The Journal of Society for Dance Documentation & History

pISSN: 2383-5214 /eISSN: 2733-4279

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Identity, Language, and Revelation : View on Characteristics of Choi Seung-hee’s dance 신분 언어 계시 : 최승희의 무용실체특징 시론 ×
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ISSN : 2383-5214(Print)
ISSN : 2733-4279(Online)
Asian Dance Journal Vol.44 pp.27-64
DOI : 10.26861/sddh.2017.44.27

신분 언어 계시 : 최승희의 무용실체특징 시론

Identity, Language, and Revelation : View on Characteristics of Choi Seung-hee’s dance

박영광,이미령

Piao Youngguang,

Abstract

The emergence of “new dance” is considered an important event in history of Joseon folk dance, from the ancient times driven by slavery through modern times. Choi Seung-hee was a pioneer of “new dance” and leader in “new dance” in Asia. In addition, she was a great contributor to change and development of Joseon folk dance and had great impact on development of oriental dance as well. In this paper, I studied Choi’s identity and her body, her performance, logics of her performance, and her performance notion, and her revelation which drove her to be dedicated to folk dance. This study analyzed Choi’s dance in three categories of identity, language, and revelation. In the category of identity, three subjects of janggyeong (場景) and identification, Choi’s identity, and her body were discussed. janggyeong (場景) is a concept I used to study dancing phenomena in different scenes. The word is a combination of jang (場), meaning space and gyeong (景), meaning sight. Therefore, the word refers to sight of a person doing something in a space, which naturally comprises elements of person, work, time, and space. When space, a person, and work exist at the same time, space is confined to work and a person’s identity is defined as work he is doing, and work is a determinant of the person’s identity. Choi Seung-hee was engaged in dance and related work in her whole life. This gave her multiple identities aside from a dancer. In the beginning, for example, she was a dancing learner and a person expressing things through dance, and when starting to create work, she was a creator of art work and finally she was a dancing educator, researcher, and manager. She obtained some of them simultaneously while others one by one over a long period of time. From the viewpoint of cultural and institutional norms, her identities represented a unity of Western and Eastern cultures, a unity of Western and Eastern dance, and a unity of traditional and modern dance. Despite this, her movement, as a dancer, stood for Joseon folks and modernity. In the language category, three subjects such as performance, performance logics and performance notions were discussed as a dancing language. For dancers, language means performance and Choi’s performance mainly concerned creating work of Joseon folk dance and developing teaching materials. Language is the logic of social activity and for dancers, it becomes the grammar of dance performance. The grammar served as the underlying basis of Choi’s work creation and developing teaching materials and the means of language turned into teaching materials for Joseon folks. The way the language was used became how Joseon folk dance was formed. Based on this, I concluded that Choi Seung-hee’s performance of Joseon folk dance and her teaching materials can be defined as use of a Western system by Joseon folk. Language is a concept and idea associated with social activity. Choi’s dance encompassed ideas of nation, people, creating new things and openness. The category of revelation detailed the great dancer’s revelation to development of Joseon folk dance, which concerned respect for fellow people, self-awakening, no fear of creating new things, and open-mindedness.

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