We were lucky to catch up with Megan Lowe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

It’s hard to select just one meaningful project! So here is a little bit about 3 of my most recent works.
In a time with particularly strong anti-Asian sentiment, driven by ignorance and the COVID-19 pandemic, Megan Lowe Dances shifted our attention to sharing free and accessible outdoor public art in solidarity with API communities, as part of efforts to revitalize the community during the pandemic. We created our site-specific film Maw Jaw in partnership with Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, which was presented as part of the 24th annual United States of Asian America Festival in free outdoor events in San Francisco, May and June, 2021. Maw Jaw rehearsals occurred outside in public spaces around SF Chinatown—activating benches, railings, poles, stairs, and play structures—inviting passersby to witness and be a part of the creative process, enhancing cross-generational community engagement, and inspiring interest in dance as a tool to engage with the environment and people around us.

Megan Lowe Dances’ recent production of Tangram (December 2021) highlighted the artistry of Chinese-descendent artists and challenged traditional ideas of male/female duets, which are frequently portrayed romantically and often displayed as a man lifting a smaller woman. In tandem with performances, MLD facilitated Tangram: Physical Puzzles (November 2021), a workshop that explored dynamic partnering and improvisational scores, focusing on sensing, shifting, supporting, seeing, and being seen. One goal for the Tangram workshop was to have a BIPOC majority in the space, and—with specific outreach, discounted rates, and two workshop scholarships—this goal was achieved. By creating a space of dance study where BIPOC are not the minority and empowering fellow dancers of color, MLD invites participants to continue explorations of challenging body norms and power structures that limit beings in different ways—de-centering normative white/eurocentric practices and organizing for social change to continue the mission of more diversity in the dance community as a whole.

The mission continues with Piece of Peace, part one of which was performed in June this year, with an evening length work set to premiere in 2023. Piece of Peace, explores mixed-race Asian American Pacific Islander experiences. Our cast is uniquely made up of multi-racial AAPI artists including histories of Asian, Pacific Islander, Black, Latinx, Middle Eastern, and White heritage. Mixed-race individuals make up less than 5% of the SF population, and are severely underrepresented in the arts. Through thoughtful text, soulful song, dynamic dancing, and BIPOC centered dance workshops, MLD invites collaborators to share stories of fractured selves and longings to belong, and co-create a supportive environment for connection. We’re building a movement of folks with a rare and powerful understanding of how drastically different racial and cultural backgrounds can come closer together—dreaming up possibilities for our futures and the futures of our diverse communities.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Dance is in every fiber of my being. I live, breathe, and dream it. It is my past, present, future, and how I express myself in the world. I started taking dance classes, performing, and creating my own dances when I was three years old, and developed a strong passion for movement throughout childhood. It was impossible for me to stand still, and I craved a range of physical activity: like climbing, gymnastics, swimming, basketball, football, track, cross country, and ultimate frisbee. But the expressiveness of dancing, the creativity of choreographing, and the thrill of performing is really where my heart and soul has always been. This led me to major in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, and to pursue a career as a professional dancer.
Since graduating from UC Berkeley in 2012, I have had the opportunity to perform with many esteemed San Francisco Bay Area dance companies, while choreographing my own works presented both live and on film. I’ve been professionally creating dances and co-producing performance events with other artists since 2013, and in December 2018, I obtained fiscal sponsorship through Dancers’ Group for Megan Lowe Dances, providing more opportunities for grants and accepting charitable donations. Shortly after that, in 2019, MLD presented our first fully self-produced evening length production, Action Potential—a site-specific dance and live music adventure, where performers climbed, lifted, assisted, jumped, and flew, which was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award.

I am deeply immersed in contact improvisation (CI) and site-specific dance—exploring the possibilities of my body in relationship to other people and structures. I crave the feeling of earth in my core, and connecting to the gravitational center of an object or person: to move and be moved; to respond and elicit a response; to be thrilled by surprise, yet ready for anything. Perceived as a small Asian female, I subvert preconceived expectations of size, race, and gender, by using physics/momentum to lift myself and others up—showing the strength and versatility of female physicality, and pushing the boundaries of what is considered possible. As a woman of color working in fields of dance dominated by the white majority, I want to create environments that feel more inclusive for myself and other dancers who feel marginalized.

I’ve worked for over a decade for other dance companies, have had many positive and negative experiences within those processes, and have learned and grown a lot. Those experiences have given me the tools to know what I want to include and not include in the creative environments I am fostering in my own works. My artistic practice prioritizes creating relationships of respect, generosity, and gratitude (vital gestures that, in my experience, are sometimes lacking in other processes to performance). I facilitate a supportive environment for all collaborators, make sure each person is taken care of, and embolden individual inquiry and sharing of ideas. My processes are highly collaborative, utilizing each artist’s specific skills and interests to their fullest potential, while creating opportunities for group connection.

