S. Fla. Dance Company Brings Movement To The Disabled
MIAMI (CBS4) - There's a unique form of choreography uniting two types of dancers on one stage in South Florida.
"We're a contemporary dance company that hires and commissions choreographers from all over the world and they come in and work with dancers who have disabilities and dancers that don't have disabilities," Sonsheree Jiles, Associate Director for the Axis Dance Company told CBS4's Nicole Maristany.
Axis Dance Company's award winning dancers perform for audiences all over the world, introducing and challenging them to the possibilities of movement.
"What makes us so unique, is that I'm able to do things that I couldn't do by myself, and they are able to do things that couldn't do without me, so we're able to create this whole new movement vocabulary together," said Jiles.
Artistic Director Judith Smith's journey with the company began more than 25 years ago.
"I'd been disabled for about 7 years when I found Axis," said Smith, "I was really interested in finding ways to be physical again and ways to move, and a bunch of us got together to explore ways to dance and move and we all got hooked."
This week, the company returns to Miami to host a workshop of what they call "physically integrated dance" and for a one night only performance where they will share the stage with local dancers.
"We have eight dancers that are all local based around here and we've worked with many of them before," said Jiles.
It's a community collaboration these dancers are looking forward to sharing with a South Florida audience.
"They're seeing inventive, cutting edge movement and I think we're also challenging stereotypes about who can dance and what is dance," said Giles.
"It's a sight to behold," insists Smith. "The thing about this form of dance is that you really have to see it to believe it. And one of the things that we hear from a lot of people is that they had no idea what to expect, but the two adjectives that we hear the most are inspiring and mind blowing and we like to do both!"
For more information on The Axis Dance Company visit http://www.axisdance.org/ and for tickets to the Saturday, January 28th performance, visit http://www.tigertail.org/home.html .
