A desire to explore life beyond the circular track led competitive wheelchair athlete Dwayne Scheuneman to the world of dance.
It was a place the track-and-field enthusiast never thought he’d find himself.
“I had no idea about any kind of dance,” said Scheuneman, a Navy veteran and one-time mountain bike racer more accustomed to high-octane sports. “I was a typical football-watching, beer-drinking guy.”
Scheuneman’s newfound cross-training regimen soon became a passion. It eventually brought him to AXIS Dance Co., a pioneering physically integrated contemporary dance group based in Oakland, which he joined in 2014.
Today, Scheuneman, 48, is a member of the widely respected troupe known for pairing dancers with and without disabilities in dynamic commissioned works by renowned choreographers, including Bill T. Jones, Sonya Delwaide and Joe Goode.