This study aims to improve the Performing Arts Archive Platform 'Byeolbyeol Stage' operated by The National Theater of Korea Museum of Performing Arts into an archive web service that reflects the characteristics of performing arts. To this end, I examined the current status of the museum's archives and accumulated information resources and derived the problems of 'Byeolbyeol Stage'. To improve the website, the digital curation strategy derived from the literature study was applied to 'Byeolbyeol Stage' and a relationship visualization and record linkage service plan was devised to suit the characteristics of performing arts. The proposal was made in consideration of the flexibility and ease of use of users who use various archival web services centered on performing arts.

This study aims to reassess the distinctiveness and competitiveness of the Jeonju Daesaseup Festival, a traditional Korean music competition, and explore the utility of its various contents. To achieve this, the research analyzes the Daesaseup Festival evaluation sheets and observations of the competition and performance venues. The results of the study are as follows: Firstly, it is necessary to introduce differentiated competition categories and performances, as well as seminars for storytelling, folk music, dance, archery, and poetry, which are integral parts of the Daesaseup Festival. Secondly, historical sites such as Unhyeongung Palace, Jeolla Gamyeong, and Hanok Village can be transformed into tourist and cultural zones by integrating them with the competition and performances. Thirdly, the system of citizen judges should be adjusted to reflect a fair balance of gender and region. Reevaluation and careful management of the selection and operation of judges are necessary to ensure the fairness of the competition, and expansion of meticulous post-appointment management programs is also required. This study places significance on the historical aspect of the Jeonju Daesaseup Festival and its distinctiveness compared to other traditional art competitions.

This study examines the significance of Korean performing arts history by focusing on the Little Angels’ organizations and management, the composition of the repertoires, and the meaning of international performing arts history. As a semi-professional organization, the Little Angels developed and operated the member selection musician system, and toured through overseas professional management in the early days. The repertoires of the Little Angels, including Korean traditional dance, music, and choral music were staged, established and systematized as the standard repertoires during the early activities of the cultural mission. Little Angels' dance was developed to be suitable for the children's group dances and the overseas staging of the new dance, and the choral repertoire, which included Korean folk songs and world folk songs played a major role in public diplomacy. As the only 'folk art troupe' among children's art troupes active in the international performing arts world, the Little Angels helped introduce Korean performing arts to the international audiences. Through the study of the Little Angels, a children's art troupe as well as a private art troupe with a 60-year history of international activities, this paper encompassed the history of Korean contemporary performing arts in a rich and stereoscopic way.

This study examines periods, characteristics, activities, and the significance of the 60 years The Little Angels, a Korean children’s performing arts troupe. The research was conducted through a literature survey, the review of primary data including concert programs, newspapers, films, and interviews with key informants. The troupe formulated members, management, and repertoires during its ‘Formulated Period,’ In its ‘Cultural Ambassador Period’ in the context of the International Cold War and nation-building, the troupe played its role as a cultural ambassador with the mission to dispatch Korean culture to the “free world,” beginning with the US, then Europe, Asia, and South America. In the ’Private Troupe Transition Period’ of the 1980s, the troupe focused on domestic rather than overseas activities, yet performed at major events like the Seoul Olympic Games. After 1991, during its ‘Peace Delegation Period,’ the troupe again concentrated on overseas performances in the post-Cold War context and toured the USSR, North Korea, China, and UN nations that participated in the Korean War. This study examines The Little Angels unique position and provides a rich and multi-dimensional views of contemporary Korean performing arts history as created by the intersection of global and Korean concerns.

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.

