The essay starts with a reference to the rhetoric of nationalism around a recent event when Draupadi, an adaptation of the translation of Mahasweta Devi’s short story by the same name was staged as a play, by the students of an Indian University. The subsequent hate campaign and politicisation of a class presentation in the University shook many people in gender and feminist studies. The reading of the play as anti-national and not recognising its importance within the discourses within studies on gender, civil rights or English literature was seen as an extension of the political propaganda in the society. In light of such complete marginalisation of issues of violence on women, this paper tries to bring together different ways in which the woman named Draupadi becomes represented in performances around her in India - travelling across time and geopolitical spaces–where again Draupadi surfaces as a character depicting strong resistance against army atrocities. In its non-linear narrative, it attempts to see Draupadi’s travel through time and space of performative representations as choices of reflections put forward by performers–thus giving her a specific role as the representative of women as vulnerable subjects in Indian society. The paper draws on examples from dance and theatre that are directly based on the story of Draupadi, a central female figure in the Indian epic. It also draws on the story “Draupadi” written by Mahasweta Devi (translated by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak) and its theatrical rendition. Finally, it looks at a real life situation in Manipur, and its possible connection to the theatrical representation it came to resemble. This paper is written to reflect upon the position of women in the context of national honour and hegemonic structure of patriarchy, taking the story of Draupadi and its after-Life.

In this essay, I explore the relationship between dance, choreography, violence and torture, particularly in relation to the television show So You Think You Can Dance. I argue that the act of choreography can sometimes be thought of as a violent encroachment on the body, and consider how torture and abjection are concepts useful to unpacking this power dynamic, particularly when dealing with torture as mediatized visual pleasure. I end with a short analysis of torture in Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria.

The period from the late 1930s through the 1940s was a tumultuous time in China because of two devastating wars—the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945) and the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949). This essay examines the impact these wars had on concert dance, at the time still a newly emerging art form in China, by examining the case of Liang Lun 梁倫 (b. 1921), a dancer from Guangdong who began his dance career during the 1940s. Although Liang is widely considered to be one of the founding figures of modern Chinese dance, he has received almost no attention in the English language scholarship. This essay thus serves as a preliminary examination of Liang’s early choreographic repertoire, as well as a reflection on the ways in which Liang’s experiences reflect broader trends in Chinese dance during the wartime period.

This paper explores the concept of 'Performing Body on Stage' based on the choreographic work Glory which considers the critical point of view on system and body in relation to Korean sociocultural context. Glory focuses on the physical experience of Korean male dancers, experiencing the military service and dance competitions, questions the system recreated in the body, and asks "is the body free in dance?" To shape this into work, the dancer’s reflective testimonies are used as the materials of choreography, and the conceptualized and contextualized structure is developed into the form of ‘choreographic documentary’. In this paper, I refer Judith Butler’s proposal on ‘vulnerability and resistance’ to construct the frame of this study. I analyze the choreographic approach to the dancer’s body and how a ‘vulnerable body’ can be transformed into a ‘political subject’ through the choreographer’s practice in Glory. When the apparatus which are invisible but attached to the body are visualized on stage, the body exposes the social and political form. In this sense, finding the index of precarity associated with physical vulnerability was not only the process of choreography but also becoming subject in this work. Having physical autonomy in dance is that one actualizes the potential of artistic creation latent in individual diversity, not the military body identity, which moves in an interminable manner with the same identity. This artistic act of the choreographer is political as well as aesthetic in terms of re-asking about the nature of the dance and contemporary arts at the same time.

This paper looks at Formosa (2017), the last full-length dance work by the founder and artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Lin Hwai-min. As a former writer and trained journalist, he is a socially aware choreographer who expresses his concern for his society through dance. I first contextualize his oeuvre with his earlier pieces based on the theme of Taiwan such as: Legacy (1978), Portrait of the Families (1997), White Water & Dust (2014 double bill), and Rice (2013), leading up to this full-length multi-media production. I also explain the hybridized Cloud Gate corporeal training from the East (e.g. taiji daoyin, Chinese martial arts) and the West (e.g. ballet, Martha Graham modern dance technique), as I unravel how Lin Hwai-min executes his citizenship through choreography.

