High-Flying Dancer You Should Know: Megan Lowe

Do you ever dream of flying through the air with super strength and grace? Megan Lowe doesn’t need to dream it. She’s dancing her way through unlikely spaces all over the Bay Area while generously sharing what she knows AND uplifting the AAPI community. Her company Megan Lowe Dances utilizes collaboration to strengthen the experience of the performances she creates. Join one of her many workshops or see her spinning through the air in an aerial dance piece.

All photos by Vita Mei Hewitt

Either way, Megan Lowe is worth getting to know. I met her recently and she greeted me by hanging upside down and holding impossible poses. She was kind enough to answer some of my many questions.

When did you start dancing?

“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.”

All photos by Vita Mei Hewitt

What was your first job in the Bay Area?

“I moved to the Bay Area in 2008 to attend UC Berkeley. If you literally want to know what my first job in the Bay Area was, I worked at a Game Stop, because I was a broke college student, and liked video games.  I also worked in UC Berkeley’s costume shop. 

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2012, and thanks to my involvement as a Student/Faculty Liaison and Peer Advisor, I was hired by my alma mater TDPS as an Administrative Assistant, which then lead to me becoming the Office Manager, and now it’s 2023 (10+ years later) and I’m the Program Associate. I’ve also been guest teaching specialized classes in contact improvisation, dynamic partnering, site-specific dance, choreography, creative movement, and release technique principles for the department since 2012.”

What is your artistic process?

“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 invite all of who an individual is, instead of asking artists to separate themselves from their own experiences. I embolden individual inquiry and sharing of ideas through highly collaborative processes, utilizing each artist’s skills and interests to their fullest potential, while creating opportunities for group connection—shifting power dynamics to a more horizontal structure for a flourishing and inclusive creative practice. To ensure this, each meeting includes a group check-in, compensated warm-up time, non-product based dance exploration, planned breaks, and ending reflection on the day’s process. I always make sure to bring tasty snacks to share with my collaborators.”

“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).”

Do you work in other mediums? Do they ever cross over into dance?

“I love singing and making music, and collaborating with folks on creating sound together! From 2016-2020, I was part of a band called TYPESTEREO. We had weekly rehearsals where we would make music, cook dinner, and then play a board game together. It was super sweet. I often compose music and sing live in my own works with Megan Lowe Dances. Vocals usually take a front seat in the music I create. I dabble with various percussion instruments, found sound, and electronic production.

I’ve also sung for other dance companies, like Dance Brigade, Lenora Lee Dance, Kambara + Dancers, Scott Wells & Dancers, Detour Dance, and Marit Brook Kothlow/Joe Goode Performance Group. I incorporate singing in many of the dance classes/workshops and youth programs I teach, as well. My time is pretty much fully consumed by dance related sound making these days, but I love the idea of being a part of a band again.”

All photos by Vita Mei Hewitt

I see in your dance that you utilize spaces and incorporate them in a unique way to your dance. Can you speak more to this?

“I feel my most generative when I am directly interacting with space. I often seek to create innovative dances for unique architectural spaces both indoors and outside, giving viewers alternative ways of viewing dance, and the environment around them. With my dance collaborators, I climb, fall, and fold into and out of floors, walls, windows, stairs, ledges, and bodies, testing the laws of physics.”

“I feel my most generative when I am directly interacting with space.”

Where do you come from conceptually? I see that you do a lot to support and uplift the AAPI community.

“I am embedded in a community of women and LGBTQIA+ creatives engaged in site-specific, contemporary, and aerial dance. I’m also immersed in a collective of movement researchers who practice forms of improvisation, including contact improvisation. 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 that are predominantly white, I want to create environments that feel more inclusive for myself and other dancers who feel marginalized. With MLD, I’m committed to making creative spaces with a BIPOC majority, in my hiring practices and the dance classes I lead. With specific outreach, discounts, and scholarships to MLD workshops, I offer a space of dance study where BIPOC aren’t the minority, de-centering normative white/eurocentric experiences and cultivating diversity in SF Bay Area dance.”

All photos by Vita Mei Hewitt

Are there any events coming up for you?

2023 is Megan Lowe Dances’ 10 Year Anniversary! I’m deeply inspired by my partnerships with organizations like APICC, commissions that celebrate Asian artists from institutions like the Fine Arts Museums of SF, and critically acclaimed self-productions like “Tangram” that uplift Chinese American artistry in tandem with BIPOC centered workshops. MLD’s current project “Gathering Pieces of Peace” is my largest scale project to date.It is a dance theater work that explores mixed-race Asian American experiences, with an artistic team composed of folks who identify in this way.

We really hope to have as many folks as possible attend our premiere in September, and that includes you reader! Here are the details for upcoming events:

Megan Lowe Dances presents

Gathering Pieces of Peace

A dynamic dance theater work that explores mixed-race Asian American experiences.

September 1-2 & 8-9, 2023

ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA

Get Info and Free/by Donation Tickets!

We also have two more workshops associated with this project. In addition, we have a Call for Mixed-Race Asian American Experiences, to reach and connect with a diversity of mixed-race Asian American perspectives, get to know more about our multiracial community, and build relationships and connections. The first 20 people to complete the survey have the opportunity to receive a $30 stipend for their time. Here are the dates, locations, and links:

Gathering Pieces of Peace – Dance Workshop #2

July 29th, 3:30pm-7pm

Bancroft Studio, UC Berkeley

Register for Free/by Donation!

Gathering Pieces of Peace – Dance Workshop #3

September 24th, 10:30am-2pm

Bancroft Studio, UC Berkeley

Registration Coming Soon! Check Back Here in August.

Call for Mixed-Race Asian American Experiences

Through July (survey requires gmail login to see/complete)

Respond Here!

All workshops and performances in relation to “Gathering Pieces of Peace” are free/by donation.

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