This research is about the performances of Korean immigrant art troupe, from Russia’s Vladivostok maritime province (Yonhaeju : Prismorsky Krai), that visited Korea in the early 1920s. Initially the performances aimed to raise funds to build churches and help Koreans in Russia suffering from economic difficulties due to prolonged droughts and the civil war in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. However, the performances gained nationwide popularity, introducing Western folk music and dancing to Korea, which became the driving force in spreading a dance craze throughout the country. These performances significantly influenced the history of Korean modern dance, best exemplified by Cho Taek-Won who was first introduced to modern dance by the troupe’s performances and who became one of three new dance (Shinmuyong) pioneers. It is rare in the field of Diaspora Studies that cultural influences come from the outside the mother country, as in the case of the Korean-Russian art troupe. This research, from the perspective of the Diaspora (in the socio-cultural context of the troupe as they were caught between Russia’s civil war, in the period after the 1917 Revolution through 1922, and Korea under occupation by imperial Japan) shows the characteristics and meaning of the performances on the history of Korean modern dance, through analysis of performance activities and structures, member composition, the role of major leaders, and the troupe’s repertory of performances. At the same time, this study provides a foundation to understand the Korean Diaspora in Russia Like Lee Kang, Han Yong-Hun and Kwak Byuing-Gyu, the leaders of the Korean art troupe in Russia were leaders of the religious community who had participated in the Korean Independence Movement in the maritime province of Russia. Most of them were non-professionals and each group had a small number of members. Their art form followed “Estrada,” a typical people’s performing art which were popular folk dance touring performances in Russia at the time. In the history of modern dance in Korea, the significance of the performances of the Korean immigrant art troupe from Russia is as follows. First, as the initial overseas Korean performing arts group, they inspired Koreans to pay attention to the problems of overseas Koreans through the promotion of their visit to Korea; they helped build a national identity across borders. Secondly, this art troupe, as part of the Korean Diaspora, became a cultural bridge between people in Korea and Koreans in Russia. Lastly, the art troupe supported the Korean Independence Movement. However, the performances were forced to stop, for political reasons, by the birth of the Soviet Union on December 30, 1922. Research methods include literature and library research, field surveys, including existing literature in the National Russian Library of East Asian Literature, materials made from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs kept in the National Institute of Korean History, Dong-A Ilbo, Mae-il Shinnbo, and Sunbong, the Korean newspaper published in the maritime province of Russia.

This study examines the trends related to dance as a performance art during the early period of the Soviet Union, a time in which art was broadly used for public enlightenment, the promotion of socialist ideology, and national integration and establishment in the 1920s and 1930s. Dance in this period will be investigated with the aim of determining who produced and appreciated dance performance, the format and genre of the dance performances, and the themes and contents of the performances. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, efforts were made to develop a new form of art that would be appreciated and accepted by Soviet people from various social classes and would help to lead the newly born country, based on Lenin’s idea of popularizing art for the general public. It was a critical period that shaped the characteristics, format, and direction of performing arts in the Soviet Union. In looking at this period, three phenomena stand out. First, ordinary people emerged as both producers and viewers of the performing arts, and an amateur performing arts group (Soin Yesuldan) became popular. Second, Estrada and folk dance became popular during this period among the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural people of the Soviet Union, which greatly influenced the birth of a folk dance company with ballet choreographers. Third, at a meeting of the Pan-Soviet Writers Alliance held in 1934, Gor’kii M. declared that socialist realism should be the principle for creating Soviet art. Subsequently, young Soviet ballet masters developed new forms of ballet in which the themes and contents were in accord with the government agenda. Dance as a performing art in the early period of the Soviet Union greatly influenced not only the art movements in other socialist countries but also Minjok and Minjung chum in Korea in the 1980s and 1990s. In this regard, future research should investigate how dance formats and characteristics from the Soviet Union have been accommodated and reflected in Korean Minjok and Minjung chum.

Expressions of literature or fine art create work that leaves a distinct record. By comparison, the performing arts never create work that remains afterward. Performance is a momentary art shown only in the present, and it is never affected by anything after the show. Performing arts are solely present at the time and place of a performance, making it practically impossible to preserve and store the work. In fact, maintaining and preserving the actions performed on scene has become an unresolved question in the world of performing arts. In order to maintain and preserve such moments, artificial interventions are essential, such as taking photographs or making videos. This paper aims to discuss some theoretical issues that should be taken into account in the process of documenting the performing arts. This paper will first discuss the authenticity of performance in terms of the object of documentation. Authenticity is a concept related to the identity of work. It will continue by examining Margolis’s theory of arts before exploring suitable media to record performances, such as records, body, memory and repertoire. Lastly, this paper will raise a question as to how to reflect aesthetic elements that need to be considered along with other factors in performance documentation. Ultimately, this paper suggests that performance documentation should begin to recognize the gap between performance and record. Such an approach should integrate ethnography and narrative.

This study aims to investigate the activation plans of Korean cultural artists through the modern reception of performance art and to design a new conscious transition of traditional art into popular art. Today, the Seoul Performing Arts Company is a group representing Korean art with unprecedented experiments involving external and internal changes. This study examined the developmental plans of the Seoul Performing Arts Company and its comprehensive artwork, including singing, dancing, and music. The study employed Microsoft Excel, a data processing program, to summarize the list of performances by the Seoul Performing Arts Company and to analyze the three genres of singing, dancing, and music. In addition, the company performers were interviewed about the meanings of modern singing, dancing, and music. These study methods allowed investigation of the characteristics of traditional art genre with singing, dancing, and music as well as the direction and strategic aspects of comprehensive art. This analysis seeks to reorganize perceptions of traditional art as public art exceeding the boundaries of genres in the performance industry while continuing to create comprehensive Korean artwork containing a mutual communicative structure.

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.