Ⅰ. Introduction
Today Choi Seung-hee is generally recognized as the creator of Korean sinmuyong1) (“new dance”) and as the first Hallyu (or Korean Wave) dancer as well. There are hundreds of research papers and the like on her achievements and her fashion. Although she presented a wide variety of works, the majority of those research was mainly limited to her sinmuyong and works based on Orientalism. This must be because her modern dance works have received little attention and been actually regarded as failures in entertainment business or in artistic skills in spite that her achievements in the creation and advancement of sinmuyong have firm authority in the history of Korean dance. Her proletarian dance, which has been considered as a failed modern dance, was created between 1931 and 1932, and its origin can be traced back to her initial modern dance works, which contain new intellectual's sense of themes such as Joseon under the Japanese rule, the grim realities of colonial life, and their agony over social contradictions. Modern dances with such ethnic and socially participatory themes could hardly been seen in Korean dance before Choi Seung-hee.
It was when Choi Seung-hee performed early modern dance works around 1930 when the theme of social participation was first found in Korean dance. Even before those dances were named proletarian dance, messages critical of reality could be read in some modern dance works of hers, resonating with realism, which was a major trend in the global art at the time. Just like realism that had emerged in literature and then in the whole range of art in the mid-19th century developed into socialist realism in the early and mid-20th century, Choi Seung-hee presented modern dances critical of realities and proletarian dances in succession between 1930 and 1932, and then actively created dance works of socialist realism after defecting to North Korea in 1946.
There are lots of researches concerning Choi Seung-hee’s deeds and achievements before the 1945 Liberation of Korea. However, only eight papers are found about her dance activities after her defecting to North Korea, and they were all published after 2000. Seong Gi Sug (2002) examines for the first time Choi Seung-hee’s dance works after her defecting to North Korea, which had been veiled till then, and introduced various viewpoints on them. Yoo Mi Hee (2006) analyzed Choi Seung-hee’s style of choreography through “Sadoseong iyagi” (The Tale of Sado Fortress), which is the most famous work among her full-length dramatic dance works. Besides “The Tale of Sado Fortress,” of which all the acts and scenes uniquely had been opened to the public, “Pungnang-eul ttulgo” (Through the Storm) (Oh 2015) was newly opened to the public in the form of motion picture, and Oh Se-jun placed this work in the category of socialist realism in his paper of 2015. Yang Mina (2021) also explained Choi Seung-hee’s works after defection in terms of socialist realism. Yang’s study was based on the recently discovered materials relating to Choi Seung-hee’s tour performances in the Soviet Union. I also analyzed her tour performances (Han 2020), using the same referential materials as Yang’s. In her book published in 2020, Bae Eun-gyoung put all details, not merely the materials of 1956-1957 but all those on Choi Seung-hee’s tour performances in the Soviet Union since 1950. The lists and contents of her performances as well as the fervent reactions from the local audiences are ascertained in the book.
In these recent preceding studies, Choi Seung-hee’s works after her defecting to North Korea came under new light in the name of socialist realism. Those works of hers categorized as socialist realism, however, were not abruptly created after her defection to North Korea. To argue that her socialist realism had its root in her early stage modern dance, I will ask following questions: how her early stage modern dances and proletarian dances were consonant with realism; what meaning they have in the Korean dance history; and how they become connected to socialist realism. Her early stage dance works, which have still been recorded as failures in the history of Korean dance, need to be newly illuminated in the perspective of realism, together with the socialist realist dances that have bloomed in North Korea. Choi Seung-hee also needs to be reevaluated as Korea’s first realist dancer before being dubbed a socialist realist dancer. Therefore, this study examines the aspects and backgrounds in which her early stage modern dance evolved into the proletarian dance and then into the socialist realist dance. This topic has not been discussed in depth as it has been regarded as insignificant in the South Korean academia.
