Backstage, AXIS

By: Artistic Director, John Byrne

When AXIS Dance Company takes the stage on March 12 at the Arts United Center, it will be the first time Fort Wayne will experience a professional, physically integrated dance company. Celebrating and showcasing the collaboration of 6 dancers, some with disabilities and some without, Fort Wayne will see a tour-de-force of fiercely physical, superhuman artistry. It will also be the first time the Arts United Center will provide over thirty wheelchair accessible seats for audience members.

Founded in 1987, AXIS Dance Company started with their very first piece In This Body, which told the story of Bonnie Lewkowick, a young girl who became disabled and then rediscovered dance. The piece was a dynamic partnership of dancers who used wheelchairs and dancers who did not use wheelchairs. They circled, and drove through space, partnering over each other and around each other, a free-spirited testament that a disability is only a springboard to new possibilities.

Since 1990, under the direction of Judith Smith, an established dancer and educator who survived a car-accident at age 17, the company has grown stronger and become an international presence along other mainstream dance companies. You could say that being physically integrated is not what defines AXIS, but rather serves part of their story as they have been creating groundbreaking artistic and socially relevant new work with the most in-demand choreographers in modern dance.

In this month’s Dance Magazine, writer Lauren Wingenroth maintains, “watching (dancers) Dwayne Scheuneman and Keon Saghari partner is like watching contact improvisation meet parkour.” Wingenroth is referring to a duet from Marc Brew’s Divide, which will be performed during AXIS’ March 12 engagement in Fort Wayne. Read the article, Beyond Ability here.

AXIS will also perform “Dix minutes plus tard,” a tight, intense physical duet for two women set to the music of Schubert.

But the driving force for AXIS’ 2016 tour is a brand new work from choreographer Joe Goode, “to go again” which honors the resiliency of veterans and their families.

In fact, thanks to a vision from FWDC former Artistic Director Liz Monnier, and because of support from Lincoln Financial Foundation, Arts Midwest, and New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), AXIS will offer a full residency around their work “to go again” in the days leading up to the performance. On Thursday, March 11 and Friday March 12, AXIS Dance Company will be facilitating creative movement workshops, master classes and open rehearsals that are open to the general public, and tailored to honor stories of veterans and their families.

We had the pleasure to speak by phone with two dancers from AXIS, Sophie Stanley, a non-disabled dancer who’s powerful movement and optimistic philosophy is sure to change, and Dwayne Scheuneman a dancer (and US NAVY veteran) who uses adaptive equipment including his wheelchair to propel, leap, race and balance through space with stunning precision.

After Dwayne Scheuneman broke the c7 disk in his spine during a diving injury, he was obliged to use a wheelchair for mobility. But this didn’t stop him from training as a dancer and eventually forming his own integrated dance company, REVolutions Dance, in Tampa Florida. After taking several workshops with AXIS in Miami, Dwayne formed a relationship with Artistic Director Judith Smith. A few years later, Dwayne was invited to move to Oakland, CA and join AXIS Dance Company.

Sophie Stanley was born in Oxfordshire, England. She trained in dance and musical theater from an early age, mostly working in the commercial dance scene and the West End. Sophie took a position as a support worker for a professional dancer working in physically integrated dance company, Stopgap. After several years of touring with Stopgap, Sophie joined the company as a dancer. According to Sophie “the dance world is small, and the physically integrated world is even smaller.” So when Sophie moved to the Bay area to follow her husband, she was already familiar with AXIS Dance Company.   Once in Oakland, Sophie went to AXIS, knocked on the door and told them “ This is what I’ve been doing. I’d love to take class.” This led to Sophie working with AXIS as a guest artist, and then joining the company full-time in 2014.

As Fort Wayne excitedly waits for AXIS to bring their new work to town, we were curious to know more about what its like working in a physically integrated dance company. We also wanted to know more about the piece “to go again” choreographed by Joe Goode, which tells the real-life stories of veteran survivors and their resiliency.

JOHN BYRNE: What is one thing about working and touring as a physically integrated dance company that might surprise the public?

SOPHIE: Sometimes people look and see a spectrum of limitation or may think “they cant do that because of this or that,” but limitations quickly become opportunities to do new things. We don’t feel limited. We are opening up to new experiences and ideas. Touring allows us to do that.

DWAYNE: I think (the public) gets surprised when we perform and they see the dancers with disabilities.   I know because they have expressed this.   They didn’t expect the dancers with disabilities to be at same level of other dancers. They expect to be interested, but are always surprised by the quality that we contribute; they are surprised that we are parallel to other performers.

JB: Are there any challenges or surprises that you find come to choreographers as they work with a company of physically integrated dancers? 