With an affinity for dynamic places and partners, Megan Lowe Dances demonstrates the “intensely-physical, curiously-playful, delightfully-weighty rigor of physicality” (Molly Rose-Williams for Life as a Modern Dancer). The dancers climb, fall, and fold into and out of floors, walls, windows, stairs, ledges, edges, and bodies, testing the laws of physics. The work tackles unusual physical situations and invents compelling solutions, opening up the imagination to what is possible.

Megan Lowe Dances’ process thrives off of collaboration, cultivating a tightly-knit group, and developing relationships of profound trust, infinite inspiration, and whole-hearted support—deep connections that are palpable for the viewer in the product of performance. I harness this culture of magnanimity as a teaching artist, and lead dance classes/workshops all over the Bay Area, for organizations, schools, universities, and dance festivals, serving movers of all different ages, experience levels, body types, races, cultures, and socio-economic statuses—building community and understanding.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Please read the following article I wrote, which I think speaks quite poignantly to this question:

“SPEAK: Discovering the Power and Ability to Take Action”
https://dancersgroup.org/2019/12/speak-discovering-the-power-and-ability-to-take-action/

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Success for me as a director/choreographer is:

– A process where my collaborators feel encouraged and generative. “I feel a tremendous amount of discovery, listening, and joy when we are exploring the space and creating together. Megan is a wonderful director and collaborator. The process is challenging and simultaneously supportive in a friendly and delightful environment.” (Sonsherée Giles, collaborator)

– Creating engaging perspective shifting dance. “We had an absolute blast! Saw things I never dreamed could happen. I just can’t believe the way you do what you do with human bodies— the choreography, the interactions and coordination that you folks had with each other. Such a collective effort; very exciting to work with people that closely.” (Viewer of Action Potential)

– Presenting thoughtfully-crafted performances. “You’re dancing continues to amaze me; an exceptionally fluid athleticism. Your choreography was such a pleasure to witness; crafted on every level: lights, music, the flow through 4 different and connected sections/underlying concepts. Your commitment to all you do is evident.” (Scott Wells, commissioner of Finger Trap)

-Sharing accessible dance art that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences. “You and the entire team were amazing! What an inspiration to us all. So artistic, yet relatable to those of us who are, at times, ‘art-challenged.’ Incredible talent in movement, space creation, and emotional connectedness. Truly a great show!” (Viewer of Action Potential)

-Highlighting the artistry of Asian-descendent artists and building connections with API communities. “The physicality of relationships and geometry is evident. How does sharing weight connect with sharing heritage? ‘I’m not just carrying Megan,’ said Cheng, ‘I’m carrying Megan and her heritage. We are carrying heritage.’ Like Tangrams, ‘we are shapes but have history.” (Garth Grimball on Tangram, writer for Life as a Modern Dancer)

-Empowering movers of color working in white majority dance fields. “Thank you and Brenton so much for convening and leading the Tangram workshop! I was instantly onboard when I saw it would be facilitated by two dancers with Chinese heritage – so rare for me to see my background reflected in movement instructors. The safe container cultivated through the gentle buildup of warm-up exercises and explicitly practicing verbal cues of boundary-setting empowered me to try new things and go beyond my usual notions of what I can and can’t do. I also appreciated the presence of many POC and smaller-bodied folks helping me feel less like an outlier and more willing to try weight-bearing roles.” (Participant of Tangram: Physical Puzzles workshop)

I hope that my dance productions invite people in, and inspire them to think of alternative ways of viewing dance, and the environment around them. I want audiences to be blown away, entertained, and amazed by the strength and virtuosity inherent in my work, while simultaneously having the audience zoom in and relate to the stories of the artistic collaborators, and for viewers to be able to relate to those experiences, leading to deeper connections and understanding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meganlowedances.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mlowedancekitty/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megan.lowe.kitty
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/megan-lowe/92/926/91
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mlowe11dance
• Other: TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdYWuqcx/

Image Credits
1) Megan Lowe – “Maw Jaw” – Photo by Maurice Ramirez
2) Megan Lowe – “Tangram” – Photo by RJ Muna
3) Brenton Cheng and Megan Lowe – “Tangram” – Photo by RJ Muna
4) Megan Lowe – “Maw Jaw” – Photo by Maurice Ramirez
5, 6, 7) Megan Lowe – “Piece of Peace” – Photo by Maurice Ramirez
8, 9) Megan Lowe and Johnny Huy Nguyen – “HOME(in)STEAD” – Photo by Henrik Kam