This case study research aimed to analysis the dance program to heal the unstable emotions of teenagers who experience school violent. The dance program was held at the A Welfare Center in Seoul for 10 sessions, 100 minutes per week. The program has improved the participants' unstable emotions and negative self-image. Participants want to express their feelings in a healthy way and find the positivity inherent in them. And they tried to improve their social skills by improving self-expression. After finishing the program, participants recovered the violence, depression and low self-esteem caused by wounds to the body and mind. It is meaningful that it has a positive effect on healthy relationships by learning how to communicate with other friends.

In this study, I apply the LMA(Laban Movement Analysis) system to analyze the movement of Taekyun. In this context, I think that if I can analyze the movement of Taekyun which is representative of Korean martial arts by the LMA, It will be a new opportunity to shed light on traditional martial arts from an artistic point of view. I especially focuse on the dancing elements of Taekyun. It is thought that the action of the Taekyun movement ​​resembles curve, because it avoids the fatal blow on the opponents. Taekyun is embodied a unified gesture through the tempo of strength and weakness, with softness in its movement. I explore the physical aspects(Body), qualitative aspect(Effort), shape of movements aspect(Shape), and spatial aspect(Space) of LMA in order to illuminate the aesthetic elements of Taekyun. As a result of the analysis, the dancing elements of Taekyun are found as follows. First, in the body part, I find a common feature that is connected naturally by Breath Support and Core Support. Respiration strengthens the meaning of each action in the three movements(pumbalbgi, hwalgaesji, neunjileugi). Second, in terms of quality(Effort), I find the properties of Strong Weight and Quick Time. A common feature of the Effort is the rhythm state. It can explains the reason why Taekyun is similar to dancing movement. Third, the spatial aspect can be seen as a Directional Shape, but it can not be completed unless Shape Flow is emphasized. Fourth, in the aspect of the Shape, it can be seen that there is a Central Tension when you raise his leg to defend himself or when he turn his arm to defend from his opponent's attack. I hope that this study help the LMA to be applied to the various fields in order to the value of movements.

This study aims to reorganize the chronology of the deceased Kim Suk-ja's life as a dancer, the holder of the National Intangible Cultural Asset No. 97, Salpuri dance. In particular, the chronologies of Kim's dancing activities presented in the pamphlets of her memorial concert which has been held for 10 years after her death show inconsistency and errors. Therefore, this study attempts to correct them. She had carved a place for herself as a traditional dancer while doing activities as a Shamanic dancer in Seoul since 1976. As a result, part of her chronology that displayed the schedules of her activities since then was made public by newspapers and therefore is reliable. On the other hand, information on dancing-related activities from the Japanese colonial era to the 1960s by Kim Suk-ja, who was born in 1927, is unclear. Her chronology during this period does not sufficiently reflect her dancing activities or provides incorrect information. Therefore, this study corrects and reorganizes her aspects of learning dances during her early years and information on her activities in Daejeon from historical contexts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the opinions of experts in dance performance about the barriers to the popularity of contemporary dance, ways to improve the popularity of it, and relative importance of an effort to seek ways of boosting the popularity of Korean dance focusing on Communication. It ultimately meant to improve the harsh performance environments for dance, which was caused by inadequate finance, in order to put performing arts of dance on the right track in the modern society. In the first stage, in-depth interviews were carried out to find out problems with performing arts of dance and how to resolve the problems. The subjects in this study were 20 experts in performing arts of dance who were selected by purposive sampling. In the second stage, a hierarchical structure was generated about how to increase the popularity of dance, which were found in the first stage. Third, analytic hierarchy process(AHP) was utilized to measure relative importance and priority. The findings of the study were as follows: Five areas and five methods were selected as a means to increase the popularity of dance on communication. Five areas were audience communication with the choreographers, communication of the artists and artists, communication between staff members, communication between the audience and the artists. As a result of making a pair wise comparison of the five areas, 0.282 with a significantly higher weight, the choreographer's identification of audience requirements was selected as the top priority. Second was to improve awareness within the dance community 0.170, third was a variety of ways to increase collaboration 0.120, fourth was a constitutional directions of unity for the work of the staff 0.095. Fifth, star choreographers and star dancers nurturing and hiring 0.086.