Nadia Adame on Merging Artistry, Accountability, and Sustainability at AXIS

When Nadia Adame became artistic director of AXIS Dance Company in January 2022, it was more of a homecoming than a new start: Adame began her performance career with AXIS in 2000. Originally from Spain, she graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, majoring in theater (she wasn’t accepted into the dance department due to her disability), and has since performed, choreographed for, and directed international companies. Her two decades of experience are now being used to amplify AXIS’ distinct attributes: She describes the company as “a hub for movement artistry that celebrates disabled and neurodivergent artists, audiences, and communities of all backgrounds and experiences.” Adame is initiating noteworthy policies and practices, including a 30 percent salary increase for dancers and the rehearsal director, plus two-year contracts for dancers. This month, October 11–13, AXIS performs at ODC in San Francisco.

AXIS has changed quite a bit since 2000. Diversity within the company is growing, from having physically disabled dancers to including people who are visually impaired or artists who are from the Deaf community and people who are neurodivergent. The diversity of opportunities for disabled artists has also expanded within the company. For instance, the previous artistic director started Choreo-Lab for disabled choreographers. 

In addition to the dancers’ salary increase, I introduced benefits that include monthly physical therapy, professional development, and vacation. Now dancers get two weeks of paid vacation. For me, this is important because dancers need to take care of their bodies and their mental health, too. With paid leave they don’t have to look for another job to cover their rent or expenses.
 
I want to lead with compassion, but also be firm. The dance world can be very harsh: Some leaders feel that they have to be mean in order to get something. I try to have a lot of empathy and caring for the entire team. But just because I say things in a nice way doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply to you. And it doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply to me. At AXIS, we’re all in the same boat: I want all of us to hold each other accountable.
 
I remember when I brought up a problem as a dancer in the company. I said, “Listen, we cannot be in a van for six hours and then go straight into the theater and into tech rehearsal. That’s not sustainable for any of us, not only the disabled dancers but also the nondisabled dancers.” I make sure, now that I’m in this position, that doesn’t happen. We don’t do a dress rehearsal the same day that we have a show.
 
I want to bring international choreographers to AXIS. For the ODC season, I have choreographed a quartet titled Piel de Luna, which means “Skin of the Moon.” I’m interested in how we connect with one person and not another: This energy relationship is like the one between the moon and the earth. We also have an intimate duet choreographed by Dazaun Soleyn, a San Francisco choreographer. The third piece is Blueprints of Being, by Jorge Crecis. He works from a neurological point of view: how we set up connections between the brain and the body and how we’re present onstage. For this piece, I invited Bay Area dance company Post:ballet to collaborate: They’ll bring four dancers, and we’ll bring seven AXIS dancers, to create with Jorge. Jorge will also create two additional pieces based on Blueprints of Being, so we can tour this work together or separately. 
 
One of the things that I’m struggling with is that we don’t have enough visibility. Even though we’ve been around for 37 years, people are still asking, “What is AXIS?” Most of the major disabled dancers who are performing, choreographing, and directing today have come out of AXIS or have intersected in some way with the AXIS world.