SOPHIE: Yes. If the choreographer hasn’t worked with this mix of dancers, there is an element of fear of the unknown. “How am I going to ask for something that comes from a body type I don’t understand?” But just by working with us, using mainstream techniques, its very similar to working with any other company. Each dancer is bringing their own toolkit to table – as a choreographer, suddenly one realizes there is more possibility for creativity and innovation. You now have movement options you didn’t understand, but you find ways of creating a whole new rich movement vocabulary.

DWAYNE: To AXIS’ credit, our mission to change the face of dance and disability is really reflective when choreographers come in and they are ready to get to work. With us, they use the same improvisation tactics that they use with other dancers. Probably 30 years ago it would be different. But today, many choreographers come with an open mind.

JB: Are there things that become possible with your ensemble that wouldn’t be possible with more traditional dance ensembles?

DWAYNE: Choreographers come in open minded with no reservations. Once they start working with us and seeing possibilities they are like, wow! The way the chair moves or the crutches… this is a whole new dynamic that they are excited to work with. That’s what we provide – a different dynamic between our dancers creates an added level of how we express the material and the work.

JB: The work you do asks much more of you than just being a fiercely physical dancer.  How does the incorporation of vocal and theatrical work become involved (specifically in “to go again”)? Is it something you offer the choreographer, or something the choreographer just asks you to do blindly.

SOPHIE: Vocal work is something prevalent in (choreographer) Joe Goode’s work. We knew there would be vocals or singing. In the studio, Joe looks at whose in front of him and finds ways to bring out what he needs without asking for it. He creates situations. He doesn’t appear to have an exact idea of who’s doing what, but he presents options and sees how you respond. He finds your strength and responds to it. I appreciate that. I trained in musical theater but I was never comfortable doing it. I never did it on stage. Normally, my stomach would be in knots, but somehow, the way he had us work, he never created the feeling that we must sound beautiful. It was about authenticity.   It’s not about being the best singer but saying words in an honest and authentic way and telling story best you can. It is a great luxury when things tour for long time. “to go again” premiered last June, so its had months to settle and mature. We feel more confident with the vocal work and how it’s incorporated. Time allows it to mature with the depth and integrity that is required.

 JB: AXIS Dance Company developed “to go again” with Joe Goode through interviewing veterans and their families. Have you had any contact with these veterans, and how do you approach performing their stories?

DWAYNE: Each dancer sat in on different interview. My interview was with a woman who was in Iraq in the army. Her team had gotten a flat tire. They pulled their truck over to work on it. Someone driving by saw them and decided to (purposefully) run them over with a truck. Four soldiers working on the flat tire were run over. The woman I spoke to suffered a brain injury. In “to go again” Sophie tells the story of the woman and her mother.

I already felt pressure to do the veterans’ stories justice but when we met the woman and heard the story and heard the mother speak, it emphasized the importance to do the story justice. We wanted to tell the stories in a way that didn’t create pity. We wanted to tell them in terms of resilience, rather than “poor person everything is so rough.”

 JB: Sophie, what is it like to express Julie’s story. Are there experiences that you use from your own life to guide you?

SOPHIE: Dwayne had the interview for the words I deliver from Julie. I tell the story from the mother’s perspective. Julie was screaming for months in an institution. A psychic healer told Julie’s mother to tell Julie she was stuck in the accident. The healer told her to tell Julie it was over. One day the mother told Julie six times she was stuck in the accident and it was over, and then Julie stopped screaming. There was a moment of peace. I don’t know how she said the words or the tone but you have to create a little layer of yourself into the character. I don’t personally have any experience with family in war, but for Julie’s story I relate it to my mother and me. Everyone has a mother and a child-like situation. I think about my own mother and how she would feel.

JB: Dwayne, What does resiliency mean to you?

 DWAYNE: It means not giving up. Beyond that, it means finding ways to move on and to figure a way around barriers that drop in our lives unexpectedly.

 JB: Sophie, what does resilience mean to you?

SOPHIE: Resiliency is being able to face an obstacle or challenge and find the strength in yourself to turn it into an opportunity to be creative and survive with style and grace!

JB: Dwayne, as a dancer working with a disability, when you work with non-disabled dancers, do you find that one of you is more willing to take risks from the beginning?

 DWAYNE: It’s more about experience than ability. If I sense my partner has experience, I tend to be more risky. If he has less experience, I kind of ease off on risk. When I first worked with Sophie, I could tell she had experience. I felt like I could take risks with her. As I grow with a dancer more and more, obviously I become more willing to take risks.

JB: Do you have any advice for dancers with disabilities who wish to pursue a career in dance?

DWAYNE: Yes, you can’t wait for someone to find you, you have to go out there and be noticed. Your gonna have to be resilient. Take classes. Don’t worry if the instructor has experience with wheelchairs or crutches, or whatever your situation is.   Go there and plan on figuring it out.

AXIS Dance Company will appear at the Arts United Center, 303 East Main Street, on March 12^th at 8pm. Tickets for the performance and additional events are available for purchase below, or by calling 260-424-6574.  For a full list of AXIS Dance Company residency events, please click here.

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