaide, David Dorfman, Joe Goode, Alex Ketley and AXIS. We used music composed by Michael Wall and Albert Mathias for David Dorfman’s piece. I contacted all the choreographers to let them know what we were up to and to get their permission. We wore costumes from Vessel—black and sparkly. I’m still finding glitter everywhere...

We got together for three brief rehearsals, sketched out our piece, video’d it, made adjustments and showed it to Mollie, Annika, Christy and Kat. They were quite entertained by the three ring circus atmosphere!

We arrived on time at Burbank, found our shuttles and off we went to Dodger Stadium—luckily no rain. It was a scene. We were first sent to a tent w/ a rubber floor, some water, porta potties and lots of dancers everywhere. We put on costumes and did make up. Our few minute wait turned into 70 min. We did a ton of paperwork and ‘shortly’ after were whisked to the warm up/interview tent. Warmer, carpeted and yes, full of dancers and cameras, lots. We were filmed warming up and got set up to be interviewed.

But no, they needed us in the performance tent so off we went! We were crammed in this smaller tent with - you guessed it—lots of dancers, lots of crew, a monitor for the stage action and the host Andrew Gundsburg. We watched on the monitor as a very young ballerina performed and her parents watched. Then, we got instructed about what was going to happen.

We were assembled, interviewed by Andrew and then asked to look at the ramp to the stage—it was steep! Then they gave us a countdown and up the ramp and onto the stage we went. The ‘stage’ was round, plexiglass with a large star in the center that lit up. We got into places, our music started and we did our 90 seconds w/ the audience cheering thru most of it. The wheelchairs slid on the surface and the feet stuck so it was ‘interesting.’ Iva, our AXIS tour assistant said we were all beaming through it and when they panned to the panel of experts, Paula, Travis Payne, who worked on Michael Jackson's "This Is It," and former Pussycat Dolls singer-dancer Kimberly Wyatt were sitting with there jaws dropped. Anyway, we managed to not kill each other and actually had a blast. We got a standing ovation from audience and panel.

We were instructed to assemble on the star—which was all lit up-- and I was given the microphone. There was this weird, awkward long pause. Paula had turned around to compose herself—she was in tears and Travis was wiping his eyes. Paula turned back around and they stared at us, we stared at them for what felt like forever. I finally said ’are we supposed to say something?’ and they all hit their buttons and three stars lit up. So, we went crazy—we were told to celebrate if we got stars. Then, they all said some great things and asked us a few questions.

Paula ‘this is not about disability, it’s about A+ ability.’ ‘I know you’re a professional contemporary company but your work translated to the pop culture beautifully.’ She also said she was honored to show such innovative dance on her show and asked about the choreography. So, I got to talk about the structure of the piece and who the choreographers are.

Travis said he prided himself on knowing what was going on in dance but he had no idea. He also said we were on our way to half a million dollars.

Kimberly said she loved how the choreography started out strong and built and built.

That’s about all I remember of the comments.

We were rushed back to interview tent to be interviewed. Every AXIS dancer was so articulate and lovely. Then we rushed to our shuttles—in costume and make up— and off to the airport we went.

Sadly we weren’t chosen and you won’t be seeing us on Live to Dance but we’ll definitely be watching!

Warmly, Judy
Artistic Director

AXIS on cover of New Mobility magazine!

AXIS was honored to grace the cover of this month’s New Mobility magazine. You can read the article on physically integrated dance online!

The last act of the 2008 Sins Invalid performance opened with a dark stage backlit with dusk-blue. To the sound of a pulsing Maori keening chant with techno highlights, wheelchair dancer Rodney Bell slowly lowered down onto the stage via cables. Sometimes dangling upside down, sometimes appearing to somersault, Bell, a T3-6 para, gyrated along the way. He slapped his chest and thighs — warlike gestures punctuated with grunts — and when he finally had all four wheels on the ground, his face, painted with traditional tattoos, appeared to the audience. The dance, sensual and aggressive, might have been a holy ritual.

read more

Just keepin' busy! :Bates Festival, Luna Kids, a focus group and a mixer

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]

Through an Intern's Eyes

About 3 times a year our small AXIS staff is temporarily extended when we welcome a new intern in our small office in Oakland. This Summer we are excited to have Cayenne Ross joining our team. Cayenne is a Bachelor of Arts candidate at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (Dance Major). We've asked her to blog about her experiences interning with AXIS and hope you are excited to read about the company seen through Cayenne's eyes. - Annika

Welcome to our blog!

Hello AXIS fans, dancers, staff, board and all around groupies. This is our blog. We will be posting information about our newest projects here.

Today was our first rehearsal with the fabulous choreographer Shinichi Iova-Koga of Inkboat and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud on our latest collaboration called ODD based on the paintings of Iceland-based contemporary painter Odd Nedrum. In the paintings of Odd Nerdrum, survival on bare land pervades.

We'll be working towards the creation of a new piece that is being co-presented by ODC in San Francisco and will premiere there the weekend of November 5-7th followed by a performance at the Malonga Casquelourd Center in Oakland November 12-14th . We hope you follow the creation process of this exciting new piece by following this blog and the posts of all the amazing collaborators.

(photo by Andrea Basile 2009)