This study examines 70 instances of the Korean word chum(춤) found in ten Joseon-period eonhae (Korean vernacular translations) to investigate its earliest textual appearance and patterns of use through an analysis of its translation, orthography, and reference. The findings show that the earliest attested instance of chum in extant hangeul texts appears in Seokbosangjeol (1447). Chum was repeatedly selected as a translation equivalent for ‘舞’ and ‘儛’ and was used over a long period while maintaining a stable orthographic form. At the same time, it exhibited inclusive and open referential patterns that crossed diverse social conditions and boundaries of value. These findings reveal historical aspects of chum that cannot be fully captured from perspectives formed since the modern period and provide a basis for reconsidering perceptions of chum from a longer historical perspective.

This study qualitatively explored the changes in children who participated in long-term sogo dance classes and performances and the educational meanings of their experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine children aged 7 to 9 and their nine primary caregivers who participated in sogo dance classes and a performance at Y Culture and Arts Academy over approximately nine months. Class journals and video recordings were also used as supplementary data. The findings reveal improvements in movement skills, the development of active learning attitudes and positive self-images, and an enhanced sense of community. The educational meanings of the children’s experiences were identified as joyful learning and expression, immersion, collaboration, and achievement. These changes and experiences were interconnected throughout the extended process of classes, repeated practice, and performance. The perspectives of both the children and their primary caregivers also confirmed how the sogo dance experiences extended into their homes and everyday lives.

This study aims to examine the structure of unconscious sensory expression in Hofesh Shechter’s Theatre of Dreams through Freud’s theory of dream-work. To this end, both a literature review and a performance analysis of [Hofesh Shechter’s Theatre of Dreams] were conducted, focusing on the mechanisms of condensation and displacement in movement, music, lighting, and spatial composition. We found that, first, the mechanism of condensation manifested as a physical entity through the visual signification of bodily movement, taking the form of collective bodies and the superimposition of contrasting movements. Second, displacement was expressed through the spatial dimensionalization of sound and lighting, revealing the fluid transfer of affect through intentional disjunction between music and movement and the displacement of sensory perception. Third, these phenomena resulted in the audience’s experience being unconsciously drawn into the nonlinear narrative structure. This study suggests that the expressive domain of contemporary dance is expanding beyond mere bodily play toward a sensory-centered total art form.

This study explores how dance experiences developed through playing Billy in the musical Billy Elliot have been remembered and reinterpreted in participants’ later lives. Ten participants who played Billy in the first and second casts of the Korean production participated in in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed using a narrative inquiry approach, focusing on the temporal and contextual continuity of their experiences from dance and role preparation to training, performance, and life after the production. The findings revealed four themes: entering dance and becoming involved in Billy Elliot; challenges and growth during training; expansion of dance experiences through performance; and reinterpretation of dance experiences in later life. Participants recalled that the experience expanded their dance experiences and was later understood in relation to self-management, responsibility, confidence, and artistic expression. These experiences were interpreted as retrospective meaning-making rather than direct causal effects, and continued to be reinterpreted in relation to participants’ subsequent careers and life contexts.

This study examines the current status and significance of cultural and arts education for children and adolescents with Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF), focusing on dance education at Yeroom Arts School and Yeha Arts School. Students with BIF often experience cognitive, emotional, and social difficulties while receiving limited educational support because they fall between general and special education systems. The findings indicate that cultural and arts education, particularly dance education, demonstrated the possibility of having positive effects on self-expression ability, self-esteem, social skills, emotional stability, and physical and cognitive development. The educational practices of Yeroom Arts School and Yeha Arts School showed that arts-centered education can exert effects to a certain extent on school adaptation and social growth for students with BIF. Based on these findings, this study suggests the need for institutional support, specialized program development, teacher training, and expanded policy support for cultural and arts education for children and adolescents with Borderline Intellectual Functioning.

This study explores the possibility of building dancers' digital legacies that preserve and re-present their dances in three dimensions even posthumously. Dance vanishes as it is performed, and current records are concentrated in two-dimensional social media videos. This study reviews the literature on AI-based 3D reconstruction and extended reality through a four-layer analytical framework. While 3D motion recovery and photorealistic appearance reconstruction are maturing rapidly, no study has been found to have integrated and validated both layers within the dance domain. Accordingly, this study surveys the extant records of Choe Seunghui and proposes construction scenarios distinguishing posthumous archive-based from lifetime capture-based approaches; examines institutional challenges including choreography copyright; the potential of extended-reality-based dance education; and a three-stage research road map for future research. This study provides a foundation for extending extending dance documentation from flat video to volumetric data.

This study examines sinmuyong, a core asset of Korean modern dance, from the perspective of contemporary intangible heritage discourse and derives practical tasks for enhancing its cultural heritage value and status. To this end, the study reviews the paradigm shift in cultural heritage concerning modern arts and and substantiates the historical transmission lineage and the tangible existence of works in sinmuyong through literature research and case analysis. The findings confirm that sinmuyong is the product of the an autonomous aesthetics that led to the modern change of tradition and that it sufficiently meets the requirements of “living heritage” through an established transmission lineage and identifiable repertoire.. This study is significant in broadening the horizon of Korean dance heritage by defining sinmuyong as an ongoing, living heritage.

ABSTRACT

This study examines how and why traditional dance in Korea is conceptualized in a way that diverges from the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Convention of UNESCO. Using literature review and discourse analysis, it analyzes Korean cultural heritage laws and policy documents while critically engaging with theoretical shifts in folklore studies, anthropology, and performance studies that informed the ICH framework. The findings show that the Korean system conceptualizes traditional dance as a formalized performing art of professional practitioners, grounded in a product-oriented paradigm emphasizing historic value, artistry, and superiority. In contrast, the ICH Convention foregrounds a process-oriented paradigm, understanding heritage as community-based practice, transmission, and performance. This divergence produces a structural gap between form-centered and process-centered perspectives of the same dance practices. This study conceptualizes this difference as a tension between “preservation-oriented” and “process-oriented” paradigms, and proposes the necessity of reformulating the dual ontology of the intangibility and tangibility of dance cultural heritage.

This study aims to provide a multidimentional reconstruction of the transmission landscape of city- and provincial-designated intangible heritage dance arts of the Seoul metropolitan and central regions, and to explore a sustainable transmission paradigm. To this end, a comprehensive survey of intangible heritage designations within the region was conducted, and a comparative analysis of the aesthetic characteristics of salpuri chum and seungmu was performed according to their respective lineages. The analysis revealed a severe geographical imbalance; dance genres are heavily concentrated in western plain areas such as Seoul and Gyeonggi, whereas eastern mountainous areas like Gangwon and Jungbuk show uneven transmission due to the absorption of dance elements into composite ritual genres. Nevertheless, even within the same genre, distinctive artistic identities have differentiated into classical beauty, ritual character, and aesthetic flexibility depending on master-disciple lineages and regional sensibilities. Accordingly, this study proposes practical alternatives combining multidimensional archiving of fragmented local dance assets with a communication strategy that employs media technology as a limited supplement. This study is significant in demonstrating that regional intangible heritage constitutes an independent value system that sustains the diversity of Korean dance, and in establishing the necessity of a diversified transmission paradigm.

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.