Founded in 1987, AXIS is the nation’s most acclaimed ensembles of disabled and non-disabled performers. Founding Artistic Director Thais Mazur had the creative vision to gather a group of dancers with and without physical disabilities to explore dance. What first started as an integrated group of dancers exploring and creating one performance piece quickly led to numerous requests for performances and integrated dance classes.

Michael Katz has been a storyteller since 1984, and has been featured at such illustrious locations as the openings of both the Los Angeles Getty Center and the Disney Concert Hall. Michael is the host of the radio storytelling program Katz Pajamas, heard on NPR station KCBX FM. He is one of the founding members of the national touring theatre company BOXTALES, and was the founding Artistic Director for the Flying Leap Storytelling Festival in Solvang, California.

Lani Dickinson was born in and adopted from China. She began dancing at age eight with a local studio in Towson, Maryland. Later she attended two summers at the Boston Ballet School, and Idyllwild Arts Academy for the last two years of high school. Recently, she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in dance. In the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program, in collaboration with Dominican University of California, Dickinson was first exposed to contemporary ballet. She is a 2015 Princess Grace Award winner, and has trained with choreographers including Christian Burns, Sidra Bell, Gregory Dawson, Maurya Kerr, Eric Beauchesne, Stephanie Gilliland, Arturo Fernandez, and Alonzo King. Dickinson also professionally dances for former ODC Dance Company members Yayoi Kambara and Robert Dekkers, separately. She started her apprenticeship with AXIS Dance Company in Summer 2015.

Dwayne Scheuneman was an accomplished wheelchair Track and Field athlete when in 2002 he sought out dance as a means of cross training. The physicality and the creativity of dance quickly leaped to the forefront of Dwayne’s interest and he began taking dance classes and performing with Asher Dance Eclectic in Tampa, Florida. It was also at this time when he began taking workshops and attending dance festivals with internationally recognized dance companies such as AXIS Dance Company, CANDOCO, and others. In August of 2005, Scheuneman started REVolutions dance, a physically integrated company in Tampa. Since that time, he has collaborated with choreographers and dancers to create and perform in numerous dance pieces. Scheuneman also established a weekly dance class for children with and without disabilities in Tampa and has worked with children with disabilities throughout the states and abroad. He has had a close relationship with AXIS Dance for several years and is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the AXIS family.