inspiration A NEW SPIN
Dancers from around the world converge for a memorable and moving workshop with the AXIS Dance Company. l BY RACHEL TRACHTEN
“W
e get to change how dance looks and how disability looks.” So says Judith Smith, director of AXIS Dance Company, whose dancers with and without disabilities routinely thrill and surprise audiences nationwide. A key part of AXIS’s mission—and a full 50 percent of their time—goes toward education about physically integrated dance. Devoting so much time to education is quite unusual, says Smith, making AXIS not just one of the first companies to showcase integrated dance, but
also one of the few groups to create opportunities for study. They accomplish this through workshops given across the country and a summer intensive in the company’s home town of Oakland, California. This summer, 30 dancers of myriad abilities, from England, Ireland, South Africa, Sweden, the West Indies, and across the US, converged for AXIS’s seventh annual summer intensive. Dancers ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s took part in the weeklong program led by Smith and other company members. C ONTI NU E D O N PA G E 1 3
PHOTO: DARREN MILLER
Dwayne Scheuneman, who founded REVolutions Dance in Florida, extends his reach in a lively duo with AXIS company member Sonsheree Giles.