The relationship between Choi Seung-hee and realism can be examined through literature, which was at the time a venue for new intellectuals. It is no surprise that they accepted socialism, which was a modern radical idea, and played a leading role in the introduction of realism in Korea. Socialism was introduced in earnest through the newly launched news media following the March 1st Independence Movement in 1919, and the proletarian literature of the socialist realism made its way into Korea in the early 1920s. After the Liberation of Korea in 1945, many advocates of socialist literature defected to North Korea and contributed to socialist realist arts there. So did Choi Seung-hee. As is well-known, she was influenced by her brother Choi Seung-il and her husband Ahn Mak, who were advocates of socialist literature. In this environment, Choi Seung-hee’s works entered a new phase in which they were more closely related to the world of the proletarian literature than to the world of dance. The transition of her realist works considerably coincided with the change of direction of the Korea Artista Proleta Federation (KAPF), which was the epicenter of proletarian literature in Korea. Before 1945, she created proletarian dance works, and after the 1945 Liberation she went over to North Korea together with Choi Seung-il and Ahn Mak and was reborn as a socialist realist dancer.
The present study seeks to explain the beginning and turning point of Choi Seung-hee’s realism in comparison with realism in literature. Her defection to North Korea can be seen as the most important inflection point in the process in which she absorbed realism, which was a modern idea at the time, and developed it into socialist realism in her dance works. Accordingly, this study divides her career into two periods “before and after her defection,” referring to the former as the formation period of her proletarian dance and the latter as the formation period of her socialist realist dance. The formation period, to be dealt with in the second chapter, is again divided into “before or after direction shift in her dance activities” in accordance with the KAPF’s direction changes, which influenced her formation of proletarian dance, and is examined in particular with relevance to proletarian literature. The third chapter, which deals with the formation period of her socialist realist dance, analyzes how different her full-length dramatic dance created in this period is from her early realist works. Her proletarian dance that was formed between 1930 and 1932 cannot be seen anymore during the period from 1933 to 1945.
The fourth chapter suggests a new perspective on Choi Seung-hee’s dance career by discussing whether she suspended her proletarian dance due to failure in artistic work—as previously known from other studies—or other reasons, based on the values of her realist dance examined in the second chapter. This chapter also examines what significance her full-length dramatic dance has in the Korean dance history, highlighting its distinctions from previous realist dances. With all these examinations, this study ultimately seeks to reevaluate the dance activities of Choi Seung-hee, Korea’s first realist dancer.
Ⅱ. The Formation Period of Choi Seung-hee’s Proletarian Dance
1. The Period before Choi Seung-hee’s Shift in Direction(1930-1932)
“The period before Choi Seung-hee’s shift in direction” within the formation period of her proletarian dance can be seen as referring to the period from 1930 to 1932 in which her works had yet to be established as proletarian dance containing combative realism but were reflecting socialist ideology. Her dances in this period resemble a kind of individual and spontaneous realism of proletarian literature in its early phase, a realism which had yet come up to the standard of proletarian literature. In the history of Korean literature, realism of proletarian literature appeared in the early 1920s and persisted before the KAPF’s first “shift in direction” in September 1927. “Choi Seung-hee started her direction shift” several years later than KAPF’s first “direction shift.” Choi Seung-hee’s and the KAPF’s shift in direction are closely related in character. To elaborate on this point, the relationship between Korea’s early proletarian literature and Choi Seung-hee’s proletarian dance work needs to be first examined.
The proletariat entered the historical arena as a huge independent force after the Russian Revolution. The literary movement grounded on the idea of class that appeared in the foreground of Korean modern history is called the “proletarian literature.” As realism was raised as a way to address the tasks put forward in specific historical situations (Institute for Korean Historical Studies 1989), the nation’s professional literary groups adopted realism in creative methodology. However, in the early 1920s, the proletarian literature of Korea had not yet grown out of critical realist literature, which was prevalent in the nation in the 1920s (D. Lee 1988), and thus was not yet mature as a class literature.
