AXIS Dance Company Names Robin Anderson New Executive Director

AXIS Dance Company greets 2018 with the appointment of Robin Anderson as new Executive Director. The appointment comes on the heels of a year that saw the company celebrate its 30th anniversary and the appointment of Marc Brew as new Artistic Director, with the company's first home season under his direction deemed both a popular and a critical success.

Anderson brings deep experience in the arts to her new role with experience in dance-arts administration that spans 19 years, 4 cities and 6 organizations, supporting genres ranging from African, to ballet, to contemporary. Before joining AXIS in 2015 as Engagement Director-where she was responsible for managing the company's bookings- she spent 7 years at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center as director.

"I am very excited for this new opportunity and eager to expand AXIS' identity in Oakland through building and expanding corporate and non-profit partnerships," says Anderson. "Like Mayor Schaff, I believe that the arts are an essential ingredient to the secret sauce of our city and need to be acknowledged and woven into its cultural fabric and identity."

Anderson and Brew intend to work together to source new opportunities for exposing the work of AXIS to a wider community both nationally and internationally. "As the new Executive Director of AXIS Dance Company, Robin will continue to share her extensive experience from her previous role and knowledge of the company, and the dance and disability sector," says Brew. "With Robin's strong non-profit arts management background and her keen sense for building relationships with communities and seeking out new partnerships with organizations and presenters, I am extremely excited for the future at AXIS and moving the company forward with this strong co-leadership relationship."

"We are excited to announce Robin as our new Executive Director," said Jeanie Bunker, AXIS Board Chair. "Over the years, Robin has shown that she has the strong and collaborative leadership style we need and a personal philosophy that is aligned to our core value of radically inclusive dance. As our Executive Director, she will be a dynamic leader and will build upon our accomplishments as AXIS continues to shape the future of dance and disability"

With a continued interest in expanding AXIS' local and national visibility, in their first year of co-leadership, Brew and Anderson are excited to launch a SF Season at Z Space May 4 and 5, a new Choreographers Lab for disabled artists in June, and a possible UK tour in the fall.

About Robin Anderson
Robin's career in dance-arts administration spans 19 years, 4 cities and 6 organizations, supporting genres ranging from African, to ballet, to contemporary. Robin is inspired to now be working with AXIS Dance Company and championing the field of integrated dance.

Robin joined AXIS in 2015, tasked with organizing their engagement programs. Her role quickly grew, and in the last two years Robin has managed all of the company's bookings and produced their recent Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Production with choreographer Stephan Koplowitz. This past spring, she completed the Oakland Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Oakland Program. Robin is honored to step into the role of Executive Director of AXIS at this critical juncture, partnering with Artistic Director Marc Brew to define its path for the next 30 years of rule-breaking.

Drawn to weaving arts organizations into the fabric of a city's culture, community building is Robin's passion. While serving as Director of the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center (2007-2014), she started their first outreach programs, including co-founding the 24 Days of Central Market Arts Festival and serving on the board of the Central Market Community Benefit District. In addition to managing their program of 80 weekly classes, she initiated new programming such as All Can Dance for Just $5 and their Absolute Beginning Workshops series to reach new clientele.

After nine years in Portland, Oregon where she began her career at Homowo African Arts & Cultures, Conduit and Oregon Ballet Theatre, Robin left to pursue her MFA in dance at the Ohio State University (2013-2016). While there, she produced a multi-media, site-based audience development series and worked for the Performing Arts Department of the Wexner Center.

About Marc Brew
?Acclaimed International choreographer Marc Brew trained as a professional dancer at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and The Australian Ballet School. He has been working in the UK and Internationally for the past 19 years as a director, choreographer, dancer, teacher and speaker; with the Australian Ballet Company, State Theatre Ballet Company of South Africa, Infinity Dance Theatre, CandoCo Dance Company and as Associate Director with Scottish Dance Theatre and Guest Artistic Director with AXIS Dance Company. Since 2008 Marc has been dedicating time to his own choreography with Marc Brew Company and is currently Associate Artistic Director with Ballet Cymru in Wales and was Associate Artist in 2015 at Tramway Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland where he is now based. Recent choreographic commissions include Scottish Ballet, Ballet Cymru, AXIS Dance Company (USA), Candoco Dance Company (UK), Touch Compass (NZ), Amy Seiwert's Imagery (USA), GDance, Scottish Dance Theatre, Greewnwich & Docklands International Festival and City of London Festival (UK). Marc was featured by Time Out Magazine as the best of the new breed of London's Rising Dance Talent and was presented with a Centenary Medal for Outstanding Contribution as a dancer and choreographer. His work Remember When was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Best Performance (individual) and his recent solo work For Now, I am... was listed in the Guardians Top 10 Dance Shows for 2016. More information www.marcbrew.com

About AXIS Dance Company
AXIS Dance Company exists to change the face of dance and disability through
Artistry, Engagement and Advocacy. Founded in 1987, AXIS is the nation's most acclaimed ensembles of performers with and without disabilities. Based in Oakland, CA and in its 30th year AXIS' list of collaborators includes Bill T. Jones, Stephen Petronio, Yvonne Rainer, Ann Carlson, David Dorfman, Marc Brew, Meredith Monk, Joan Jeanrenaud and Fred Frith. AXIS has toured to over 100 cities in US, Europe and Russia. The Company has received seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and has appeared twice on FOX TV's So You Think You Can Dance, exposing their important and relevant work of physically integrated dance to millions. Through education and outreach programs thousands of children and adults of all ages and abilities are inspired to dance each year. For more information visit axisdance.org.

Photo: New AXIS Dance Company Executive Director Robin Anderson (David DeSilva)

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