Axiom Dance Theatre

03/29/2016

3 Years Ago today I sat next to my best friend, , while we watched our company, AXIOM's debut performance. Since then, we have created 3 other shows and are looking forward! Happy Anniversary AXIOM!

11/05/2015

Thank you for giving us the space Pilates & Arts ~ Echo Park. We would not be able to create if it wasn't for you!

11/05/2015

Take a look at Co-Artistic Director Denna Thomsen and DANCELEN(D)S new film collaboration with director Phillip Montgomery. There are two more weeks to donate. Any support helps as we look forward to its release!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/denna-thomsen-dance-film-dir-phillip-montgomery #/

A narrative dance film about the forces that prevent us from realizing who we truly are. | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

05/15/2015

We begin to face the fear.

05/10/2015

"Keep the channel open." - Martha Graham

04/27/2015

Thank you to everyone that came to support CONGRESS! What a wonderful, inspiring weekend!

04/27/2015

THIS EVENING'S CONGRESS IS COMPLETELY SOLD OUT! We are overwhelmed and elated by the positive response and turn out from the community and cannot thank everyone enough for a wonderful weekend of shows. There WILL be a very small batch of standing-room tickets available first-come first-serve at the door this evening for $25 CASH ONLY. We advise that you arrive early to allow for parking and to secure a ticket. If you have pre-purchased a ticket we also advise that you arrive early to secure parking and a seat as we will be completely packed this evening-every nook and cranny. See you all tonight for another incredible evening of spectacular performances. CONGRESS IN SESSION.

04/26/2015

CONGRESS Artist Spotlight: WIFE

WIFE, A Trinity of Illusory Performance Makers, is an all sensory theatrical experience born of three Los Angeles based artists, Jasmine Albuquerque, Kristen Leahy, and Nina McNeely. Her creations combine surrealist animations via projection mapping, sculpture, original music and costumes, using movement and dance as the vehicle for storytelling. WIFE harnesses old and new technology (magic) to illuminate enduring mystical phenomena and ancient archetypes that resonate throughout humankind’s collective unconscious. She is as a magician of picture and light, of movement and sound, reflecting rescued dreams and the subtleties of human behavior. She is the daughter, sister, and mother of all people set apart.

WIFE has been seen at Art Basel Miami, The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, MOCAtv, Grand Performances, Frequency Festival UK, Wall to Wall: The Fusion Collective (Ford/Milk NYC, LA), Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Human Resources, Forum Lounge at Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, the Bootleg Dance Festival 2011, and was awarded the ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation in 2011. WIFE’s “The Grey Ones” was presented at the Long Beach TEDx SoCal event, and is featured on Amon Tobin’s box set DVD. WIFE has an ongoing collaboration with The Acid and their video "Basic Instinct" premiered on Nowness. WIFE is featured in the January 2015 issue of Flaunt Magazine and premiered new work "Past Lives" at Mack Sennett Studios in Los Angeles in 2015.

WIFE has crafted an entirely new brand of magic. She harnesses yesterday's whispers and feeds them into the blaring digitized speaker of today. Her images are uncanny and are born and die in nearly the same instant, giving her spectators just enough time to bask in her technicolor brilliance for the wake of a splendid moment. As alchemist she is mechanical and digitized and simultaneously psychotropic and ephemeral. Do not miss WIFE. Here in an instant and gone in a flash, she disintegrates just as quickly as she takes visible form.

