On IrkedMagazine.com, we’ve highlighted the extraordinary work of AXIS Dance Company multiple times over the past few years (hopefully driving a steady trickle of curious readers to their website).
But now, finally, AXIS has hit the mother lode…
The votes have all been tallied, and AXIS Dance Company has won Diablo Magazine’s “Best of the East Bay: Best Dance Troupe” award! AXIS wishes to extend a giant thank you to all those who voted…
Quoting diablomag.com:
First-time winner Axis Dance Company is no stranger to East Bay arts fans. Founded in 1987 and earning seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, Axis has been dazzling audiences with its unique mission of integrating dancers with disabilities. The artistry is stunning: a woman twirling, stretched horizontally on a tipped-over wheelchair; a man in a handstand on the back of an upright wheelchair; and lines and imagery that push the boundaries of contemporary dance. Axis is working with New York choreographer David Dorfman on a world-premiere piece to open in November — 1428 Alice St., Oakland, CA, (510) 625-0110, axisdance.org.
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Circle Stories #2, a 1997 painting of Bill Shannon by Riva Lehrer
In December of 2007, we introduced you to New York-based phenom William Shannon when we published Riva Lehrer’s feature. Bill Shannon is a wildly popular (and constantly gaining steam) dancer, skateboarder, choreographer and video artist who holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Shannon’s choreography is based on the natural language of his body and its movements, as affected by severe osteoarthritis and Legg-Perthes disease.
Needless to say, we were elated to recently learn that Bill Shannon was chosen by the highfalutin ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi London to star in a new big budget TV commercial, as part of its European “Life flows better with Visa” marketing campaign.
Irked Magazine proudly presents Mathieu Labaye’s remarkable short-movie “Orgesticulanismus”—a movie that’s difficult to pronounce, but impossible to forget. This is an extraordinary, poignant tribute to his father, Benoît Labaye, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 29 years old. Benoît Labaye had been confined to a wheelchair since age 40 and died at 55 years old on April 22, 2006, as a result of pneumonia.
CLICK HERE to watch Orgesticulanismus.
Story courtesy of Élaine Hébert’s CitizenShift/ParoleCitoyenne blog
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. Click to continue »
“One of the most central aspects of Circle Stories is that the person sitting for me has control over their imagery, and that the portrait reflect their own honest experience, and as much as possible that I wouldn’t impose my own ideas to the detriment of their own reality.”
