Peggy Choy will introduce the Javanese dance style of the Court of Yogyakarta. Students will learn how female and male styles express archetypal characters prominent in epic dance dramas, such as the princess, prince, ogre and monkey.

Professor Choy has performed and taught Javanese dance-theater since the 1970s. She has directed and choreographed dance dramas since 1984, passing on the court dance style of her teacher, K.R.T. Sasmintadipuro, who was key in the development of Javanese dance in the Palace of Yogyakarta in Central Java from the 1970s through the 1990s.

Peggy Choy, an Assistant Professor of Dance and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaches courses on Javanese Dance, Asian American Movement, and Afro-Asian Improv.  Her recent research interests include American boxing, urban vernacular forms (breaking, house), and Capoeira Angola.

Peggy Choy’s work is rooted in a foundation of Javanese and Korean dance-theater, and the Chinese martial, taijiquan.  She has created intercultural solos and ensemble work since the mid-1990s, performing at venues including New York’s Dance Theater Workshop, La Mama E.T.C., Danspace Project/St. Mark’s Church, Aaron Davis Hall; the Kennedy Center, Dance Place and the Smithsonian Institution in DC, the Kennedy Theater in Honolulu, Utan Kayu in Jakarta, and at the Seoul Art Center in Korea.  

Peggy Choy’s Javanese dance workshop is sponsored by the Department of Music. Ms. Choy’s residency at UC Davis is sponsored by Departments of Asian American Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Music; and Theatre and Dance.

Free