Pre-sale tickets are SOLD OUT. A small batch of standing-room only door tickets will be available so please arrive early. For more info, visit http://thecongress.brownpapertickets.com/

04/26/2015

CONGRESS Artist Spotlight: RYAN SPENCER

Born and raised in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Ryan Spencer has been in involved in dance since the age of 3; training at competitive dance studios then at 15 years old began traveling nationally and internationally to take workshops, perform, and choreograph. Now at 20,he is a graduate of the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, and is living in Los Angeles, CA continuing his career in dance while being signed by Clear Talent Group. He has assisted choreographers Ryan Heffington, Nina McNeely, and Erica Sobol on various commercial jobs and performances. As well as worked for artists Florence and The Machine, SIA, Fitz and Tantrums, Pentatonix, The Night Terrors of 1927, The Low; and was a dancer on the ABC series “The Middle”.Some live performances include include dancing for Billy Bell’sLunge Dance Collective, Juliette Irons’ Art-uncensored, and for Ryan Heffington at Marina Abramović’s charity event, ‘HEAVEN”. He is a founding company member of LA-based performance theater company AXIOM Dance Theater, under the direction of Denna Thomsen and Zak Ryan Schlegel. As a teacher he has taught/choreographed at Broadway Dance Center in New York, The Sweat Spot in Los Angeles, Movement Lifestyle in Los Angeles; as well as studios in Australia, Italy, Minnesota, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama. Ryan is currently teaching at professional dance studios in Los Angeles, and participating in performances for local choreographers. He feels so grateful to be dancing his way through life everyday.

Ryan's work is an absolute reflection of himself as artist and weirdo extraordinaire. He has the ability to capture and portray the spirit of childhood and adulthood alike with fluid ease. Removed from gender and from age, his work floats somewhere in a nexus of freedom where he has built a playground of new ideas. As founding company member of AXIOM Dance Theatre, we are thrilled to present his first ever work in a professional setting. Less than a handful of tickets are left and sale end at 2 pm. Don't hesitate: http://thecongress.brownpapertickets.com/

04/26/2015

CONGRESS Artist Spotlight: ERICA SOBOL

Choreographer Erica Sobol is a Los Angeles original, born and raised in the city. After high school, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in the performing arts. There Erica earned a BA in dance-theater from Barnard College at Columbia University and began her professional dance training at Broadway Dance Center. She also began her teaching career in New York, serving as a faculty member at Manhattan’s Peridance.

Erica has contributed works to Gay Pride NYC, Traffic (Tessandra Chavez, dir.), the Broadway Dance Center Performance Outlet, Carnival: a choreographer’s ball (in New York and Los Angeles and Sydney), the EDGE Annual Show, and many many others…In addition, her work was featured on So You Think You Can Dance: Ukraine, in a collaborative effort with London’s Sisco Gomez. And Erica was handpicked in 2011 as a finalist for the prestigious Capezio ACE award. In 2013 Erica won the grand prize at the Capezio ACE award.

She has worked as a master instructor at several dance studios and festivals all over the world, including Broadway Dance Center in New York, BDC in Tokyo, Pineapple in London, Harmonic in Paris, FnF in Poland (alongside world famous hip hop choreographers Luther Brown, Kevin Maher, Tucker Barkley, Tony Czar, Ian Eastwood, Nick DeMoura, and others), DiAmbra in Stockholm, Skip on Guam, and Mediterranean Dance Festival in Italy (alongside choreographers and dancers from Madonna (World Tour), Bat Sheva Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater, Kidd Pivot, and more). And she is on faculty at the Edge Performing Arts Center.

Erica Sobol is the founder and artistic director of collidEdance, an ever-evolving professional dance company dedicated to blurring the line between dance and theater. The company’s Brooklyn, NY debut in 2004 received rave reviews and enjoyed five straight soldout performances. collidE is now based in Los Angeles. And thriving! It’s West Coast debut, in Hollywood in 2008, brought four packed houses down! collidEdance continues to make and perform groundbreaking dance, to inspire audiences worldwide.

Erica has appeared in Dance Teacher Magazine and in Dance Spirit Magazine. She and her work have been praised in multiple art and travel blogs. And collidEdance was featured in Dance Spirit Magazine’s “The Higher Ed Issue” as one of eight most desirable companies for post-competition dance life, leading the way in this professional dance phenomenon.