Critical realism was the direct predecessor to socialist realism in the history of Korean literature (Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union 1988), generally referring to the realist method of literary creation adopted in the stage before capitalism’s transition to socialism (Y. Han 1999). Although critical realism did not have direct relevance to the proletarian literature advocating the interests of the proletariat, it can be said to have affirmed the necessity and significance of the emergence of proletarian literature (S. Kim 1992), coexisting with the latter on the scene of Korean literature. What both types of literature had in common was that they criticized reality and aimed for modern civilization away from feudal backwardness. The difference between the two was that works of critical realism were based on bourgeois social reality and depicted the contradictions of social relations resulting from the situation of the times (S. Kim 1992) whereas works of proletarian literature vividly described the misery of being deprived of a country and forced into a history of national suffering (D. Lee 1988). Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), the Russian founder of socialist realism, once criticized critical realism for the limitations not to provide perspectives and schemes for solving social contradictions (Choi 1999). The early proletarian literature of Korea also had such limitations, and in its center was KAPF (1925-1935). Choi Seung-il, Choi Seung-hee’s brother, organized the KAPF in 1925 and acted as one of its central members. In 1923, he became involved in a communist group called Bukseonghoe as well as in the first socialist cultural group named Yeomgunsa (S. Lee 2010, 136). In September 1927, the KAPF first shifted its direction, emphasizing a clear sense of purpose armed with class ideology. After the KAPF’s first shift in direction, the proletarian literature moved away from the tendency of critical realism and pursued the Marxist literary theory in earnest. “The period before the KAPF’s first shift in direction” can be characterized as the individual and spontaneous stage of Korea’s early proletarian literature, to which Choi Seung-hee was exposed through Choi Seung-il.
Choi Seung-hee had close ties with her brother Choi Seung-il in art as well as in ideology, so much that she took his advice to learn dance2) from Ishii Baku, the creator of Japanese modern dance, and made an exceptional decision to move over to Japan. It is well known that she was a fervent reader who always had a book close at hand (Y. Lee 2011, 23). Therefore, it can be presumed that she must have become awakened through readings and his brother to the tasks facing both the critical realist literature and the realist proletarian literature in those times. Literary persons of the times had a certain moral sense of obligation; that is, they felt that they as intellectuals had to write for a just life worthy of man, criticize social reality, and go among the masses. They believed that the mission of literature was to enlighten the masses (Institute for Korean Historical Studies 1989, 19). This thought is reflected entirely in Choi Seung-hee’s early works. This tendency of thought is discovered from the first presentation for new works in 1930 to the fifth presentation for new works in 1932. Since most works here are categorized only by title, there is much room for rediscussion. The following is the table of the categorized works.
We can estimate in titles of these works her self-awakening to colonial realities, craving for liberation and freedom, and wish to escape from national sufferings. These motifs accord with those of the nation’s proletarian realist literature. Even when she expanded her dance motifs to other countries, their purpose was still to portray the suffering of peoples in a situation similar to colonial Joseon. “Jayuin-ui chum” (A Free Person’s Dance) (Fig. 1) is a solo dance that depicts a modern person craving for freedom. “Indoin-ui biae” (Indian Grief) (Fig. 2) and “Indoin-ui yeonga” (An Indian Love Song), which are presumed to be the same work, seem to describe India under the colonial rule just like Joseon. These works received positive comments such as: “They left the deepest impression in the mind of the audience”; and “The idea was profound and the expression was skillful, too.” (YH 1930, 5) The three works “Bangnangin-ui seorum” (Vagabonds’ Sorrow), “Jipsi-ui muri” (A Group of Gypsies), and “Yurangin-ui chum” (Vagabonds’ Dance) express the reality confronting peoples who had their country taken or have no land of their own. “Toin-ui aesa” (The Natives’ Tragic History) and “Heugin-ui aega” (The Elegy of Black People) are about the slave life of black people. “Injo ingan” (A Mechanical Man), which seems to be a criticism of machine civilization and dehumanization in the industrial era, is close to critical realism rather than to early proletarian literature.
Among the fifteen works in Table 1, the following works are accompanied by content explanations, allowing us to read Choi Seung-hee’s thematic consciousness expressed in them.
As can be seen from the titles, these works are about suffering from the present miserable reality without freedom. “Hwangya-e seoseo” (Standing in the Wilderness) created for Choi Seung-hee’s solo dance, seems to portray a lonely intellectual who blames herself for lacking in energy in the face of the colonial reality of Joseon and so is in inner conflict with herself. The works “Gonan-ui gil” (The Way of Ordeals), “Heuk-eul geuriwohaneun muri” (The Crowd Longing for Soil), and “Heugin-ui aega” (The Elegy of Black People) are all group dances. “The Crowd Longing for Soil” creates a nationalistic ethos that only Joseon people can feel.
When the dance titles, figures 2 and 3, and the given short explanations of the works are put together and examined in terms of the grammar of dance, these works can be viewed as those of expressionism in that they express intense and dark inner emotions in a dramatic and exaggerated way. This may be due to the influence of Ishii Baku, who was an expressionist modern dancer. However, they can be seen as according with the realist tendency of the early proletarian literature in that they are critical of reality by virtue of their themes and contain contemporary stories and national hardships, but also are partly mixed with critical realism. On the contrary, they can be seen as her early works before moving toward proletarian dance in that they have no story about the struggle or social reform by the proletariat.
