BILL T. JONES CREATES WORK FOR AXIS.

OAKLAND, California--When Jeremy Alliger, executive director of Boston's Dance Umbrella, asked Judy Smith, codirector of Axis Dance Company, "Which choreographer would you like to work with?" she assumed it was a hypothetical question. She went with her most vivid fantasy and answered, "Bill T. Jones." This September, Jones will be creating a new piece for Axis, a company of disabled and able-bodied dancers, to premiere in Boston in June 2000.

"A couple of years ago, Jeremy Alliger put something in my ear about working with Axis," explains Jones. "I am fascinated to work with them. They are very interesting people. The challenge will be to avoid the pitfalls and cliches that they feel are so easy to fall into when working with disabled dancers."

Axis evolved out of a dance class for disabled women taught by Thais Mazur in 1987. The group decided to develop a piece based on writing that they had done for the class and it was premiered at the 1988 Furious Feet III festival in Oakland. "Then Krissy Keefer invited us to be in the Dance Brigade's Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie, and we kept getting offers," says Smith. "It was never our intention to become a dance company, but somehow it snowballed into one and pretty soon we were getting our nonprofit status and putting together repertory."

Alliger invited the company to perform its first out-of-state engagement at the Aerial Dance Festival in Boston in 1992. Axis subsequently has toured throughout the United States and appeared in Boston at Dance Umbrella's International Wheelchair Dance Festival, which was co-curated by Smith. Axis has also appeared at the International Dance Workshop in Cologne, Germany, and at FINIST in Novosibirsk, Siberia. In addition, they perform locally, teach classes, and offer workshops.

After a change in leadership two years ago, Axis set up a New Works Fund and began to commission pieces from outside choreographers. "Some of us felt we had already developed our own vocabulary as a result of working collaboratively," says Smith, "but we wanted more and knew that we needed to seek strong directors who would take us places we would not have gone on our own." The company is also working with choreographers Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, and Sonya Delwaide.