Erica's work is emotionally charged, fantastical, and driven by athletic rigor. Evocative of childhood, memory and dreams, her pieces contain a nostalgic edge that is as wistful as the movement is inventive and dynamically impressive. Touching and tenacious, you won't want to miss your last chance to see her work, among the rest of the CONGRESS line-up this evening. Only a few tickets left online and limited tickets at the door. Secure yours now: http://thecongress.brownpapertickets.com

04/26/2015

CONGRESS Artist Spotlight: SARA SILKIN

Sara Silkin is an L.A based contemporary choreographer, dancer, and teacher. She graduated UCLA and went on to pursue her dancing career in Israel, where she was selected to be part of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's second company. This opportunity allowed her to immerse herself in Israeli contemporary dance and study various techniques that she utilizes in her movement practice and choreography: Forsythe, GaGa, continuum, and counter countertechnique. She has taught at the Sydney Drama School in Australia, Le Centre de Danse du Marais in France, and various local Los Angeles dance studios. Her classes are a fusion of contemporary techniques that focus on performance and improvisation.

She has choreographed for: L.A Fashion Week, L.A Dance Invitational, Los Angeles Movement Arts, Agamemnon at the Santa Monica Pier, The Hammer Museum series in Los Angeles, Explosions in the Sky's album release at Hollywood Forever, and music videos for Minus the Bear and Fool's Gold. She is a founding company member of AXIOM Dance Theatre and has performed for Josie Walsh (Myokyo), Heidi Duckler (Heidi Duckler DanceTheater), Kitty McNamee (Hysterica Dance Company), Nguyen Nguyen (LAMA), Laura Karlin (Invertigo Dance Theatre), and IN/EX Dance Project. And has assisted Barak Marshall and Sarah Elgart.

Sara is a master of the physical relationship and architecture of partnering. She will be premiering a new duet that builds on an earlier work in collaboration with her dancer. With liquid-like ease and incredible mobility, she has a keen sense of original shape-making and maneuvering high-risk partnering sequences. Her duet is a sensual, heart-rending and clamoring with beauty. Don't miss it, two days left! TONIGHT AND TOMORROW ONLY: http://thecongress.brownpapertickets.com

04/25/2015

CONGRESS Artist Spotlight: NINA MCNEELY

Nina McNeely is a genre-bending choreographer, dancer, and artist. Having moved to Los Angeles from Denver, Colorado in 2001, Nina began her career performing burlesque, choreographing for LA’s underground club scene, and dancing in various contemporary dance companies including Hysterica Dance Company, Collage Dance Theater and is a founding company member of AXIOM Dance Theatre.

Her international and varied experience as a performer has allowed Nina to develop a unique aesthetic as a choreographer. Nina has recently choreographed for Fitz and The Tantrums, Major Lazer, Sam Sparro, and shot with directors Eric Wareheim, Dugan O’Neal and Mike Rosenthal.

Furthermore, Nina brings her style as choreographer into her work as a multimedia artist and director, combining her multiple talents to produce work that is both surreal and ephemeral in nature. She has worked as a video editor since 2009, that same year, Nina also began experimenting with animation and projection mapping and co-founded WIFE in 2010 as a choreographer, dancer, and animator. In 2013, Nina began video directing, and has since directed music videos for Hayley Kiyoko, KERF, and Hi Fashion.

Nina has recently returned from creating and performing in her first solo body mapping piece entitled MORPH, which continues to run in Franco Dragone’s 2014 production of Taboo in Macau, China.
Nina continues to live, work, dance, and create in Los Angeles.

Nina's genre-jumping work is indescribable. Her ear for musicality, nuance and precision paired with distinct penchant for mythology, fantasy and lush imaginative narrative elevates her work into a genre all its own. Her choreography is at once in the darkest corner of a gritty hip-hop club and in the same right a glimpse into a glittering utopia. We are ecstatic to present Nina's new quartet tonight and tomorrow! Tickets are nearly sold out, book yours now: http://thecongress.brownpapertickets.com.