2. The Period after Her Shift in Direction (1931-1932)
This study employs the term “proletarian dance” to refer to the dance of combative realism Choi Seung-hee created between 1931 and 1932 after her shift in direction. The term was not used in newspapers at the time, but was later used by artists such as Baek Cheol (Y. Kim 2011) and Park Yong-gu (Suryu Sanbang Editorial Department 2011, 135). The combative realism was the methodology suggested by the KAPF for the construction of proletarian literature, and was the universal task that it pursued after its first shift in direction.
In the period between its first and the second shift in direction, that is, between 1927 and 1931, the KAPF, in the face of the ideal of introducing socialist realism, went through the debates on content versus form and on art popularization in the process of pursuing Marxist literary theory. This period can be characterized by the term “dialectical realism” (Cho 1988, 93), which corresponds ideologically to socialist realism and refers to a rather crude mode of representation in the transitional period before the Soviet Union’s adoption of socialist realism as its official mode of creation in 1934. Although various terms for realism came out in this period, all those can be converged into “dialectical realism,” according to the classification of the Minjok munhwa daebakgwa sajeon (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture; accessed March 5, 2021) in that they were based on Marxist dialectical materialism in terms of methodology.
The realism brought forward by the KAPF at the time had different characteristics in terms of specific methodologies. There was also a mixture of views on literature: the radical view claiming that the value of literature can be recognized only when it becomes a weapon of the struggle for propaganda and demagogy; and the view emphasizing the peculiarity of literature (Yim 2006, 70-71). Among them, Ahn Mak’s proletarian realism matched the resolute leftist line of thought that art should serve the propaganda and demagogy necessary for the reorganization of the Bolshevik vanguard party, Marxist-Leninist party to ensure progress to socialism (Golan 1987, 599), based on the working classes (Institute for Korean Historical Studies 1989, 58). Her “proletarian dance” can also be viewed as a periodic term belonging to the category of dialectical realism, and is distinguished from the socialist realism that she adopted after her defection to the North in that it did not show the dogmatic character that could be seen in a communist country. That is, Choi Seung-hee’s “proletarian dance” can be viewed as indicating her dance in the stage prior to her completion of socialist realist dance after her defection to the North.
Choi Seung-hee’s view on realism as shown during the period of her proletarian dance can be read in an article which she contributed to a daily newspaper in August 1931. In the article, she confessed that she was extremely disillusioned with the reason for creating dance when she thought of the reality confronted by Korea at the time, and deplored that the impact of dance on the public is insignificant compared to plays and movies.
I came to be faced with the reality of Joseon, or objective circumstances of the time. Thus I even felt extraordinary disillusion. And many times I felt keenly that when compared to plays or movies, the effect of dance is less than a third of those, falling short of appealing to the public’s heart (Choi 1931a).
She also denounced the aesthetic inspiration that narcissistic dances expressing individual emotions like poetry instilled in the audience as that of bourgeoisie.
Dancers danced to good music in a kind of narcissistic mood, and the general public referred to those personal feelings or personal states of mind as a poem. People were trying to obtain aesthetic inspiration of bourgeoisie from them (Choi 1931a).
The “dance poem” is the concept of pursuing pure dance, which her teacher Baku maintained as his choreographic philosophy. Her criticism on this concept meant the actual declaration of parting from him and the profession of her own choreographic philosophy based on realism. She also criticized the dances that were still having aristocratic elements from the old era and the jazz dance stimulating peripheral nerves, which she thought were pure dance and ballroom dance, respectively, that failed to reflect the spirit of the times and was lacking the will of social reform,
Only music and dance are the most lagging behind in these modern days. So I think it is somewhat weird that there have remained only things like extremely classical dance, in other words, aristocratic dance, and jazz dance apt for stimulating peripheral nerves of the so-called modern young bourgeois (Choi 1931b).
From the above writing, it is hard to say which line of the KAPF’s dialectical realism Choi Seung-hee adopted to form her own view of realism after her shift in direction. Yet her choreographic philosophy was that a dance work must deliver images of the times, reject bourgeois sensibilities, and serve for social reform. This is grounded on the practice of combative realism the KAPF adopted after its first shift in direction.
