This paper was written from the perspective of non-reductive materialism to interpret choreographic changes and medium replacement in Korean traditional dance. Non-reductive materialism is a theory that all phenomena are mentally created from substances and that formed mental phenomena do not return to the substances from which they came. This principle was the matrix Danto used to explain the ontological status of artwork. Additionally, Margolis borrowed Strawson’s concept of person and applied it to assess art analogically. This same concept can be applied to explain dance; dance uses movement as a medium, which in turn uses humans as a medium, making humans the embodiment of a physical substance—the body. The physical substance, then, is the property of the medium, embodying the dance performance. Embodied dance contains the physical properties of the medium and intentional properties, such as mental phenomena, which do not belong to a physical property. Therefore, the relationship between medium, movement, and dance is non-reductive, and each is indivisibly soluble with the next. From this point of view, each dance performance produced from the same medium is independent and unique. Successive changes in Korean traditional dance are replacements of the fundamental medium. Successive dancers can obtain similarities to previous performances in their own dance by training with a former dancer. During training, breathing is a core principle of movement and an element that considerably influences dancers’ similarities. This process is called transmission. As a result, long-term similarity training is a primary factor when choosing successive dancers because they share the mental of traditional dances and choreography with their successors.