Just One of the Gang

Photograph by Marty Sohl

People who normally rely on canes and wheelchairs take center stage in the work of the Axis Dance Company, but in every other way, the charity’s goals are the same as most troupes’: to produce great performances.

“Always, the first goal is to create good art,” says Judith Smith, artistic director at Axis, in Oakland, Calif. “You can create a tremendous amount of movement using people who move differently than you can when people all move basically the same.” In the process, she says, many people may change their perception of what people with disabilities can do, but that is not a primary objective.

Ms. Smith, a dancer, uses a wheelchair as a result of a spinal-cord injury she sustained 25 years ago in a car accident. There are five other disabled dancers in the 10-person company, including one with muscular dystrophy and another who had childhood polio. They perform complex works choreographed for them by some of the biggest names in modern dance, including Joe Goode and Bill T. Jones, with wheelchairs figuring prominently and a trapeze helping to add an aerial dimension.

Axis, which performs around the country, also brings its shows to schools and offers classes for people of all ages, with and without disabilities. It operates on a $250,000 annual budget, provided mostly by foundations and government

While the charity’s agenda is not political, says Ms. Smith, the group takes pride in defying stereotypes. “The dancers who are disabled just become one of ‘gang on earth’ instead of ‘other,’” she says.

Here, two dancers who were injured in car accidents perform for the company. Nadia Adame sustained a spinal-cord injury, and Jacques Poulin-Denis lost his right foot on his way to dance school.