The dance world often bases its praise on how dancers can defy gravity with jumps, kicks and twirls. But a few wheelchairs, roller skates and a trapeze helped a Berkeley-based team turn old and powerful ideas of athleticism and running on their head.
By pairing disabled dancers with able-bodied performers, AXIS Dance Company began to shift attention from the impossible to the art of the possible.
The group’s unique exploration of dance – developing different ways to translate inner thoughts, feelings and ideas into physical movement – began as a therapeutic method to restore bodily independence. AXIS’ work in bending the rules of contemporary choreography coincided with the national disability rights movement that began on the campus of UC Berkeley and quickly gained international acclaim.
But as the concept of accessibility continues to evolve, so does the nonprofit’s mission, according to Executive Director Danae Rees.
Significantly, AXIS no longer sees itself as a “physically integrated” dance company – a term the group coined decades ago when it helped introduce audiences and critics to the idea that disabled dancers can not only maintain, but also elevate the power of the stage with able-bodied peers.
Rees said the modern iteration of AXIS now engages the abilities of disabled, non-disabled, id/Deaf and neurodiverse dancers – creating a diverse, more inclusive life experience that demonstrates the beauty found in difference.
But many of the concerns that inspired the group’s formation remain, centered on structural inequality in health care, employment and education. That’s why collaboration is important in promoting AXIS’s artistic heritage and advocacy, he said, pointing to the company’s performance calendar, which they have strengthened with educational resources, such as the Choreo-Lab Fellowship, and teaching opportunities through a number of workshops.
“The definition of disability has expanded over time, so we’ve made a change,” Rees said in December. “Being able to just create, without expecting to have a final product, is often not an option given to artists with disabilities. It’s something that feels really important to continue to nurture.”
AXIS didn’t have deep roots in the East Bay by accident. Judith Smith, one of the company’s founders, had moved here in the 1980s after being seriously injured in a car accident. He was drawn to a burgeoning independent living community, led by followers such as Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann, who over the years began to push for more rights and resources.
Smith’s extensive rehab that included a series of self-defense, zen and other disability workshops, however, became wheelchair mobility classes. In 1987, he joined Bonnie Lewkowicz and Thais Mazur to found the “Dis-slash-Abled, with a capital A, Dance Troupe,” Smith told UC Berkeley historians. The group settled on the name “AXIS” and became a non-profit organization three years later, which opened up funding opportunities for the dancers to continue to dazzle crowds with their novel moves.
“Our dance vocabulary is because of the equipment, not in spite of it,” Smith told the news organization in 2005, explaining how the accessibility of navigation is not the same as learning steps with a new dance partner. “We have the ability to make moves that other dancers cannot.”
Besides showing off a range of wheelchairs, prostheses and crutches, Smith praised the audience who flocked to the stage to see what was being seen on stage.
Yet a chronic lack of accessibility continues to shut the disabled community out of arts venues in the Bay Area and across the country, Rees said. That’s why he and Nadia Adame, the company’s artistic director, compiled the “Access Guide to Presenting and Touring Performing Arts” in 2024, which offers free, online resources for a variety of different needs, including “comfortable performances” that reduce loud noises and strobe light. There are also descriptions of developments in the protection of people with disabilities, and checklists for recreational facilities, restrooms and green spaces for permanent physical barriers after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
“There’s no one way to think about this — we can’t say how to do it because every area is different,” Rees said, explaining the different roadblocks depending on the area’s size, location and budget. “We’ve tried to provide more tangible guidelines and resources to help support that activity so it becomes part of the (business’ everyday) practice.”
This project has taken several years to develop, fueled by constant complaints and suggestions from many experts, but it has arrived on time. Trump administration officials have already rolled back new and old guidelines for public businesses like hotels and shopping malls on how to comply with the ADA — the latest policy change that disability advocates say undermines the accessibility law.
Nadia Adame took over as artistic director of AXIS in 2022, which was a kind of homecoming after dancing in the group almost two decades ago. Before putting together an independent, disability-focused collaboration that reimagined “A Christmas Carol” at Center REP in Walnut Creek during AXIS’s recent break, Adame led the May collaboration of “Kinematic/Kinesthetic,” which explored the intersection of technology and anatomy, experimenting with dances featuring telescoping rods and robotic engineering legs.
Rees said AXIS will continue to push the boundaries and expand reach – both on and off the dance floor.
“Without enough accessibility, artists like us can’t even be on stage, which also means audiences can’t come and participate and have that cultural experience,” said Rees, explaining how the changes affect the entire arts community, regardless of ability. “If we focus on accessibility for everyone, then everyone feels welcome in those spaces.” This fact hit home during the crisis, he said, when mounting accessibility issues forced AXIS to move out of its longtime Oakland studio.
“But we felt like it was time to go back to Berkeley,” Rees said. “It feels very important — to continue to do the work that we’re doing — to be in the place where that movement started.”
