AXIS Dance Company

Last updated on October 14, 2008

To create and perform contemporary dance developed by the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities. To teach and educate on disability and collaboration. To support and promote physically integrated dance locally, nationally and internationally.

Description:
AXIS performs and tours their repertory nationally. Through its model education programs Dance Access and its youth component Dance Access/KIDS!, AXIS offers classes and workshops for adults and youth of all abilities, school assemblies, presentations, lecture demonstrations and residencies locally and abroad. Dance Access was a featured part of the Kennedy Center’s national Imagination Celebration at the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival and received the CA Arts Council Exemplary Arts award in 2002. Dance Access/KIDS! is currently on the roster of Young Audiences of Northern California and is featured on the Young Audience's national Arts4Learning website.

History:
Since 1987, AXIS Dance Company has been a pioneer in the world of dance, creating and presenting cutting-edge, contemporary works by dancers with and without disabilities. More than any other company in the United States, AXIS has been a bridge between contemporary dance and physically integrated dance. Under the direction of Judith Smith, the company has collaborated with and commissioned works by such movement innovators as Stephen Petronio, Bill T. Jones, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Sonya Delwaide, Victoria Marks, Ann Carlson and Margaret Jenkins. In addition, AXIS’ own choreographers have created over forty repertory works, two evening length works and two works for young audiences. These have been performed throughout the United States and Europe, earning international praise for the company’s high artistic and educational standards and groundbreaking movement vocabulary.

AXIS has received numerous Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (IZZIES) including:
• Best Ensemble Performance in 2002 for “Sans Instruments” choreographed by Sonya Delwaide
• Best Company Performance in 2000 for AXIS’ entire Home Season
• Best Choreography in 2000 for Bill T. Jones’ “Fantasy in C Major”
• Best Individual Performance in 2000 to Uli Schmitz, the first disabled dancer to receive this award
• Best Costume Design in 2001 to Mario Alonzo

The company has also received numerous IZZIE nominations for Best Choreography in 2007 for “Waypoint” by Margaret Jenkins; Best Ensemble Performance in ‘Dance in a Wing Chair’ in 2003, Best Lighting Design by Alexander V. Nichols in 2001 and 2002; Best Music in 2002 for a capella group SoVoSó’s composition for “Sans Instruments”; Best Choreography in 2001 for “Suite sans Suite” by Sonya Delwaide; Choreography in 1999 for “Takala” by Nicole Richter and Stephanie McGlynn; and for Choreography in ‘96/’97 for “Hidden Histories/Visible Differences” by Thais Mazur. In 2000, AXIS was honored with a Goldie for Dance from the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Outstanding Local Discovery Awards. Oakland’s Mayor Jerry Brown awarded AXIS a ‘Key to Creativity‘ in 2002 in honor of its artistic achievements.

AXIS has been featured on San Francisco public television station KQED’s Spark in 2004, WNET’s nationally-broadcast People In Motion and in a documentary video, Dancing From the Inside Out, which won over a dozen awards including one from Dance On Camera in New York and another from the National Educational Film and Video Festival. AXIS dancers have also served as consultants and models for the creation of Life Forms choreography software used to introduce disabled students to dance and choreography.

Among the Company’s most notable performances are the Olympic Arts Festival, Salt Lake City; Meredith Monk’s 40th Anniversary Celebration, New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Central Park Summerstage, New York; Paralympics, Atlanta; Florida Dance Festival, Miami; Walker Arts Center/Southern Theater, Minneapolis; Cal Performances and UAM/PFA, Berkeley; The Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT; UMass Fine Arts Center, Amherst, MA; University of Koln, Germany; Dance Umbrella’s International Festival of Aerial Dance in Boston; and Railroad Theater, Novosibirsk, Siberia. In collaboration with Dance Umbrella, AXIS planned and curated the first International Festival of Wheelchair Dance in June 1997, the largest and most prestigious event of its kind in the history of this relatively new dance form.

