Why do I care so much about AXIS?, by Tom Metz
Written by admin2 on December 22nd, 2008Filed under: Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board, Irked Videos, Irked Audio, Interviews
Why do I care so much about AXIS?
by Tom Metz
Why do I care so much about AXIS?
I started taking classes with AXIS Dance Company after attending a performance with my good friend Michael Perreault at the Berkeley Art Museum in 1994. It was one of the most beautiful and physically charismatic works I had ever seen. It was also terrifying for me, as I was confronted by my own feelings around disability. When we saw a flyer in the lobby for classes, Michael and I basically dared each other to sign up.
If the performance stirred up fear, actually taking classes elicited a response that was quite the opposite—pure joy. The dance studio became my marvelous laboratory for re-discovery, the only place I felt truly physically free and unafraid in the context of a daily reality where the simplest daily activities present a challenge and a peril-walking, dressing, doing chores, or “running” errands. What a pleasure to be unabashedly physical again, exuberantly, uninhibitedly free.
The following year, Michael and I were invited to collaborate with AXIS in creating their first full evening-length performance piece, Hidden Histories, which premiered at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason, San Francisco, in 1996. In 1997 we toured Boston and Orlando. It was a thrill, to say the least. I continued to take classes with AXIS, and then I served on the board.
I am glad people can benefit today from the same creative laboratory I did. My primary relationship with AXIS now is that of an adoring fan. AXIS is a jewel of the Bay Area, and as a member of the performing arts audience, I have come to depend on its contribution to the public dialogue about art and creativity. I come away from an AXIS performance replenished and renewed in a way that I am by no other performance company. AXIS delivers a kind of Truth and Beauty not available from any other group.
There are only a handful of physically integrated dance companies worldwide. We are hungry to hear what AXIS has to say. Nobody else expresses the physical aesthetic of AXIS, has the variety of its dance vocabulary, the depth of its repertoire, and, at this point, the richness of its cultural tradition.
AXIS has begun a new dialogue and created a culture where none existed before. And after 20 years, it has gotten to the point where, nowadays, when I see a dance company that does not have a diversity of body types or a wide range of movement vocabulary, I shake my head and I think something is missing. Because I know it is.
I encourage you to support AXIS in any way that you can. Acknowledging that the economy has taken its toll on everyone’s pockets, now more than ever is a perfect time to invest in something that has a deep and lasting significance to our cultural and social landscape.
Sincerely,
Tom Metz (AXIS Guest Dancer, 1995-1997)
*To make a tax-deductible donation towards AXIS Dance Company CLICK HERE or visit www.axisdance.org.
Watch highlights from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography’s “Free to Rep” program with AXIS Dance Company and choreographers Isabel Croxatto (Chile), Shinichi lova-Koga (CA), Alex Ketley (NY), and Kate Weare (NY). The four choreographers were selected from 63 applicants interested in working with AXIS, as part of a pilot MANCC program. Video segment produced by Shinsuke Fukamachi:
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Listen to “Pushing Limits”—an in-depth radio interview with founding dancer and current artistic director Judith Smith and other AXIS Dance Company members. Originally broadcast on KPFA last month.
Listen to interview (27-min):
Watch an excerpt from WNET’s nationally-broadcast production of People in Motion (1995), written, produced and directed by Lyn Goldfarb, and hosted by Itzhak Perlman:
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Listen to a KadmusArts interview with Judith Smith—part of an ongoing series with the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. In this podcast Judith talks about physically integrated dance, identity politics and AXIS Dance’s very busy schedule:
Listen to interview (15-min):
For more, visit www.axisdance.org.
Or…read more about AXIS Dance Company on Irked Magazine.
