Investing in Disabled Choreographers

DJ and Zara talk and use touch to communicate in the dance studio with a black binder. DJ, who is blind, wears a black track suit and sunglasses. Zara and Janpi wear black eye masks that cover their faces.

Choreo-Lab Fellow Davian Robinson with Zara Anwar

In work by Saira Barbaric, Alaja and Zaria kneel and flip Julie upside down while Zara lifts Julie from Julie's shoulders.

Alaja Badalich, Julie Hasushi, Zara Anwar and Zaria Jackson in work by Saira Barbaric

Five dancers improvise in a fort-style textile installation. At the center, choreographer August looks up with wonder.

Four artists dance underneath a ballet barre. Janpi holds the barre by their hands, arching back. Stephanie, z and David face forward.

Saira smiles behind a mask. They have purple braids and wears a black beanie and grey cropped shirt.

Choreo-Lab Fellow Saira Barbaric

Choreographer Larissa Velez-Jackson stands, wearing red patterned pants and a black face mask, speaking to three disabled and non-disabled artists in the studio.

David Calhoun holds Anna Gichan in counterbalance, as Anna extends an arabesque

Anna Gichan and David Calhoun in work by Sammie Murray

Sammie raises two upper limbs while directing dancers in rehearsal. They have brown wavey hair cut into a mullet, wearing a black jumpsuit and brown socks and turtleneck.

Choreo-Lab Fellow Sammie Murray

Guest Dancer Zaria Jackson

Choreographer Brian and the AXIS team put their hands together in a circle, all smiling

All photos by Robert Suguitan & Konstantin Braverman

The goal of the AXIS Choreo-Lab Fellowship is to develop, refine and advance the artistic skills of disabled and/or neurodivergent choreographers. The Lab offers an inclusive environment where established, disabled, D/deaf, and/or neurodivergent artists mentor their peers to challenge boundaries and create perception changing art. During the Lab, Fellows will be led through a creation process stemming from their own concept, collaborating with an integrated group of performers including AXIS dancers and professional dancers from the local community. The Lab provides studio space, dancers, and administrative support for every choreographer. This opportunity also includes ongoing mentorship and professional development support in the year following the Lab.

Lab Mentors will share their experience, guiding participants in exploring their ideas to structure tasks, improvisational scores, generate material, develop accessible language, and compositional structures. The Lab also includes Professional Development sessions with industry leaders in the fields of grant writing, presenting and project and stage management.

Fellows will receive a $1,700 fee for their participation, which can be used for anything including expenses related to your participation. Fellows are eligible to receive an additional $1000 professional development stipend to be used within the year following the Lab.

The AXIS Choreo-Lab is made possible with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For 2025, this opportunity will not be available for international and non-US based artists, but we are looking into the opportunity to extend this opportunity to international artists in the future.

2025 Choreo-Lab Mentors:

A black and white full-body portrait of Joel Brown; a white-presenting man with an athletic build who uses a wheelchair. He turns toward the camera as he does a wheelie; he has a shaved head and wears a black jacket. — Photo by Camilla Greenwell

Joel Brown is a paraplegic dancer and choreographer based between London and Salt Lake City, UT. He danced with AXIS Dance Company in Oakland, CA from 2012-2014 and Candoco Dance Company in London from 2015-2023. He co-created an award winning duet, One Hundred and Eleven, with Estonian dancer, Eve Mutso in 2019. It has toured across the UK, Tbilisi, Georgia, and India to great critical acclaim. He is currently in an MA program in Choreography at Central School of Ballet. He was commissioned to choreograph two works for 3rd year students at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire in 2022 and 2023, of which he also composed original music.

Nadia smiles for the camera. She is a cane user and a light-skinned hispanic woman with brown hair pulled back and green/blue eyes. She is wearing a black tank top with a blue, flowing sleeveless blouse on top and black, flowing pants.

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. As a performer, she has been featured in works by Stephen Petronio, Bill T. Jones, Arthur Pita, Rafael Bonachela, Davis Robertson, Sonya Delwaide, Marc Brew, Chevi Muraday and Asun Noales, among others. For more information, visit www.nadiaadame.com.

