This study focuses on the increasing use of street dance programs in local festivals and aims to identify the background of their growth, utilization effects, and future directions based on the experiences and perceptions of street dance professionals. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven experts involved in festival planning, judging, and performance, and the data were analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding. The findings indicate that the growth of street dance in local festivals was driven by increased media exposure and the development of community-based professional networks. These factors contributed to regional revitalization, audience expansion, broadening the cultural base of street dance, and the formation of compensation structures. However, structural limitations were also identified, including poor performance environments and gaps between festival operation systems and genre-specific expertise, which hinder sustainability. This study demonstrates that street dance functions not merely as performance content but as a participatory cultural resource within local festivals. Furthermore, it highlights the need for stable financial support, collaborative systems with specialized personnel, and long-term operational strategies.

This paper examines the implications of the current status of street dance in Korea, which is rapidly growing aided by institutionalization in the cultural industry and education market. This study begins with the researchers' recognition that situations requiring a clearer definition of street dance-related terms frequently occur. We interviewed street dancers from various positions to figure out the practical uses and perceptions on street dance terms. In order to illuminate the theoretical significance of the emphasis on stylized sub-genres, which was emerged as a core theme during the coding process, we refer to Paul DiMaggio's sociological study on classification in art. The findings are summarized as follows. First, various classification systems evolved as street dance in Korea transformed first emerging as amateur popular dance, moving on to cultural industry, finally arriving as professional art. Second, specific sub-genres are increasingly hierarchical, universally recognized, and ritually bordered, the pattern of which suggests a canonization. However, even during the institutionalization and canonization, street dance reveals complexities that do not fit into a static classification system.