Working across forms and borders, queer, contemporary dance+ artist Meagan O’Shea (she | they) devises “Uplifting, energetic and totally out of the ordinary” (Mooney on Theatre) performances for living rooms, theatres, public spaces – real and imagined. Meagan examines ideas from unexpected angles, treating process like a science experiment, she uses body and interaction with audience as test site. Drawing on a range of choreographic tools, contemporary performance strategies, and storytelling, clown and comedy, Meagan sources material through the generative Oblique/Switch improvisation practice she has developed. Meagan creates content-driven, problem-finding work that jumps between forms seeking to unite disparate ideas. Meagan has created 9 interactive, dance-theatre, mash-up solo shows, and has performed them across Canada, in New York City, Mexico, Morocco, North Macedonia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, and Germany.
“Off the wall, impossible to categorize, fun” Montreal Gazette
Meagan also creates work for more bodies, including ANATOMALIA, an immersive, multi-sited, ensemble performance for 5 dancers and local chorus, created in residencies in Morocco, Ireland, Germany and Spain, with productions at Recenzentrum Potsdam (DE), The Dance Centre (CA), PSR / Uferstaudios Berlin (DE) with more European dates planned for the coming seasons; “dance like no one is watching”, the ongoing, in-situ, ensemble improv that animates, occupies or disrupts public space; It’s My Party, a dancefilm project created with Linnea Swan and through creative process workshops for women in their 40’s exploring grief, changing life purpose and ideas of success in different cultures and contexts; Vicarious Time, a solo show exploring the same ideas.
Meagan teaches Ensemble Improv and DIY Solo Making in art, education, social change and community settings internationally. Meagan is the recipient of the KM Hunter Award in Dance and artistic director of Stand Up Dance, which she founded to amplify her vision, support more artists, collaborate in international projects and produce work that gives voice to non-dominant and silenced narratives.