This study discusses the early modern dance formation in Busan during the liberation period 1945-1950. The study discusses its historical significance and aesthetic value from a contemporary perspective. For this study, a literature review on previous research and newspaper articles was used as a research method in order to examine modern dancers’ works and their educational activities during the liberation period. Modern dances in Busan that supported a new way of creating stage performances were influenced by western cultures and “New Dance.” During the liberation period, modern dancers in Busan expressed national identity and individuality through dance while promoting dance education as the human experience. Park Yongho and Park Yirang held dance concerts to show their own creative dance pieces, which were different from previous dance performances displayed in Busan. The liberation period was important for dance history in Busan as it was the beginning of establishing modern dance in that area. Also, modern dances during that time were historically significant as they fostered nationalism and suggested a new dance aesthetic. Modern dance in Busan during the liberation period set a foundation for modern dance activities that focused on creativity and education after the Korean War.

This study investigates the historical process in which ballet in Korea was constructed as fine art. Particularly, it focuses on the ballet’s abrupt and conspicuous growth right after Korea’s liberation from Japan. By delving into materials of the period including newspapers, this study conducts a discourse analysis to inspect sociocultural meanings of ballet as fine art in Korea. In the early stage of its importation, ballet had several disadvantageous factors to be regarded as fine art. It had linked to aristocratic formality, which was condemned by modern artists. Ballet’s exotic toe dancing thrived in popular entertainments such as revue. A turning point came with Korea’s liberation occurring with the end of the Second World War (WWII) in 1945. The fact that ballet suddenly became important when the need for constructing a modern nation was urgent suggests the nation’s key role in the change. While the international society was restructured by the global norm of nationalism, nations functioned as the agent of culture construction. The nation’s leading role in it freed ballet from commercial arena and from past association with aristocracy. Ballet could claim disinterestedness and public welfare, which were at the core of fine art. For constructors of national culture, ballet was a useful means, since it provided a transnational form that subsumed locality. Also, as a form of tradition, ballet afforded a connection to antiquity which was imagined to be shared throughout the nation. Moreover, ballet’s classicism embodied elegance and order, which were desired during the postwar era. In conclusion, the process of national culture construction was a key for ballet in Korea to be constructed as fine art. Ballet as a national emblem represented the nation’s level of civilization in the international society and a public monument for the members of the nation.

This paper examines the meaning of the traditional dance culture that Korean people, particularly focusing on the CIS(Commonwealth of Independent States) have preserved in other countries through the tradition of Korean traditional culture. Furthermore, using online press release and publications, the authors Xaim to study its meaning within the Korean dance history. The research on Korean diaspora culture and their traditional dance activities is being done rarely by the Korean Dance Department. It could be said that research about the Goryeo people living in the CIS is practically nonexistent. Currently, the tradition of the former Soviet art group has been revived and continues its tradition. The succession of traditional dance culture plays an important role in instilling a sense of bond and shared identity with Korean people the same. In CIS, several Goryeo delegates cultivate young dancers, but they are inheriting traditional dances through cultural exchanges through culture with Korea. Korean dancers should be interested in them because CIS dancers Goreyo dancers are thirsty for continuous exchange with Korea, such as performances and workshops. The CIS Goryeo people underwent a catastrophic change of history in the past 150-year history of immigration to Russia, the Soviet Union, and the CIS. They have followed the Soviet policy for survival but lived with dual characteristics that does not forget the tradition of their origin. They are forming a distinctive culture. Their activities indicate the possibility of expanding the area of Korean culture and arts. The exchange with them will go beyond sharing the tradition of Korean people, and will form a traditional network that can promote Korean culture even in regions where there is no exchange with Korea through the Goryeo people spreading across Eurasia in transnational countries. I think that this will contribute to expansion of Korean dance. In the future, Korean dancers will have to embrace Korean diaspora dance culture, and at the same time, I hope that Korean dance culture will spread to the world.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how nationalism has been operated and emerged in the process of establishing the National Theater of Korea and Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, National Gugak Center, and Seoul Arts Center. I analyze the records about the construction of the theaters from the viewpoint of nationalism. Also I examine how the nationalistic view had been expressed architecturally and how the characteristics were revealed in the performances. The history of the construction of the theaters was entirely led by the state during the 3rd, 4th and 5th republics. The 3rd, 4th and 5th republics, all of which had been ruled by undemocratic regimes, emphasized nationalism in order to compensate their lack of legitimacy. The ‘nation’ has worked as a very effective concept to unite the whole people into a single identity, and traditional culture as well as art have been used as the most effective means of raising national pride. As such, the construction of the theaters as an infrastructure for expanding traditional performing arts was essential, and it was actively promoted in this background. At the height of this flow, which began in the 1960s, there was the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Past English-language scholarship on Choe Seung-hui has focused on her world tour of 1938-1940 and her work in Japan and Japanese-occupied Korea prior to 1945. Choe’s contributions to dance creation in the socialist world have been largely ignored. This essay expands on the existing scholarship by using Chinese-language source materials to examine Choe’s career in China and its implications for the connections between the pre- and post-1945 periods of Choe’s career. This essay documents three important parts of Choe’s work in China: her development of China-themed choreography, her adaptation of new dance forms from Chinese opera, and her training of the first generation of Chinese dance professionals. I argue that Choe’s work in China was continuous despite changes in political context. The project that she began in the 1940s as part of the pan-Asianist project of Oriental Dance later transformed by the 1950s into Chinese classical dance under socialist internationalism.