Compare to the other arts forms, dance as an intangible performing arts foam is restricted in records. Until the photo and video materials were actively utilized for recording dance, the dance was only remained in memories of dancers and audience members who experienced the dance site of those times. Recently dance oral history is beginning to apply for writing new dance history. While dance oral history offers to dancers to testify their own histories, it makes dance people to participate in writing dance history. Thus, oral history scripts on dance that is dance peoples’ oral texts can expend horizon of dance history’s writing. In present, historical resources on the 20th century’s Korean dance, particularly in the period of Korean Liberation (1945~1948) and the period of Korea War (1950~1953) are poor as if these periods are vacuity. Even if some documents related to these periods are existed, those contents are the event, the dancer, the dance work, the dance criticism, and dance organization which are limited evidence of these periods. On the other hands, oral history scripts on dance related to these periods provide vivid historical evidences on cultural environments and real situations of dance production and dancers. Because those oral texts were created by voices of senior dancers who lived in these periods. Futhermore, the scripts clue in on anthological, sociological, and psychological resources related to the dancer or dance trends in these two periods. Therefore, applications of oral history scripts on dance enable to write on deeper historical themes, such as the dancer’s identity, changes of aesthetics, trends of dance creation, dance policies, and dance agencies in the 20th century. The purpose of this study is how to overcoming limitations of writing on the 20th century’s Korean dance history through the oral history scripts on dance. First of all, the researcher analyzed two dance history books, Hangguk Hyeondae Yesulsa Daegye I [An Outline of Arts History of the Korean Modern Period] and Woori Muyong Baeknyeon [100 Years of Korean Dance]. Then, the vacancy and the errs related to the period of Korean Liberation and the period of Korea War that discovered in those two books were made up with the texts of oral history on dance that completed in 2008 and 2009 by the Arts Resource Center of the Arts Council Korea. In result, this study has attempt to open new horizon for writing on history of the 20th century’s Korean dance. Even though this study first attempts to apply the oral history text of senior dancers for writing dance history, the trail is limited to supplying new historical facts. That is, the study could not developed to writing new dance history because previous resources were so poverty than the researcher had expected. In the future the oral history scripts would aid not only dance history researchers to write alternative dance history, but also to discover counter memories compare to the previous dance history books.

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.