In studying dance history of Korea, diverse patterns of dance are discovered in murals, historical remains, and royal rites. Then, how should dances contained in visual materials be understood? This study aims to examine the method of analyzing dance depicted in paintings to research the history of dance. To that end, Panofsky’s iconological method, used in researching the history of fine art, was used to examine dances depicted in murals. Research was conducted in the following procedure. First, the concept and principle of iconology, focused on the historical background of iconography and iconology, were reviewed, and recent iconological arguments were examined. Second, how to apply the iconological method to dance was discussed. Third, through Panofsky’s iconological gradual analysis method, the iconography of the right-hand mural in Goguryeo Jangcheon No. 1 Tomb’s Anterior Chamber was described and analyzed to define its meaning. The findings of this study are outlined as follows. According to previous iconological description, the iconography of dance depicted in the right-hand mural in Jangcheon No. 1 Tomb’s Anterior Chamber features a Goguryeo person performing both-arm dance and lotus dance to the accompaniment of a string instrument. According to the iconological analysis, the dancer performs Buddhist-faith funeral dance. Such ritual dance contains the cult of wishing the dead person’s soul will well reach the nether world, as well as the wish that the dead person will lead a happy life in the nether world. According to the iconological interpretation, Goguryeo sleeve dance changed and developed into today’s Hansam, Jangsam and other diverse sleeve dances. Goguryeo dance contains the essential life meaning, and although the themes and concepts of dance may vary according to times and works, all dances are the expression of life and the heart of wishing for a good life; thus, the life, the essence of Goguryeo, was analyzed as the universal essence and inherent meaning of Korean dance. This study is significant in that it prepared a framework to research dances depicted in paintings, and proved that iconology can contribute to diverse analyses in researching the history of dance. Iconological research on dances illustrated in visual materials is expected to continue.

There are 111 main conveniences that Korean dance has in common with history research areas. Both could be categorized as age, ryupa, kind, local, and life of five. This study analyzed Korean dance history in order to provide direction for the development of localized educational content. For this purpose, we redefined the needs and professional structure of the writers of Korean dance history around the cheotjae, or the contemporary Officer. The other purposes of this study were to ensure the clarity of the Korean dance category and to express the needs of the Korean council of dance-related institutions and organizations. Prior to the development of the orientation of the educational content, the universality, consistency, and originality of Korean dance would need to be combined. This would construct a systematic framework for the educational contents of the Korean traditional dance historical research.

This paper presents an experimental discussion that examines previous literature and controversial discourses on dance history of Korea in order to suggest new ways of writing dance history. The dance history texts of the premodern time of dance history are mainly written by An Hwak, Kim Jaecheol, and Seong Gyeongrin after the Japanese rule. Most of these texts are restricted to introduce court dances in the literature due to the limited number of surviving materials. I suggest that dance history of premodern Korea would be discussed with more variety and depth if social and cultural perspectives are adopted. There are various discussions developed about the descriptions of modern dance history, however there is room for improvement in regards to the poor perceptions of the independent starting point of modern times and the concept of modernity. If the descriptions of dance history in Korea achieve expandability by embracing different genres and various literary methodologies as well as syntactic descriptions, the scope of awareness will broaden further for dance studies.