Meagan O’Shea

Sápmi (Norway) / Berlin / T’karonto (Toronto)

I’m a Porn Star Now

a show about power, perception, (intellectual) property, the internet

A queer, contemporary dance+ artist, who makes “whacky, whimsical and wonderful worlds” (Toronto Star), Meagan O’Shea examines ideas from unexpected angles to subvert expectations, interrupt dominant paradigms and propose alternative perspectives.

Now, someone has stolen Meagan’s nude image from a video, looped it and added captions and posted it on his e-porn channel. He emails Meagan to tell her about it and what he’d like to do to her. He doesn’t say where the site is.

The police ask if Meagan is a stripper and will not make a report.

Lawyers empathize but it’s not their area of expertise.

They send links to combat cyber-sexual-violence.

I’m a Porn Star Now is an exploration of the experienced, imperfect, injured and magical body. It is a generative creative process happening in tandem with working to get the site taken down.

Using body and interaction with audience as test site, Meagan treats process like a science experiment, troubling out real-world issues: solving through physical equations seeking otherwise invisible solutions. Using choreographic, contemporary dance and performance strategies, storytelling, clown, comedy and DIY spectacle, Meagan creates content-driven work that jumps between forms seeking to unite disparate ideas.

www.standupdance.com

@standupdance

Left of PuSh is Plastic Orchid Factory’s platform intended for dance makers working in the margins to share “experiments-in-process” with a public during the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Since 2018, Left of PuSh offers a responsive and meaningful opportunity for dance artists to introduce their work and practice to peers and networks of curators, programmers and visitors to PuSh from around the globe in a non-transactional context.