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SEA SOLOS
Haenyeo/Sea Woman
Dancer: Peggy Choy
Haenyeo/Sea Woman is inspired by the stories and centuries-old culture of the women divers of Jeju Island, Korea. Photos by Mark Robison ©2011
Music: Matan Rubinstein
Costume: Ayumi King
"The Endangered Sea"
Dancer: Peggy Choy
The sea on which the haenyeo depend for their livelihood is threatened by pollution. This dance takes us into the "body" of the ancient ocean.
Photo: Claudia
Music: Matan Rubinstein
Costume: Ayumi King & Peggy Choy
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"Yelllowwww Matriarch"
Dancer: Peggy Choy
"Yelllowwww Matriarch" embodies the notion of the female shaman whose body engages in fierce struggle to create a nurturing world for the next generation.
"Boxher"
Dancer: Toni Renee Johnson
"Boxher" explores the range of a woman's will to endure. The dance spars with stereotypes and expected notions of what defines woman as victim and as relentless fighter.
Photos by Robert Adam Meyer ©
Costumes: Jillian Maslow
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"Power Moves"
Dancers: Rudy Reynon II, Ze Motion
"Power Moves" is inspired by The RZA's writings in The Tao of Wu, and Bruce Lee's jeet kune do or "form beyond form." In martial terms, Bruce Lee described jeet kune do as the ability to be fully express one's self in a battle that is short as it is decisive.
Costumes by Jillian Maslow
Photos by Camille Cabalo ©
Acknowledgements: Photos courtesy of the Asian Pacific American Program, Smithsonian Institution
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PASSAGE OF ORACLES
Dancer: Shani Sellman in "Sun Oracle"
To see the present clearly enables us to move into the future without fear. One way to clear vision is by excavating our ancestors' interethnic histories, and from this knowledge comes our capacity for transformation. The "Passage of Oracles" danscapes re-define beauty and courage--guiding us to face our wounds and mental devastation through danced passages : "Moon Oracle" (the Korean ancestral myth of the she-bear and the tiger), "Sun Oracle" (the Yoruba myth of Queen Morimé), "Death Ship" (journey through Middle Passage), "Chasm" (the Chinese laborers who built the Transcontinental railway), "Ice River" (the journey of Choy's grandmother from Korea to San Francisco), and the "'Knowin How" (the "true story" of John Henry).
Photos by Tom McInvaille ©
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"Maehyang-Ri"
Dancer: Peggy Choy
BLOOD FIELD: Fred Ho, saxophonist/composer/musical director; Royal Hartigan, drummer
Maehyang Ri"How long can we ignore the moaning of the land and ocean, the cries of the people—living and dead?"
For almost a half century, the U.S. conducted military exercises, bombing the islands off the coast of Maehyang Ri, the Korean fishing village. The exercises were suspended in the year following the premier of this dance at the 2002 Seoul International Dance Festival. Choy traveled to Maehyang Ri to see the devastation and to meet with the local people prior to creating this dance.
Photo by Carl Hefner ©
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"Comfort Woman"
Dancer: Peggy Choy
One of the signature dances by Choy that takes a look at brutality suffered by the women of Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines during World War II.
Photo by Lam ©
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"Seung Hwa: Liberation After Great Suffering"
Dancer: Peggy Choy
"Seung Hwa" can be translated as "compassion or liberation after great suffering"—the deepest of revolutionary insights. This piece is another signature piece by Choy and is coupled with "Comfort Woman."
Photo by Steve Eliasen ©
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