Private Project

HOME(in)STEAD

A site specific dance film that explores the meaning of home and sees it as an expansive space for everyday actions, imperfections, healing, and freedom.

As 500 Capp Street Foundation's first ever performing artists-in-residence, Megan Lowe and Johnny Huy Nguyễn utilize San Francisco's historical David Ireland House as a visceral canvas for exploring means of feeling, finding, creating, and healing home through dynamic architecture-oriented movement and intimate contact partnering.

  • Megan Lowe
    Director
    Maw Jaw, (UN)CAGED, Terraces, Meeting Room, We Came to See Something..., Never Finished: Explorations at the Finnish
  • Johnny Huy Nguyễn
    Director
  • Megan Lowe
    Producer
  • Johnny Huy Nguyễn
    Producer
  • 500 Capp Street Foundation
    Producer
  • Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
    Producer
  • Peggy Peralta
    Producer
  • Kristina Willemse
    Producer
  • Megan Lowe
    Choreographer, Dancer, and Singer-Songwriter
  • Johnny Huy Nguyễn
    Choreographer and Dancer
  • Peggy Peralta
    Cinematographer
  • Kristina Willemse
    Cinematographer and Jib Operator
  • Gregory Manalo
    Additional Cinematographer
  • Wilfred Galila
    Editor
  • transcriptions01
    Composer
  • Joshua Icban
    Production Sound Engineer
  • Jarin Tindall
    Sound Mixer and Mastering
  • Courtney Crother
    Production Assistant
  • Audrey Herrara
    Production Assistant
  • Devon Good
    Production Assistant
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Feature, Short, Other
  • Runtime:
    36 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 7, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 4.5x, 4480x1856
  • Aspect Ratio:
    70:29
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Being, Belonging & Beyond - SF Bay Area AAPI Dance Film Festival
    San Francisco
    United States
    May 14, 2023
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Contact Dance International Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    June 9, 2023
    Canadian Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Megan Lowe, Johnny Huy Nguyễn

Megan Lowe (she/her) is a dancer, choreographer, performer, aerialist, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, teacher, and administrator of Chinese and Irish descent, making dance art in the San Francisco Bay Area, situated on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. With an affinity for dynamic places and partners, her creations through Megan Lowe Dances explore complex identities and experiences by tackling unusual physical situations and inventing compelling solutions, opening up the imagination to what is possible. Most recently, her choreographic works have been seen at de Young Museum, David Ireland House, ODC, Legion of Honor Museum, and Joe Goode Annex, as well as in San Francisco Trolley Dances and the United States of Asian America Festival. In addition, Megan has performed with Flyaway Productions, Lenora Lee Dance, Dance Brigade, Scott Wells & Dancers, Lizz Roman & Dancers, Epiphany Productions, and more. She is a teaching/choreographing artist for Joe Goode Performance Group, Bandaloop, Flyaway, and her alma mater Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, where she currently works as the Program Associate. Megan’s process thrives off of collaboration, prioritizing creating relationships of respect, generosity, and gratitude. She harnesses this culture of magnanimity in the dance classes/workshops she leads 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 connection.
~ Website: www.MeganLoweDances.com
~ Instagram: @MLoweDanceKitty

Johnny Huy Nguyễn (he/him) is a 2nd generation Vietnamese American multidisciplinary somatic artist based in Yelamu (a.k.a San Francisco) and son of courageous refugees. Fluent in multiple movement modalities including myriad street dance styles, contemporary, modern, and martial arts, Nguyen weaves together dance, theater, spoken word, ritual, installation, and performance art to create immersive, time-based works that recognize the body's power as a place of knowing, site of resistance, gateway to healing, and crucible of imagination. In addition to his work as an individual artist, he has appeared in the works of Lenora Lee Dance Company, KULARTS, Embodiment Project, the Global Street Dance Masquerade, and James Graham Dance Theater and has performed in the Bay Area, Oregon, Boston, and New York City. His individual work has been presented at the Asian Art Museum, the Chinese Historical Society of America, APATure, SOMArts, and as part of the 24th United States of Asian America Festival.
~ Website: www.JohnnyHuyNguyen.com
~ Instagram: @Johnny.Huy.Nguyen

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

We have both had complicated relationships with home, growing up in unstable family structures shaped by intergenerational trauma. These experiences have, for better or worse, informed the ways in which we each create home as adults and have also led us on our own healing journeys to find new ways of being. This acknowledgement of what is stored in our bodies and the desire for transformation is the driving force for this work, as we both see movement itself is an expression of possibility; each pathway and interaction containing the potential for new choices.

How do we find connection within home as well as the necessary space to be ourselves? How can we support each other in cultivating spaces of healing and expansiveness within our homes and ultimately within ourselves? What is it we need to move through? In witnessing our bodies in motion, it is our hope that the audience will find themselves answering these very questions for themselves.