Through its model education programs Dance Access and its youth component Dance Access/KIDS!, AXIS offers classes and workshops for adults and youth of all abilities, school assemblies, presentations, lecture demonstrations and residencies locally and abroad. Dance Access was a featured part of the Kennedy Center’s national Imagination Celebration at the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival and received the CA Arts Council Exemplary Arts award in 2002. Dance Access/KIDS! is currently on the roster of Young Audiences of Northern California and is featured on the Young Audience's national Arts4Learning website.

Contact people:

Mollie McFarland, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email)
Judith Smith, Executive Director

Main office number: (510) 625-0110
Office fax number: 510-625-0321

Address:

1428 Alice Street, Suite #200
Oakland, CA 94612
(See a map)

Web Site: http://www.axisdance.org

Directions:

The Alice Arts Center is located at 1428 Alice Street in downtown Oakland between 14th and 17th Streets. The entrance to the Alice Arts Center is located after the box office window and before Cafe 1428. Guests of the Alice Arts Center must sign in and out of the facility at the security desk at the front entrance. AXIS's office is located on the second floor in Suite 201. AXIS's classes are hosted in a number of different studios, and can usually be determined by asking the security desk, or from AXIS flyers. The AXIS office phone number is (510) 625-0110. The Alice Arts Center office phone number is (510) 238-7217. To Drive: From San Francisco: Take Bay Bridge to 580E towards Oakland/Hayward. From 580E take the 980 exit towards downtown Oakland. From 980 take the 18th/14th Street exit. Get in the far right lane. Go through first stoplight. Get into left lane. At second stoplight, 14th Street, turn left. Continue up 14th Street past Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Broadway until you hit Alice Street. A day care center is on the far left corner. At Alice Street turn left. The Alice Arts Center is the second building on your right hand side. From Berkeley: Take Martin Luther King Boulevard towards Oakland. Get in one of the two left lanes. Martin Luther King Boulevard will enter directly onto Hwy. 24 just past Children's Hospital. Immediately exit Hwy. 24 onto 980 towards downtown Oakland. This will happen in you remain in the 2 right lanes that you have just used to enter the highway. From 980 take the 18th/14th Street exit. Get in the far right lane. Go through first stoplight. Get into left lane. At second stoplight, 14th Street, turn left. Continue up 14th Street past Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Broadway until you hit Alice Street. A day care center is on the far left corner. At Alice Street turn left. The Alice Arts Center is the second building on your right hand side. From Marin: Take Richmond Bridge to 80 W towards Berkeley/San Francisco. Get in the left lanes. From 80 W take 580 E towards Oakland/Hayward. From 580E take the 980 exit towards downtown Oakland. From 980 take the 18th/14th Street exit. Get in the far right lane. Go through first stoplight. Get into left lane. At second stoplight, 14th Street, turn left. Continue up 14th Street past Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Broadway until you hit Alice Street. A day care center is on the far left corner. At Alice Street turn left. The Alice Arts Center is the second building on your right hand side. Public Transport: From 12th Street/City Center BART: Exit onto Broadway. Find Broadway and 14th Street. Walk up 14th Street towards Lake Merritt, away from GAP and City Center. Walk approximately 4 blocks to Alice Street. At Alice Street turn left. The Alice Arts Center is the second building on your right hand side. ACCESSIBLE TRANSIT OPTIONS: EAST BAY PARATRANSIT: (510) 287-5040. Requires 24 hours notice. VETERAN'S CAB: (510) 533-1900. Has wheelchair accessible vans available. Requires. 24-hour notice. No weekend scheduling.
Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 12th Street City Center Bart, Oakland,
Walk distance (in minutes): 8

Miscellaneous Information

Besides English, which languages are spoken at your agency?

No others

What is the minimum age for volunteers at your agency?

18

Is your agency wheelchair accessible?

Yes

Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 10?

No

Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 20?

No

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