The following are the works displaying such tendency.
In addition to the above, there are works that can be categorized as proletarian dances from the title, such as “Eorin yongsa” (Young Warriors), “Mirae-neun cheongnyeon-ui geot- ida” (The Future Belongs to the Youth), a group dance premiered at the Fourth Presentation of New Works on September 1–3, 1931, and “Yeojikgong” (Workwomen) premiered at the Fifth Presentation of New Works, on April 28–30, 1932. Adding these three to those in Table 3 gives a total of six works. Choi Seung-hee got married to Ahn Mak on May 10, 1931, when he was developing proletarian realism in the KAPF. “Geudeul-ui haengjingok” (Their March Song) and “Geop naeji malja” (Let’s Not Be Frightened) were created before marriage, and “Constructors,” “Young Warriors,” “The Future Belong to the Youth,” and “Workwomen” were presented after her marriage. If the choreographic codes of the previous works can be said to be expressionistic, the works of this period show newly attempted movements that were beyond the expressionistic codes. There were sometimes caustic comments about her works, such as “The dance movement of consistently thrusting the fist into the air” (S. Kim 1981, 10), and “Though it was called a proletarian dance, it was only too simple and linear to be called a dance, being no more than repeated movements of wielding fists” (as quoted in Y. Kim 2011; Baek 1978). However, they show that her choreography was composed in a way that repeated movements symbolize struggle rather than distortion and exaggeration of human emotions.
These works differ from her previous dance works in that they are all group dances. Unlike in her previous realist works in which there was a mixture of solo and group dances, in her proletarian dance works, each dancer’s individual character was pronounced even when the dancers were performing a group dance, wearing the same costume. In figures 3 and 5, dancers perform different movements rather than the same ones. In these works, since the protagonists were the contemporary workers, they danced wearing working uniforms as seen in the Figures. It can be said that a collective “community consciousness” to lead social reform through the collective struggle of the proletariat is reflected in the choreography of these works. The work “Constructors” also reflected the “community consciousness,” according to which people had to stand hand in hand with a view to overcome the social evils of the old times and to create a new culture. While Choi Seung-hee’s works before her shift in direction are no more than a critique of reality, her proletarian dance is differentiated in that it contains the revolutionary practice of the modern labor movement. In sum, her proletarian dance shows the aspects of class struggle from a social and holistic point of view.
Ⅲ. The Formation Period of the Socialist Realist Dance
It can be said that almost all dances created by Choi Seung-hee between 1946 and 1956 after her defection to North Korea, excepting folk dance and sinmuyong, were of socialist realism. The term “socialist realism” was established in literature in 1932 (Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union 1988, 346) and adopted as the official method of creation in the Soviet Union in 1934. But Choi Seung-hee discontinued her proletarian dance from 1933 until 1945. She defected to North Korea in 1946, and under full support from the then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, she began to create again realist works reflecting the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. It was the beginning of the socialist realist dance in Korea.
Socialist realism is the idea of the Communist party, based on the world view of Marxism-Leninism. Socialist realist art is based on the constant integration of artistic creation with real life and the practice of building a new society (Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union 1988, 349). As a method, first, it requires a deep and accurate perception of life and a reflection of advanced trends. Second, it actively aids people and the party, in terms of both content and form, in carrying out communist movement for the Soviet society (Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union 1988, 353). And outwardly, the aesthetics of Marxism-Leninism recognized the diversity of artistic tendencies and was wary of dogmatic schematization (Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union 1988, 304). However, in reality, socialist realism in a communist country can be seen to encompass all dogmatic works in that the respect for independence and artistic value is ignored and only the militant aspect that regards art as a subordinate and political tool is emphasized (Hong 2004, 9).
Choi Seung-hee’s works exhibit this disposition, too. She created not only proletarian dance works, such as “Suhwak-ui gippeum” (The Pleasure of Harvesting) (1950), but also outright dogmatic works such as “Gimilseong janggun-ege ollineun heonmu” (A Dance Dedicated to General Kim Il-sung) (1946), and “Yeoseong ppalchisan” (A Female Partisan) (1952). After defecting to North Korea, she switched the objects to fight against to capitalist countries and the bourgeois class instead of Japan.
