This study aims at reevaluating the artistic realism of Choi Seung-hee’s works not only in her full-length dramatic dances after her defection to North Korea but also in her early modern dances with the theme of social participation. The kind of realism that she had pioneered in dance field in 1930 continued into her proletarian dance but discontinued between 1933-1945 due to severe criticism from home and abroad. This study ascribes the undervaluation of her activities in this period to the male mainstream perspective of the society and the decline of proletarian literature. f After her defection to North Korea, Choi’s proletarian dance developed into full-length dramatic dance, which can be referred to as the stage of her completion of socialist realism. The full-length dramatic dance has great meaning in the Korean dance history in that: first, it elevated “dance as art” to a higher level; second, it held a feminist perspective; and third, it achieved a high degree of completion in terms of choreography. Henceforth, Choi Seung-hee’s activities as a pioneering realist dancer in Korea deserves reevaluation in the Korean dance history.

The purpose of this research is to examine the Soviet ballet in the 20th century in terms of socialist realism and to reappraise them. First, I focused on the conditions of ballet in the Soviet era after the October Revolution; how the classical ballet managed to survive; what kinds of works attempted by young choreographers like Goleizovsky and Lopukhov. Then, I investigated that how the Soviet ballet works represented socialist realism. Socialist realism had been the principle of creation during Soviet regime since 1934. It was not only an artistic style but also a propagandistic ideology that promoted the view of Soviet life. Socialist realism tried to show ought to be, such as an optimistic Socialist utopia not the real social problems. This trend was is based on Marxist-Leninist aesthetics. The fundamental principles of this aesthetics consisted of “nationality(narodnosti’)”, “class system(klassovosti’)” and “partizanship(partinosti’)”. I analyzed four Soviet ballets: The Red Poppy (by Glière and Tikhomirov), The Flames of Paris (by Asafiev and Vainonen), Romeo and Juliet (by Prokofiev and Lavrovsky) and Spartacus (by Khachaturian and Grigorovich). The Red Poppy was considered as the first Soviet ballet because it dealt with the theme of soviet “contemporary” life. The Flames of Paris was full of energetic and vivid character dances which symbolized “nationality (narodnosti’)” of soviet aesthetics. “Drambalet” in 1930s’ was the alternative name of the socialist realism ballet, and Romeo and Juliet was called as the genuine drambalet. Also, Spartacus was provided as the model of Soviet ballet. In conclusion, this study examined the way how socialist realism was reflected in the Soviet ballets. The aesthetic values other than the ideology were also interpreted. Finally, the further steps of study about the Soviet ballet in the 20th century can be developed on the ground of history and aesthetics.