AXIS Dance Company's Final Home Season Under Artistic Director Marc Brew Will Debut Three New Works

AXIS Dance Company will perform its 2021 Home Season at Z Space in San Francisco. This will be the last season under current Artistic Director Marc Brew (he/him), who earlier in the year announced he would be moving back to the UK https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/dance/marc-brew-to-leave-axis-dance-company-after-2021-season

The company will be presenting three new works, including Roots Above Ground from Brew.

This 45 minute physically integrated performanceis a personal work that explores the multiple meanings of home. Using his own journey as an immigrant, disabled gay man and dancer as a base from which to work, Brew intends to peel back the layers to get at this universal human need to belong. In forming the piece, he and the company have reached out to a number of individuals through organizations such as https://eastbaysanctuary.orgto broaden, shape and give perspective to the narrative.

"As a world traveller and someone who has never laid down roots in pursuit of my career goals," says Brew, "I have always questioned where my home is and by extension of that, where I belong. Through this work the company is delving deep into personal journeys and reflective worlds to find home as well as the community where we belong and feel at home. I am very excited to also be embedding access into the devising of my new work by collaborating with Deaf/ASL Consultants Antoine Hunter and Zahna Simon and Audio Description with Jess Curtis from Gravity Access Services."

Also on the bill will be some much-anticipated work from Sonsherée Giles (she/her) who many will recognize from her bold and athletic dancing with the company over the last decade. Now rehearsal director for AXIS, she will debut Hold Fast, a series of duets she will also dance in. "Change is constant," says Giles, "and this piece is a reflection on how we struggle, fight, yield, resist, and surrender to our ever changing landscape. We hold fast and steady ourselves as she goes."

Hold Fast is dedicated to the late dancer and choreographer Lisa Bufano and created in her memory.

Rounding out the home season will be Flora Hereafter: how flowers survive from 2020 Pina Bausch Fellow, Neve Mazique Bianco. Bianco (they/he) came up through the ranks of AXIS through their Choreo-Lab program, whose specific mission was to give choreographers with disabilities a collaborative environment within which they are mentored to grow their artistic skills.

Brew began working with the company in 2011 and became Artistic Director in 2017; his stewardship culminated in 2019 in the brilliant and surreal Alice in Californiland, an absolute landmark moment in the company's history in terms of production and technology.

His successor as Artistic Director is Nadia Adame, an actress, writer, and award winning dancer & choreographer, who will be present for the home season. After which she and the company will embark on a tour of Germany.

"I am honored and humbled to be part of the next chapter of AXIS Dance Company," says Adame. "My professional career started with AXIS in 2001 under the artistic direction of Judy Smith; I will always be indebted to Judy for bringing me into the wonderful world of this company. AXIS is where I saw people like me performing for the first time, discovered new possibilities for movement, questioned the traditions of dance, and gained the desire to go beyond my own dreams. I am grateful to the board, the staff, the company members, and to Marc Brew for trusting me to lead this continuing journey that we will travel together."

Tickets: $25-$50 and can be purchased via zspace.org

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