2025 Choreo-Lab Fellows:

A(laj)a Badalich is black/mixed presenting genderfluid human, who uses they/she pronouns. They have brown curly hair, brown skin, and brown big eyes. In this black and white image they look directly at the camera and with their arms crossed, they use the lapels to pull a pinstripe suit jacket closed across their chest.

A(laj)a Badalich (they/she) Native to Eugene, Oregon, they are a black-queer neurodivergent dance artist, choreographer, and co-founder of Fermata Ballet Collective (FBC). She trained at the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program, across the United States and internationally. Laj has served as a guest choreographer and faculty member for FBC, Shawl Anderson Dance Center, LINES programs, flex Studios, and various competitive dance studios, demonstrating their commitment to nurturing and paving the way for the next generation of dancers. Laj has worked closely with choreographers such as Alex Ketley, Alice Klock , Asun Noales, Maurya Kerr, Robin Dekkers, and Christian Burns. Since joining AXIS Dance Company in 2022 under the direction of Nadia Adame, they have performed at Rowan University, Stanford University, Cincinnati Ballet’s “Bold Moves” festival, Jacob’s Pillow Summer Dance Festival, The 2023 Invictus Games, and 51 Festival Internacional Cervantino. Laj views movement as a universal language and a form of ancestral storytelling, aiming to share and celebrate what it means to be the “other.”

Photo by: Pedro Nieblas (@mr.nieblas)

Hector Machado (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist. Machado represents the marginalized dance communities they belong to on stage, while educating and inspiring others. As a member of Pioneer Winter Collective, Machado has been leaving their mark on the Miami dance scene since 2018. A collaborating performer in: “Reprise,” “Birds of Paradise,”and “TYFN, Duets Reimagined.” Cohort member in the site specific choreography residency: “Grass Stains” (2020, 2022, 2024), and Cohort 3 of “Creative Connections” where they ran a research incubator for their Accessible Majorette Dance project, designed to develop a language and practice for bringing the majorette dance form to individuals with disabilities.

Warm sunlight fills a grassy clearing bordered by tall, lush trees. Swetha, a caramel-skinned Tamil woman wearing a rich pink-and-orange sari and golden jhumkas/choker/tikka, stands in the middle of the frame with her left hand dangling gracefully in front of her heart and her right hand held delicately at her side. She gazes softly down towards her right hand. Behind her, 6 sets of similarly skin-toned arms wearing matching sari blouses/golden bangles/mehendi are stretched out in straight lines at various angles, resembling a fan.

Swetha (She/Her) is a choreographer & filmmaker exploring third-culture/diasporic identity, femininity, and accessibility. She developed the “Modern Natya” movement method, which provides diasporic audiences a bridge between their cultural traditions & modern dance while challenging Western audiences to see Bharatanatyam as a versatile movement foundation that isn’t limited to “classical” ethnic performance. Rather, her projects show how Bharatanatyam can–and should–be used as a storytelling tool across diverse media. Grounded in tradition yet groundbreaking with its disability-justice-centered pedagogy, Swetha champions the ”Modern Natya” technique as a Teaching Artist at PUSH Dance Company. Swetha performed her Bharatanatyam arangetram in India under Smt. Subhashini Krishnakumar and graduated from UC Berkeley TDPS. Recent projects have been presented by Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center and Dance Mission Theater, among others. Swetha is a 2025 Center for Cultural Innovation Awardee and Voices of Bhakti Fellow (by Interfaith America), and is a company dancer with Urban Jazz Dance Company.

Photo by: Pedro Nieblas (@mr.nieblas)

Clairey Evangelho (she/her) researches, performs, and teaches movement with roots in contact improvisation, acrobatics, Noguchi Taiso, apparatus-based and site-specific dancing. Her methodologies are informed by studies in neurophysiology, ecological psychology and her own neurodivergence. Her artistic interest lies at the various intersections of task- based improvisation, failure, transparency, applied neuroscience, neurodivergence, and emergent composition. Clairey has produced original dance works with ODC Pilot 74 and SAFEHouse RAW. She’s danced with Bay Area-based artists Lizz Roman and Dancers, Agua Doce Dance, Amy Lewis, Carol Keuffer-Moore, and Nketchi Njaka with the DeYoung Museum. She recently completed an apprenticeship with AXIS Dance Company. Clairey also loves working in K-2nd special education in Oakland public schools.