Leadership Team
Nadia Adame
Artistic Director
Nadia Adame is a Spanish multidisciplinary award-winning artist with a spinal cord injury. She studied Ballet & Flamenco at the Royal Dance Conservatory of Madrid and has a BA in Theatre from the University of Colorado. She was a company member with AXIS (2000-2003) and Candoco Dance Company (2007-2008). In 2004, she co-founded and was the Co-Artistic Director of Compañía Y in Spain, a multimedia and performance collective. Nadia’s credits include dance, theatre, commercial, and independent film projects in the UK, Spain, US, and Canada.
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Danae Rees
Executive Director
Danae brings many years of experience across a variety of dance sectors. Born and raised in Brisbane, Australia, she holds a double Bachelor’s Degree in Performing Arts (Dance) & Education (Secondary) from the Queensland University of Technology. She has provided dance instruction, training and program management to public schools, studios, universities, and dance organizations in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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Octavia Rose Hingle
Accessibility Artist
Octavia Rose Hingle (they/he) is an East Bay born & raised choreographer, performing artist and cultural producer with a physical impairment. Their performance and installation work centers access as an aesthetic portal into visions of past and future ancestors that travel through the present moment. They are the founder and co-producer of Crip Ecstasy, a nightlife event series that centers accessibility and disability culture; conjuring new blueprints for what a club space can be.
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Alannah Martin
Education + Outreach Coordinator
Alannah Martin is a disabled and neurodivergent choreographer, performer, scholar, and arts advocate who has recently transitioned from New York City to the Bay Area to work with AXIS Dance Company. Her creative and academic research focuses on neurodiverse dance and disability justice through performance. Alannah has a BA in Dance and a minor in Disability Studies from the University of Wyoming and an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Her performance works include repertory by Paul Taylor, Netta Yerushalmy, Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith, Jordan Demetrius Llloyd, Cat Kamrath-Monson, and Marsha Faye Knight.
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Joseph Hernandez
Rehearsal Director
Joseph A. Hernandez (he/him), from Chicago, Illinois, began his movement training with Shotokan Karate. He received his formal dance training from Western Michigan University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance. Joseph’s professional credits include ODC/Dance, Kate Weare Company, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, LED Boise, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, LA Opera, Ballare Carmel, Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, and River North Dance Chicago. Notable performances include Broadway’s revival of West Side Story, Miss Gay America’s 2019 winner Andora Te’tee, and the opening ceremony of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany with AXIS. Most recently, he was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for outstanding performance in choreography by Natasha Adorlee. As a choreographer, Joseph has had his work formally presented at festivals, companies, and universities nationwide. In addition to dance, Joseph enjoys cat snuggles, camping, rock climbing, and spending time at the racetrack.
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JanpiStar
Company Dancer
JanpiStar (they/them/Janpi) was born and raised in Puerto Rico. They got involved with art for the first time through the music at the Fine Art School Anita Toro Hernández as a 12-year-old playing the clarinet. In 2012 Janpi began their Bachelor Degree in Drama at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras and had the opportunity to work with Viveca Vazquez, Carola Garcia and Petra Bravo.
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Alaja Badalich
Company Dancer
Native to Eugene, Oregon, A(laj) Badalich (she/they) trained at Oregon Ballet Academy and University of North Carolina School of the Art’s modern high school program. In 2018, she began her dance studies in San Francisco at the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program under the direction of Karah Abiog.
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Julie Hasushi
Company Dancer
Julie Hasushi is dancer, actress and publicist from São Paulo, Brazil. She started dancing at the age of 9 with the dance company Arte Sem Barreiras, and then danced with Bombelela Dance Company for over 20 years. At Bombelela, she received an award for Revelation Artist, and participated in major events including: A Tour of the Paralympic Torch at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, and representing Brazil at SIDF (Sibu International Dance Festival) in Malaysia.
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Anna Gichan
Company Dancer
Anna Gichan (she/her) is a Deaf contemporary dancer from NJ with a background in gymnastics, yoga and circus. She received her BFA in Dance from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts.
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Aliya Kerimujiang
Apprentice Dancer
Aliya, of Uyghur descent, was born in Urumqi, China. She holds a B.A. in Dance Education from Minzu University of China, an M.A. in Teaching Dance in the Professions from NYU Steinhardt, and an M.F.A. in Dance from UC Irvine. Her research, Ecological Performance Practice, explores movement interconnectivity through empathy, imagination, and the animal body.
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Joseph Tebandeke
Company Dancer
Tebandeke is a dancer and choreographer from Uganda. His work stretches the idea of dance, expanding into contemporary art with drawings and sculptures. His work addresses urgent social challenges, mainly dominant ideas around ability. He uses his body to create his own dictionary of ability; developing a physical practice that encompasses various local and global dance traditions and movement techniques. “I am a dancer in a sector and a society that systematically marginalizes “disabled” people. I am a choreographer as I mobilize local communities to create a movement that will re-label “disability”. I am committed to decolonizing dance as a language that all can access and that benefits from diversity and the different notions of ability.”
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