The epoch-making outcome of Choi Seung-hee’s socialist realist dance created in accordance with those doctrines was the full-length dramatic dance. She produced a Korean-style full-length dramatic dance by introducing ballet, which was acknowledged as the best form of dance in the Soviet socialist realism (Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union 1988, 270). Soviet ballet, the representative genre of socialist realist dance, thoroughly rejected formalism devoid of concrete narratives, and excluded decorative dances of classical ballet in order to highlight more theatrical characters of dances (H. Lee 2017, 144). It was called “dramatic ballet” or drambalet, which did not follow the system of mime but tried to mix the pantomime using a more natural way of expression into the ballet. It was in the 1930s and 1940s that the dramatic ballet most flourished. Hamm (2009, 13) points out, “The frequent use of mime and close cooperation with the dramatic theatre characterized the most important drambalety created under the new standard of socialist realism.”
Choi Seung-hee’s dramatic dance, however, was different from the dramatic ballet in terms of historicity. The dramatic ballet tried to lessen the divertissement of classical ballet and focus on drama whereas Choi Seung-hee’s dramatic dance can be said to be close to a narrative dance as it attempted to create a Korean-style divertissement. Any traditionally authoritative technique or style did not exist in the Korean full-length dramatic dance. Therefore, something to show had to be made for the sake of spectacle.
Choi Seung-hee wrote a literary script for her full-length dramatic dance, like classical ballet, and developed the plot accordingly. She worked hard to create this new tradition under sufficient patronage, and the result was successful. Socialist realist dance was completed in the form of full-length dramatic dance, which can be evaluated as an upgrade of the status of dance to art. The following table shows the three works representing her full-length dramatic dance.
The three works contain the idea of social transformation through proletarian struggle, defining proletariat like peasants and fishermen as good and the bourgeois class or capitalist country as evil. Choi Seung-hee incorporated not only Korean folk dances but even ballet and foreign folk dance into the choreography of the works for the sake of spectacle. These works were enthusiastically acclaimed for their ethnic backgrounds and impressive expressions during her performing tour in many Communist countries. They were evaluated as demonstrating a high degree of completion, while fully meeting the guiding principle of Soviet aesthetics represented by the slogan “socialist in content but ethnic in form.”
Ⅳ. Discussion
Around the year of 1930 when Choi Seung-hee started her dance career, dancers were performing Korean traditional dance or at best mimicking Western dances. Korean dance was isolated from the then trends of the domestic art world, let alone those of the global art world. The fact that under these circumstances Choi Seung-hee applied a modern realist view of art to her dance works in sync with the literary world, which was then at the forefront of the circle of new intellectuals, means that she led the beginning of modern art in the Korean dance history. In the field of dance, where no “circle” of new intellectuals had yet been formed, she developed a modern consciousness based on her closeness with the literary world and pioneered alone a new modern art trend called realism. Nevertheless, Choi Seung-hee’s proletarian dance was not successful and received unfavorable comments from critics despite her ambitious plans and sense of mission as an intellectual. Besides, as she suspended her proletarian dance between 1933 and 1945 and put into more efforts into the creation of dance works based on Oriental themes, obtaining fame with these works, the low evaluation of her proletarian dance can be sort of taken for granted. However, it is necessary to identify the causes of such low evaluation in the external environment, rather than with regard to internal factors.
The first cause can be attributed to her proletarian dance lacking feminine beauty, which the audience was expecting to see in male mainstream society. In volume 2 of the Sai Shoki Pamphlet, a collection of reviews written by Japanese critics, the critics commonly point out that she lacked skills in modern dance while praising the attractiveness of her Joseon-style dance (Morioka 1936). A high compliment was paid to the exotic, charming “Oriental dancer” during her performing tour abroad, too (K. Han 2018, 163-164). The works that brought her success were Oriental and Joseon dances, most of which highlighted her womanly beauty. But in fact, her capability in Korean dance cannot be rated higher than that in modern dance. She was trained in modern dance for three years, while she received training in Korean traditional dance from Han Seong-jun only intermittently and for a short period of two weeks. As can be inferred from the above review comments, what was expected of her in male mainstream society was not works depicting proletarian struggle in which dancers dressed in gender-neutral workers’ costumes wielded fists, but those showing idealized womanly beauty, just like the western Romantic ballet which was often subject to the “male gaze.” The male-centered society both in and outside of the country must have expected the “dancer of Joseon” to express the “beauty of Joseon women” who appeared exotic, mystical, and submissive.
