This study explores the primary issues in international performing arts exchange in the post-COVID-19 era. In our in-depth interviews with dance artists, each with over eight years of experience in international exchange before and after the pandemic, we witnessed the challenges and opportunities posed by the current pandemic situation. We used phenomenological methods to analyze the interview data. Our analysis revealed four problems: (1) the gap between live performance and recorded online performance; (2) the lack of equitable collaboration between artists and arts administrators; (3) the lack of diverse approaches and forms of support; and (4) the increase in barriers to international performing arts exchange. Our findings suggest countermeasures, such as: (1) balanced support both for live performance and online performance; (2) more flexible communication between artists and administrators; (3) adoption of more diverse and creative modes of international exchange; and (4) provision of training and education to promote artists’ access to and mobility in international artistic exchange.

The purpose of this study is to explore the creative scene of youth dance artists by revealing the meaning of the audience to them based on their experience of the creative support project of youth dance artists. In order to do so, in-depth interviews were conducted with three youth dance artists who were beneficiaries of the program and the transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed qualitatively by constant comparison method. From the results, I was able to derive the significance of the following three categories. First, starting from the conception phase, the youth dance artists try to instill in their performance a value that is up to par with the high expectations of the audience. Second, they think that the critiques by critics and other professionals in the field are limited and propose the need to give more weight to the reactions of the lay audience as an evaluation factor. Moreover, they suggest the need to diversify the evaluation committee and review committee members in order to encourage the inflow of new dance artists. Third, the youth dance artists point out the difficulty of their activities reaching the critics as well as the media and point to the audience as a remedy to the issue as well as a driving force to construct new field of dance. First, as an element of support in the program, I propose to strengthen the support in the domain of criticism. There is also a need to improve the program’s current process of evaluation and review to emulate a structure in which currently active artists, professionals of various fields, and the lay audience can participate. Finally, I propose to strengthen the role of the country as a facilitator that encourages the support of its citizens and emphasizes the role of the market.