‘Passage of Oracles’ returns to campus

‘Passage of Oracles,’ an innovative combination of dance, music and martial arts, returns to the university for a second straight year, this time at the Wisconsin Union Theater in February.

The performance commemorates the passages of Asians and Africans to and within this country and the contributions of their labor on the American landscape.

The public performance will be Saturday, Feb. 17, at 8 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. Tickets will be available in January through the Union Theater Box Office, 262-2201.

In addition, on Friday, Feb. 16, there will be a matinee performance for middle school students, some of whom will also participate in a special morning workshop beforehand with college-age mentors and cast members.

Choreographer, producer and director Peggy Myo-Young Choy describes the performance as a “danscape,” which she describes as “a map of insight and empowerment for the future, which links to the past while creating a new geography of movement, sound and story.”

The dynamic dance, martial arts and new jazz work is a tribute to laborers who helped build America but are often overlooked by historians – Chinese men who left poverty at home to work on the Trans-Continental Railroad, Africans who were forcibly brought here to toil in the cotton fields and Koreans who fled persecution.

“The performance represents a visceral landscape of multicultural movement, music, history and myth,” says Choy, who is on the faculty of the dance program at UW–Madison. “For example, folk hero John Henry represents the legacy of courage and vigor of these builders of America. His story and others are danced to jazz inspired by Korean and African drumming and Korean, Chinese and African-American folk songs.”

The music is composed and directed by Fred Wei-han Ho.

The performance is sponsored by the Humanistic Fund, the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, the Asian Pacific American Coalition, the Multicultural Student Coalition, the Wisconsin Women of Color Network, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Vice Chancellor Paul W. Barrows, Office of Student Affairs, the Performing Arts Committee of the Wisconsin Union Directorate, the Pacific and Asian Women’s Alliance and the UW–Madison Dance Program.

Ticket information: Wisconsin Union Box Office, 262-2201. Additional performance information: Rachel Herszenson, 262-0827, rbhersze@students.wisc.edu.