AXIS STRETCHES REPERTORY.

AXIS STRETCHES REPERTORY

AXIS DANCE COMPANY

COWELL THEATER, FT. MASON SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA JUNE 22-24, 2000

REVIEWED BY RACHEL HOWARD

Though becoming ever more mainstream, the burgeoning genre of integrated dance--in which able-bodied dancers perform alongside dancers who are disabled--still has a thing or two to prove: It must demonstrate that what they do is dance and not therapy; that the work belongs on the concert stage, and that it can be of professional quality. Like London's inspiring CandoCo Dance Company, Oakland-based Axis has adopted these lofty goals and taken on the daring strategy of commissioning works from established choreographers. In the company's first all-commissioned home season, that bold plan paid off beautifully with the West Coast premiere of Bill T. Jones's Fantasy in C Major.

It's clear that Jones invested much time exploring just what these seven dancers could do--quite a lot, actually--and then crafted a piece based on their potential vocabulary. It turns out that wheelchairs are ideal for whipping through space and making kaleidoscopic formations. Fantasy, set to the brisk Schubert concerto, is therefore a deeply geometric and elegant piece. It is also pure dance: gestural, as in the shaking heads that so nicely mirror the music's tinkling scales, and dramatic, as in the shifting dynamics that come with unconventional partnerships. It is propulsive, at times sending dancers leaping and skipping, balancing on the arm of another dancer's zooming wheelchair in the equivalent of classical partnering. And it takes risks. At one point, Uli Schmitz tumbles onto the floor, and Stephanie McGlynn assumes his chair like a throne. Later, the two roll together in a surprisingly graceful duet.

If Joe Goode's sarcastic Jane Eyre was less successful, its shortcomings had nothing to do with Axis. Those who think Goode's work is overrated would find supportive evidence in this new piece, which questions the Bronte heroine's "boundless" love for the blind Mr. Rochester. Goode's text was rarely memorable and was never integrated with the movement in this performance. The parallels suggested by blindness as a form of disability, and problems of Jane's love and the dancers' own relationships, could have made wonderfully unflinching material had they been mined more deeply. Goode did produce some striking movement combinations. At one point, dancers anchored their right arms around the far side of their partners' wheelchairs, allowing the dancers with disabilities to reach out further than normal and create a simple long, clean line.

Sonya Delwaide's Chuchotements and Joanna Haigood's Descending Cords have become standards, and both repertory pieces were beautifully performed. Delwaide's biting work, set to Telemann excerpts with an audio collage overlay of whispers and heckles by Amy X Neuburg, hints at a bevy of interpretations--restricted vs. unrestricted as reflected in the metaphor of marriage, the social code between "disabled" and "non-disabled" persons as reflected in Baroque manners--yet it remains ultimately inscrutable. The aerial work of Haigood's piece showcases two of Axis's most eloquent dancers, Schmitz and Nicole Richter, but it feels static.

One resounding triumph--Jones's Fantasy--amid an otherwise solid program is no mean feat. High-profile commissions aren't cheap, and after three years of struggle Axis is beginning to reap rewards for what may qualify as an act of heroism. Later this year, choreographer Stephen Petronio will create a new work for the company that is scheduled to premiere in 2001. It should prove just one more mile down a risky but gratifying road.