Dance Class

If you're wondering who keeps popping up on the AXIS blog is, my name is Cayenne Ross and I am a senior dance major, business minor at Skidmore College in New York. I'm here in California interning with AXIS Dance Company for the summer and it's been absolutely amazing so far! I have some experience with dance and teaching movement to adults with developmental disabilities, and I am learning so much more every day.


So,on to the really cool stuff - I attended another Teens Dance Class last afternoon and took photos of these beautiful dancers-check it out! I also got to meet two of the company dancers who taught this class, Rodney and Janet. They were so nice and such talented artists! Soon I will be attending rehearsal for our upcoming show at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on Saturday June 26 @ 1, 1:50, and 2:40 PM. Sonsherée, another wonderful dancer whom I met today, has choreographed a new site-specific piece involving local our dancers as well as local community members. So keep watching for new posts, and its free so be sure to come out next Saturday!

Murderball, Hiking, Dancing, Singing - Bonnie does it all!

From: Jewish quadriplegic inducted into Sports Hall of Fame for work in quad rugby and wheelchair dance | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California

Try to keep up with Dancer and Founding Member Bonnie Lewkowicz and you’d just be spinning your wheels.

Lewkowicz, 53, is quadriplegic, in a wheelchair since age 15 when she was injured in an accident on an all-terrain vehicle. That never stopped her from pursuing her passions. All of them. Now, the Berkeley resident’s pioneering efforts in dance for the disabled and in murderball (also called quad rugby) are being recognized by the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California. The induction ceremony took place at a gala Sunday, June 13 at San Francisco’s Four Seasons Hotel.



Lewkowicz is the first quad athlete inducted into the Bay Area institution. “She overcame adversity, and that’s part of our cause,” says Executive Director Gary Wiener. “She’s a good representative of the Jewish community. I think her perseverance is admirable.” She first heard about the Hall of Fame honor when a friend who helped out with her old quad rugby team called to say he planned to nominate her. “He asked if I would be interested,” Lewkowicz remembers, “and I said, ‘what’s not to be interested?’”

The award honors her involvement in both dance and murderball, a sport popularized in the 2005 Oscar-nominated documentary of the same name. In 1988, Lewkowicz founded both the California Quad Rugby League and her championship team, Quadzilla, a co-ed squad still talked about with reverence among fans. But quad rugby isn’t her only way to play.

For more than 20 years, Lewkowicz has also been a principal dancer with AXIS, a company she helped found that features disabled and able-bodied dancers performing together in original modern dance pieces. Lewkowicz soon will launch a website detailing disabled access at state beaches, parks and trails. That’s on top of her “Wheelchair Rider’s Guide: San Francisco Bay and Nearby Coast,” published in 2006, and “Access San Francisco,” a city guide for disabled visitors. All of Lewkowicz’s activities can be filed under her lifelong adherence to Jewish ethics, which led her to pursue projects that help others. “I would have a hard time thinking of myself as anything other than Jewish,” she says. “Jewish values and culture are very important to my life, not just food to eat, but to share.”

read more Source: Jweekly.com "Heart of a champion: Wheelchair doesn’t stop quadriplegic athlete" by Dan Pine, staff writer

Just another day in the office

Just another day in the office, with some of us on exercise balls going about our secret missions as AXIS behind the scenes operations. I couldn't help instantly falling in love with AXIS and the amazing work they do here promoting creativity and collaboration!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet a very cool person named Kaya and observe an AXIS dance class. (**keep your eyes posted for upcoming photos!) The enthusiastic and outgoing Kaya takes dance with AXIS and sometimes helps with the younger class. Following the dancers into the studio, I watched as they began seated with small motions and movement games to warm up. By the end it was quite amazing to watch the entire class speeding through the space, slowing, then accelerating and idling again, pausing to create beautiful suspended shapes. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings at AXIS Dance Company! - Cayenne

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

Olives, Robots & Mythbusters: A workshop with Ann Carlson

"¸¸.•**•♪♫•**•.¸¸¸¸.•**•♪♫•**•.¸¸Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaa oooooohhhh haaaaaa hooooooo.no nieh, Naha...!"

It's a gray Monday afternoon in May. Walking by our studio in Oakland you would think the local chorus or theater group is rehearsing, but it's the AXIS dancers standing in a circle, using their vocal cords. Ann Carlson get's sounds out of the dancers I haven't heard before.



A moment later she get's them to write postcards - dancing postcards that is, about the things they love. Crawling on the floor they share their passion for olives, tulle, squeakily blue deflated dinosaur balloons, quad-rugby, honeysuckle, food (especially carbs, protein & cheese!), laughing, and their love for bikram yoga even though "the room smells like a cat box".

After a 36-minute vocal exercise, basically replicating a sound and moving it along in the circle, Ann explains: "I think this is a great performance exercise. It's a lot about being able to surrender and being wacky. Doing this for a long stretch of time allows you to listen more closely and to relax into the illogic of it."

After a short break Ann get's the dancers seated in a line (even though she hates lines)


and starts directing them: a base, intertwined with heavy breathing, than some mumbling & yelping interjected:



"I really want to try and make a piece one day with a vocal score Ann starts and before we know it, the workshop ends with a discussion about robots, mythbusters, aliens, and mermaids. Maybe they will all end up in a piece one day...




About Ann Carlson:
In 2004 Ann choreographed "Flesh" for AXIS. In this piece 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. To see an excerpt click here.
Ann Carlson is a dancer, choreographer, and performance artist. She creates “dances that reflect and investigate the metaphor of the everyday” and are coauthored by the performers, who have included non-dancers, such as lawyers, doctors, and nuns. With a background in visual and performance art, Carlson often shows her work in unconventional dance sites, including museums, trains, and barnyards.

Great article about AXIS in residency at Montgomery County Community College

A quick note from the Artistic Director from Blue Bell, PA

AXIS is in Blue Bell, PA in residence at Montgomery Co Community College. It's 90 degrees, so we can't complain :)

So far we have held an audition and a rehearsal for our community cast; done a video presentation for 112 nursing students; done a lec/dem for 80 disabled adults and a masterclass for dance students. Tonight we have a community cast rehearsal. So by day three we've introduced over 200 people to AXIS!

Warm greetings from Blue Bell! Judy