The AXIS Dance Company, a pioneering professional dance group, began in 1987.  Today, founding dancer Judith Smith is the artistic director of a creative, groundbreaking group of dancers— some with disabilities, others without.  Along with Alice Sheppard, Rodney Bell, Bonnie Lewkowicz, and many other dancers, the AXIS Dance Company performs throughout the country and the world, and also offers educational programs at its base of operations in Oakland.

The San Francisco Bay Area is known as one of the most innovative places for modern dance, and AXIS has thrived as a professional touring company, offering educational programs not just in Oakland, but in cities throughout the country.

How can you describe “physically integrated dance” in words? Without a firmly-established vocabulary, like that of ballet (which has evolved over a century), “you have to see it to believe it.”