The purpose of this study was to examine and highlight Choi Hyeon’s dance, performed during his life as part of Korea’s dance history, in terms of its position in the art world. Choi Hyeon was born in Yeongdo, Busan on December 6, 1929 and passed away from liver cancer at the age of 78 on July 8, 2002. He entered the dance world in 1946 as a pupil of Kim Hae-Rang (金海郞) and learned the basics of dancing by emulating the teacher for eight years. His dancing career developed after his arrival at Seoul. Choi Hyeon was one of the most influential dancers between the 1950s and 1980s, and he acted as a choreographer and dancer, showing originality based on tradition, from the 1970s until his death in the 2000s. He also continued to teach dance from the 1950s until his death. Choi Hyeon broadly classified his works into large-scale dance dramas and small-scale dance works. His leading dance dramas included (National Musical Company of Korea, 1974), (National Dance Company of Korea, 1979), (National Dance Company of Korea, 1981), (Seoul Performing Arts Company, 1987), (Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre, 1992), (Seoul Performing Arts Company, 1999), and (Choi Hyeon Dance Performance, 2001). His leading small-scale dance works included (1976), (1993), (1994), and (1999). Choi Hyeon's dance world was broadly understood within the genre of Korea’s creative dance, but technically, it was a successful case of an advanced style in the genre of new dance. Choi Hyeon left his imprint on Korea’s dance history, while leading his life in the modern era, by his successful creation and performance of his works based on his theory of new dance-oriented reasoning among Korea’s various styles of creative dance.

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.