AXIS Dance Company

AXIS Dance Company, one of the world’s most acclaimed and innovative ensembles featuring performers with and without disabilities, will change the way audiences think about dance and the capabilities of the human body with two spectacular performances at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.

AXIS Dance Company was founded in 1987, and since its inception as a local California Bay Area dance company, it has become a jewel of contemporary dance and disability culture. AXIS has paved the way for a powerful contemporary dance form known as “physically integrated” dance. Now in its third decade, AXIS continues to challenge traditional dance and incorporates dancers with disabilities, a community which historically has virtually been excluded from the art form. For their exclusive Chicago engagement at ATRU, AXIS will perform choreographer Mark Brew’s “Full of Words” (2011), “Light Shelter” (2009) by David Dorfman and “Vessel” (2008) by Alex Ketley in collaboration with poet Carol Snow.

According to The New York Times, “AXIS’s work instructs the viewer in how to appreciate it, and the lesson is delivered with cogent force: Sympathy is irrelevant,” while the Chicago Tribune says “Audiences unaccustomed to seeing such inventive movement generated from what could be considered limitation may find themselves re-evaluating their own ideas of artistic perfection.”