Peggy Choy
Dancing the roles of women in
history
by Laura Salinger
|
Peggy Choy's performances have been described as fluid, visually striking, and poignant. Her performances draw on ancestral
history and a timeless sense of pain and conversely, healing, to create what she describes as a "transformative moment." On
March 16, Choy will present "Gateless Gate: Women of the Scarred Earth" at 8 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater on the
UW-Madison campus. The concert is free and open to the public. / As choreographer, director, producer, and one of the dancers,
Choy describes her performance as contemporary, yet rooted in multicultural traditions. She draws on her background in
Javanese and Korean dance, martial arts, ballet and modern dance to create a strikingly unique performance. Set to a music
collage created by Choy with contemporary jazz music by Fred Ho, along with traditional Japanese, contemporary Indonesian,
and traditional Korean music, the work also includes narration by award-winning poet and playwright Magdalena Gomez. Choy
will also be joined by New York-based dancers and martial artists Merina Celander, Ai Ikeda and Takemi Kitamura, as well as
UW-Madison performers Amanda Kimble and Ariele Riboh.
"The performance opens in an urban battlefield, and the vignettes unfold through the memories of an old woman survivor,"
Choy said about Gateless Gate. "This character signifies a collectivity of strong, indomitable women of the scarred earth across
space and time."
The old woman remembers the "Comfort Women" -- women who were forced to become sex slaves for the Japanese military.
During World War II, women and girls were brought from all over Asia to military outposts in Japanese-occupied countries and
raped repeatedly. In some cases, Choy said, "Korean sex slaves reported they were raped up to 200 times a day." Other pieces,
Choy said, "... are memories of the old woman that acknowledge woman as subversive warrior, woman as healer, and woman
as carrier of family and society. Whenever you have war and occupation, women are scarred. Women need to be heard, we
need to listen to the crying out of mother earth. Few seem to be listening."
Choy takes her responsibility as a performing artist seriously.
"As a performance artist, I have a responsibility to share my perspective," she said. "I've come to understand that the
performing arts can reach people in a very deep and transformative way. The performing arts can also be sources of healing."
Choy recently performed in a collaborative concert she produced and directed, entitled, "Age of Fire: Women of the Scarred
Earth" at the Wisconsin Union Theater in early February. The performance brought together renowned hula dancers Pualani
Kanahele and Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole, Korean master drummer/dancer Eun-Ha Park, Ojibwe dancer Nicole Buckskin Larson,
Oralann Caldwell of the Menominee Nation, and drummers Shane Webster and Michael Awonohopay. These master
performers joined together to tell the stories of their ancestors, lands, and goddesses who have sustained their lands and
waters throughout the ages.
"With this performance series, I am trying to convey the idea that for centuries, women have tried to sustain their families, while
living through war, occupation, and environmental damage," Choy said. "It highlights the legacy of our women as told through
the oral traditions of stories and performance in many cultures, and the Women of the Scarred Earth performances link to this
story-telling tradition."
Choy believes that transformation is also possible through the generating of ki energy (internal life-force or breath energy) not
only in one's daily life, but through utilizing this energy in performance as well. She uses this practice in her choreography as
she tackles heady and complex themes.
Her performances are also a way for her to convey her frustration with the current state of the world -- the war in Iraq, and what
she says is "the utter failure of many male leaders." She says it is time to listen to the caretakers of the earth, many of whom are
women.
"We have to pay attention to what we are leaving for our children," Choy said. "We definitely get too wrapped up in the present --
with consumption and using the world as our toilet bowl -- a lifestyle that is devoid of the care-taking spirit."
Originally from Hawai'i, where she studied ballet, Flamenco, Javanese dance, Korean dance, Taiji Quan, and some hula, Choy
has taught with the Dance Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since the early 1980s. She is the founder of The Ki
Project -- an organization committed to creative thinking and intercultural performance for future generations, and is a founding
member of Pacific and Asian Women's Alliance. She has an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor, an MS in Urban and Regional Planning from UW-Madison, and an MFA in Dance from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Choy has won numerous awards for her performances including the 2002 Choreography and
Performance Award from the Wisconsin Dance Council, and a 2006 national award from the Korean Spirit and Culture
Promotion Project for her choreography "Turtle." In 1994, she received the Woman of Achievement Award from the Wisconsin
Minority Women's Network for her work as an artist and activist.
For more information on Peggy Choy and her performances, visit www.kiproject.com.
In order to really see our present clearly and to move forward, we have
to know the past through knowledge of our ancestors' means of
empowerment. This knowledge feeds our own transformative roots.
These dancescapes are inclusive of our inter-ethnic histories, and not
only re-define beauty and courage, but also guide us to face our
wounds and mental devastation. In this way, we perform the
transformative moment. -- Peggy Choy/ The Ki Project