Founded in 1987 by Thais Mazur, Bonnie Lewkowicz, Judith Smith and others, AXIS was one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities. AXIS dancers with disabilities have included wheelchair users, crutch users, and people with amputations using prosthetic limbs. AXIS dancers who are not disabled come with training in a variety of contemporary dance, improvisation and other movement practices. Through interactions between these dancers and nondisabled dancers, a new dance vocabulary began to be developed. This started a trend, which eventually became known as physically integrated dance, which seeks to broaden the definition of ‘dance’ and ‘dancer’ and increase opportunities for artistic expression through movement for a wide spectrum of physical attributes and disabilities. The physically integrated dance movement is part of a broader disability culture movement, which recognizes and celebrates the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical-model construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, literary, and other creative means. The AXIS Dance Company has commissioned works by a number of renowned choreographers, including Ann Carlson, Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Margaret Jenkins, Bill T. Jones, Victoria Marks, and Stephen Petronio.
National convening
In May 2016 during its 30th anniversary season, AXIS Dance Company hosted the first, three-day National Convening: The Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA at Gibney Dance in New York. This event was supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation National Project Program, and culminated in the creation of the report, The Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA, which looks at “ways to 1) improve and expand training opportunities and develop pedagogy for dancers with disabilities; and 2) improve training and expand opportunities for disabled choreographers and nondisabled choreographers to work with disabled dancers or integrated ensembles.”
Sustained Achievement in 2014 to Judith Smith, Founding Member and Artistic Director Emerita
Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Individual in 2012 to Marc Brew for Remember When
Ensemble Performance in 2008 to Rodney Bell and Sonsheree Giles in To Color Me Different by Alex Ketley
Choreography to Joe Goode in 2008 for the beauty that was mine, through the middle, without stopping...
Ensemble Performance in 2002 to Nadia Adame and Jacques Poulin-Denis in Sans Instruments choreographed by Sonya Delwaide
Costume Design in 2001 to Mario Alonzo for AXIS’ entire Home Season Voyages Elsewhere and Between, choreography by Sonya Delwaide, Bill T. Jones, Stephen Petroni, AXIS’ Stephanie McGlynn and Uli Schmitz and AXIS’ Alisa Rasera and Megan Schirle
Company Performance in 2000 for AXIS’ entire Home Season The Ground, the Air and Places in Between, choreography by Sonya Delwaide, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood and Bill T. Jones
Choreography to Bill T. Jones in 2000 for Fantasy in C Major
Individual Performance in 2000 to Uli Schmitz, the first disabled dancer to receive this award
The company has also received numerous IZZIE nominations for artistic work and production elements.
