More Than Just a Shadow: Megan Lowe Dances at ODC This April
By SanSan Kwan
As a longtime fan of Megan Lowe Dances and as someone who has experienced the death of a beloved, there was no way I was going to miss Just a Shadow. The show, an evening of duets exploring personal stories of loss, premiered May 31st to June 9th, 2024, at the Joe Goode Annex. Lucky for all of us, MLD will be remounting the work at ODC with a few new additions this April 4-6, 2025.
Let me tell you why you should go see it! Just a Shadow was a sweet, poignant, thrilling offering that showcased Megan Lowe in partnership with six different artists. Each artist brought their distinct movement language to their pairing with Megan, while Megan displayed her usual expansive range of talents: as a choreographer, singer, aerialist, climber, and, in a virtuoso piece, contact improviser. Just a Shadow was touchingly mournful, but it was also a gift of collective healing, honoring, and celebration.
The evening opened with the expressive grace of Frances Teves Sedayao in partnership with Megan. A white screen that the pair spun across the stage evoked the eponymous shadow that the dead leave behind and also, at moments, the separation that cleaves us from our lost loved ones. Next, Megan’s duet with Sonsherée Giles displayed both dancers’ acrobatic chops while their manipulation of large knotty tree branches invoked fragility, pain, and gnarled beauty. Megan’s duet with turf dancer AJ Gardner offered a refreshing pairing. The piece began with Gardner’s poignant voiceover as he glided across the floor with intricate turf dancing feet. Megan entered and the piece evolved into a friendly exchange of dance vocabularies and tender moments of mutual partnering. Next, was an exhilarating duet that had me gripping my seat with excitement and anxiety. Megan and Shira Yaziv displayed their fearless, but also deeply attuned, skills in contact improvisation. Blindfolded – sometimes one, then the other, then both! – they lifted, rolled, leaned, shouldered, and caught one another in a series of improvised feats. It was truly an example of deep trust and incredible dexterity. In a lovely shift, the long and lithe Roel Seeber was next in a vertical duet with Megan consisting of frictionless arcing, spinning, and skimming that, in its literal uplift, instilled a spirit of graceful release. The final duet showcased Megan’s songwriting and singing talents. Harmonizing with guitarist and singer Josh Icban, Megan sang several sweet songs, including a charming ballad addressed to a lost beloved. The finale was a substantial piece in itself. Honoring the diversity of movers, but also offering moments of satisfying unison, dancers lifted one another up, giving and receiving support, catching one another just before falling, climbing a structure of bodies, walking across a chain of accommodating shoulders. It was an appropriate way to show the mutuality of grief and the importance of interdependence in the mourning process.
All in all, Just a Shadow was a beautiful ride across multiple stages of grief. Megan Lowe Dances offered a thoughtfully curated selection of unique and personalized choreographies that also managed to coalesce as an integrated evening celebrating the resilience of the human spirit in the face of our shared mortality. The 2025 iteration promises a few additions, including a new live music set with Marica Petrey of Girl Swallows Nightingale, and a new venue for Megan to work her climbing, dancing, singing, tumbling, flying magic!
------
Megan Lowe Dances presents:
Just a Shadow
A performance journey that celebrates life, and honors memories of lost loved ones
Adapted to ODC Theater with New Site Specific Elements and a Brand New Live Music Set
April 4-6, 2025
Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm; Sunday at 3:30pm
ODC Theater
3153 17th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
Click here for more info and tickets
SanSan Kwan is chair in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. Performance: Lenora Lee Dance, Chingchi Yu, Chen and Dancers, Maura Nguyen Donohue, among others. SanSan will remount her piece, Two Doors, as part her curated show, Portals, in April 2025 at Dance Mission Theater. SanSan is also a dance scholar. Books: Love Dances: Loss and Mourning in Intercultural Collaboration, Kinesthetic City: Dance and Movement in Chinese Urban Spaces. Articles: Dance Research Journal, TDR, Performance Research, and more.
Comments