Just a Shadow: Meeting Grief through Art and Community
Q&A with Megan Lowe Dances the Featured Artist of the 27th Annual United States of Asian America Festival
Megan Lowe is a dancer, choreographer, performer, aerialist, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, teacher, and administrator of Chinese and Irish descent. With an affinity for dynamic places and partners, her creations through Megan Lowe Dances (MLD) explore complex identities and experiences by tackling unusual physical situations and inventing compelling solutions, opening up the imagination to what is possible.
The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center is proud to have Megan Lowe Dances as the featured artist of our 27th Annual United States of Asian America Festival: Be(long)ing Here. Since 2021, Megan’s cross-disciplinary work has been featured in the festival, beginning in 2021 with the premiere of Maw Jaw, followed by Piece of Peace (2022), and HOME(in)STEAD dance film co-presented with AAPI Dance Film Festival (2023).
In this Shift the Script interview, Megan talks about their latest work, Just a Shadow, a transformative movement journey made with grieving with artists who have lost loved ones too soon.
🎟️ Get tickets to Just a Shadow from May 31 - June 9, 2024, Friday - Sunday at 7:30pm. The Joe Goode Annex, iSan Francisco, CA
Just a Shadow is made possible with support from California Arts Council, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and generous individual donors. MLD is fiscally sponsored by Dancers’ Group.
APICC: Hi Megan! Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us about how your creative pursuit began and what’s been moving and motivating you in your process.
MEGAN LOWE: After diving deep into community-based work over the past few years, Megan Lowe Dances’(MLD) latest dance work takes a very personal stance. In January 2022, my younger sister died at the age of 31. At a shared gravesite in February 2022, her remains were reunited with my mother’s ashes—which have been on an altar in my room since 2014. But the earth kept spinning, and the dance-making opportunities kept coming.
Right after my sister’s death, I went into residency at 500 Capp Street to create a site-specific dance with Johnny Huy Nguyen. Celebrating Asian artists and communities, MLD also got commissions to produce 3 free site-specific works at Legion of Honor Museum, de Young Museum, and in SF Trolley Dances, as well as 9 other choreographic commissions, all in 2022.
Then in 2023, we dove deep into the production of Gathering Pieces of Peace, a dance theater project that explored mixed-race Asian American experiences with 4 performances and 3 workshops, all free/by donation. Since my sister’s passing, MLD has facilitated 40+ performances, 130+ rehearsals, and 30+ classes/workshops. Needless to say, I have had very little time to process the tragedy of my sister’s death.
I’ll be turning 35 in May 2024. I remember in my adolescence making a list of future life events that I imagined would have happened by now—ones that I would have shared with my mom and sister. I feel externally pressured to bring new life into this world, but unsure if I want to potentially continue a long line of mental health problems that runs deep in my family history. Currently, my chosen pathway to creation is by making dance art.
APICC: Tell us about the creative process for Just a Shadow. What was transformative for you?
MEGAN LOWE: Just a Shadow is a performance process in service to collaborating artists who have lost loved ones prematurely. The title is inspired by a poem my mother wrote, shortly before she died. The project stems from a desire to process my own loss through art, and co-create a space of mutual support with collaborators who are also dealing with recent loss.
I am just a shadow
Walking in the moonlight
Just a shadow, wishing for a lost life
Just a shadow, wishing to make things right
Just a shadow, waiting for morning’s light
I met individually with artists AJ “Dopey Fresh” Gardner, Sonsherée Giles, Joshua Icban, Roel Seeber, Frances Teves Sedayao, and Shira Yaziv to create 6 distinct duets, tailored to the intersection of our artistic interests, how we desire to process our hardships, and what we want to make together. Inviting in all modalities that are a part of our collaborator’s movement practices and lineages, this unique collection of artists will draw from individual experiences in modern/contemporary dance, site-specific dance, aerial dance, contact improvisation, acrobatics, turfing, singing, music composition, and storytelling.
After the duets are made, we gathered together as a group to share our creations, and discuss what we found inspiring in witnessing each other. Then we synthesize our ideas and create a final section as a collective. While we are sharing space, there is always room for feeling and discussing our grief, if that is what is needed. However, the focus of this project is not necessarily about putting that trauma on stage. The emphasis is on creating something together that feels nourishing for our souls, supporting each other on a journey towards healing, acknowledging our resilience, celebrating the life that we have, honoring passed loved ones, and thoughtfully crafting something meaningful to share with our friends, families, colleagues, and communities.
APICC: What lessons did you glean from creating Just a Shadow?
MEGAN LOWE: Making “Just a Shadow,” is a continual process of learning. This work is primarily in service of our collaborating artists, who have all prematurely lost loved ones: parents, partners, siblings, friends, and unborn children.
This project brings us together in space and intention, finding solace through a shared understanding of the emotional complexity of experiencing such loss. We will center collaborative creation that nurtures our inner selves, fostering a supportive environment for each other's pathways of healing.
This endeavor aims to recognize and celebrate our individual and collective resilience, acknowledging the inevitable challenges of death, while embracing the miracle and beauty of life.
This endeavor aims to recognize and celebrate our individual and collective resilience, acknowledging the inevitable challenges of death, while embracing the miracle and beauty of life. Our collaborators reached out to our friends, families, colleagues, and communities to witness our vulnerable creation.
The sharing of this dance via performance offerings can resonate with anyone in our audience touched by the shared human experience of mortality. It welcomes diverse perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds, recognizing that the narratives surrounding death and processing grief are multifaceted and deeply personal. By engaging with these themes through dance performance, MLD aims to provide a platform for catharsis, empathy, and collective understanding, fostering connections that transcend individual stories and unite us in a shared journey toward solace and healing.
Visit www.apiculturalcenter.org for more info and get tickets to our 2024 United States of Asian America Festival running from May - June, 2024.