AXIS Dance Company
Oakland, CA

Artistic Director: Marc Brew

5 Dancers
1 Artistic Staff
1 Technical Manager

Integrated Dance Residency, Masterclasses and Outreach Activities Available

Accessibility Requirements: Wheelchair access to stage, dressing rooms, auditorium, restrooms and workshop spaces. For our audience we strive to make our performances as accessible as possible and offer SLI and Audio Description performances where possible.

ABOUT

Founded in 1987, AXIS Dance Company is the nation’s most acclaimed ensemble of disabled and non-disabled performers based in Oakland, CA. AXIS creates virtuosic productions that challenge perceptions and redefine dance and disability.

In 1998, Judith Smith took over Artistic Direction, and visioning a repertory company, quickly catapulted AXIS into the dance world with a commission by Bill T. Jones followed by collaborations with Stephen Petronio, Yvonne Rainer, Ann Carlson, David Dorfman, Marc Brew, Meredith Monk, Joan Jeanrenaud and Fred Frith. Under her direction until 2017, AXIS toured to over 100 cities in the USA, Israel, UK, Europe and Russia. The Company has received eight Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and has appeared twice on FOX TV’s So You Think You Can Dance, exposing integrated dance to millions. In 2017, AXIS appointed acclaimed international choreographer and dancer Marc Brew to the position of Artistic Director. Brew comes to AXIS with over 20 years of performance and artistic direction experience and has since commissioned works by Jennifer Archibald, Nadia Adame, Robert Dekkers, Arthur Pita & Amy Seiwert.

Alongside our artistic performance program, the Company provides unparalleled integrated dance education and outreach programs that remove barriers and showcase the beauty of difference. From recreational to professional training, AXIS builds access to dance education for people of all ages with and without disabilities.

Current Touring Productions

Radical Impact
by AXIS' Artistic Director Marc Brew (Australia/UK)
Alice in Californiland
by Arthur Pita (UK)
Flutter
by Robert Dekkers
Petrichor- the smell of earth after rain
by Jennifer Archibal

PRESS

There’s no more defiant a land I can think of than AXIS. AXIS showed me what dance could be.
Bill T. Jones, Choreographer

Fearless and contemporary, and inventive and reinvigorated. AXIS is still breaking artistic ground.
Claudia Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle

To see these performers in dances of gesture - is to realize the liberation that comes from the courageous exploration of human potential.
Iris Fanger, Boston Herald

Inclusive in terms of vocabulary, adapted and highlighted by individual artists, Radical Impact at times felt sculptural like worked stone and yet it also flowed like water.
Rita Felciano, Dance View Times

PRESENTERS

There are many talented dance companies that create strong engagement activities along with their performances, but there are not many that can create the kind of inclusive, immersive experience that AXIS Dance Company creates.
Anthea Scouffas, Director of Engagement / Education,
Leid Center

AXIS's integrated approach to artistry and advocacy is extraordinary and marks them as leaders in the field and change makers to watch.
Kara Gibney, Senior Director of
Community Action, Training and Artist Services

 
Photos: Steve Disenhof, David DeSilva

LINKS
axisdance.org
facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Vimeo
YouTube:
The Making of Alice in Oakland
in•ter•twine Promo
Great Big Story