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Company finds new approach to dance

Oakland Tribune, Oct 21, 2005 by Brenda Payton, STAFF WRITER

Judith Smith is used to the question. When she tells people she performs with a dance company, they seem surprised and ask if she can walk.

"They can't imagine someone in a wheelchair dancing," she said. That's only if they haven't seen Axis Dance Company.

The company, a pioneer in physically integrated dance, has dancers with and without disabilities. As you might expect, the unusual collaboration yields innovative and fascinating expressions of movement.

"You have to see the company to believe it," said Smith, the artistic director. "When you say ballet, everyone can conjure an image of ballet. The same with modern. But when you think of dancers in wheelchairs and an integrated dance work, you have a hard time imagining what it would be."

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Axis started in 1987 after Thais Mazur, the first artistic director, began working with a theater group that included disabled actors.

"She was interested in performance and disability and started a movement class for women who use wheelchairs," Smith recalled. Initially, they were simply preparing a piece for the Dance Brigade's Furious Feet show in 1988. Afterward, requests to perform kept coming.

"We realized we were rehearsing and performing regularly. We started teaching and doing programs in the schools," Smith said. Suddenly they realized they had become a dance company.

Smith and Bonnie Lewkowicz, both disabled dancers, are the only remaining founding members. Over the years, the number of dancers has fluctuated. Currently the company has eight.

"We attract dancers interested in expanding the definition and range of dance," Smith said."There is some adjustment when new dancers without disabilities come in. They have to learn how to move with a person in a wheelchair and how a wheelchair operates. But it's not that different from what you need to learn about any new partner."

Wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and canes are usually associated with limited movement. In Axis dances, however, they expand the limits of movement.

"Our dance vocabulary is because of the equipment not in spite of it. We have the potential to create movement other dancers can't," she said.

For example, power wheel chairs can support a person for longer periods of time than a person can.

"You might have someone gliding across the floor in a chair next to someone walking or someone being dragged across the floor by the dancer in the wheelchair," Smith explained. "It creates interesting movement dynamics."

In 1997, the company began commissioning choreographers to create dances. Steve Petronio, known for his fast, articulate footwork, was one of the first.

"It was a little scary for him and tentative for us," Smith said. "In the end he made some discoveries he's used on his own company. The exchange goes both ways."

Since, the company has worked with such well-known choreographers as Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Sonya Delwaide, Victoria Marks, Ann Carlson and Bill T. Jones. Jones created "Fantasy in C Major," which won an Isadora Duncan Dance Award.

Axis also expands the dance experience for its audience, attracting disabled people who rarely see themselves reflected on stage, as well as dance lovers who appreciate the innovative movement and quality of the work.

"I think what we do is so different. It ends up being accessible to people."

Smith said there are five similar companies nationwide and 40 worldwide. They all started about the same time, when dance was becoming more experimental and disabled people were gaining more rights and visibility.

This season's program includes "Terre Brune," a premiere by Sonya Delwaide in her fourth piece for Axis. The music is composed and performed by cellist Joan Jeanrenaud of Kronos Quartet. It also features a Bay Area premiere of "Flesh," by Ann Carlson with music by Meredith Monk, which has been very popular with audiences across the country; "Dust" by Victoria Marks; and "Decorum" by company member Katie Faulkner.

Axis was so busy touring last year, it did not have a home season. "It's nice to come home," Smith said.

Axis Dance Company performs its 2005 home season, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m., $22 general; $20 disabled, seniors and students; $14, people 17 years old and younger; Sunday, 2 p.m. family performance sponsored by Target, $10.

Listings

- Friday -- Benefit for the Oxfam/America Katrina Relief Fund with Cajun and Creole music, readings by Maxine Hong Kingston, devorah major, Opal Adisa Palmer, Michael Chabon, Aya de Leon and many more, 7:30 p.m., Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. Donations of $10 and more at the door.

- Friday and Saturday -- Berkeley Art Center Second International Small Film Festival (also Oct. 27, 28 and 29), will screen 27 films, including eight short films produced by San Francisco teen filmmakers. Screenings begin at 7:30 p.m., discussions each night after the screening, Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley, sliding scale $2 to $10. For film schedules, visit berkeleyartcenter.org and click on events.

Company finds new approach to dance

Oakland Tribune, Oct 21, 2005 by Brenda Payton, STAFF WRITER

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