Another cause can be found in Japan’s oppression of socialism. Socialism that awakened people to the colonial contradictions was an object of serious caution for imperial Japan. It was highly probable from the circumstances of the times that the Japanese empire which took control of the media undermined Choi Seung-hee's proletarian dance in various ways. In fact, in 1931, when major members of the KAPF were arrested by the Japanese, the socialist realism movement was greatly reduced. In 1935, KAPF was disbanded, and as a result the proletarian literature embarked on the road of decline in Korea. In this context, it can be said that the reason why she did not perform proletarian dance from 1933 to 1945 was not because of her failure in artistry but because of these complex external factors, including the Japanese imperialists’ suppression of the socialist movement in Korea. In fact, during this period, she was often compelled to create works glorifying Japanese imperialism against her will (C. Kim 2008, 103). Nevertheless, some traces of realism are found in her later works. In a performing tour in 1939, where she performed the repertoire comprising Oriental and Korean dance, her work was evaluated as “realist art” (Barraud 1939, 5) and “stylization of realism” (Vuillermoz 1939, 4), suggesting that realist depictions continued in her choreography.
Above all, the reason why Choi Seung-hee’s realist works deserve reevaluation is that her early realism was magnificently revived as socialist realism after her defection to North Korea, thus contributing to the creation of full-length dramatic dance for the first time in Korea. Despite its dogmatic content, her full-length dramatic dance can be highly praised for the following three reasons.
First, they were the first in the history of Korean dance, and raised the artistry of dance to new heights. Choi Seung-hee performed full-length dramatic dance twenty five years earlier than its first staging in South Korea in 1973 with the performance of the “Byeol-ui jeonseol” (Legend of the Stars) by the National Dance Company of Korea. Since the National Dance Company of Korea created the first work of full-length dramatic dance eleven years after its foundation while Choi Seung-hee produced the first one two years after the establishment of the State Research Institute for Dance in North Korea, it can be said that Choi Seung-hee started nine years earlier. This confirms that she was really a pioneering choreographer. Even after it is taken into account that she probably received sufficient support from the State, it can be rightly said that her enterprising choreography research made it possible.
Second, Choi Seung-hee’s works of full-length dramatic dance reflected a feminist perspective. Women were portrayed as enterprising and innovative in her works of proletarian dance that she created before defecting to North Korea, not as obedient women of Confucian Joseon, but this perspective was not accepted. But, as seen in the works of Table 4, the protagonists are the women who fight for liberty and independence and save the country. Rather, the men here are in danger or far away. Women save men and play an active role in persuading people to take action. Although women are in love with men, they are not passive, and on the contrary protect the men. This is a radical feminist perspective that was rare even in Soviet ballet.
Last but not least, she achieved a high degree of completion in the choreography of full-length dramatic dance. “The Tale of Sado Fortress” was also produced in a film adaptation, and as a result all its acts and scenes were opened to the public. Its stage performance was also recorded as a short video film (YouTube Dance Drama titled “The Tale of Sado Fortress”), being the only one whose real existence can be confirmed among all her full-length dramatic dance works. The work is characterized by its diverse movement vocabulary and organic composition of group scenes. Considering the fact that the work was created in the mid-1950s, her choreographic capability can be said to be astonishing. Developing new dance moves based on Korean traditional dance requires considerable creativity and choreographic ability. Even though Choi Seung-hee learned Korean traditional dance only for a short period of time, she showed outstanding choreography in those works, filling them with rich dance moves. In the video showing the group dance performed by Choe Seung-hui and her ensemble in "The Tale of Sado Fortress" (North Korea, 1956), the dancers inside the circle dance a clockwise rotation while the dancers on the outside dance counterclockwise around the circle, until they instantly form another formation. The group dance movements are also densely orchestrated. The organic composition of the group dance reminds us of the choreography of Lev Ivanov who made a remarkable contribution to the development of Russian classical ballet. Choi Seung-hee observed and studied Soviet ballet and Russian classical ballet during her performing tour in the Soviet Union; therefore, her outstanding choreography can be seen as the result of her such efforts. South Korea’s early full-length dramatic dance was poor in movement vocabulary, and was for the most part filled with drama. Considering the fact that a great deal of dance movements were not introduced into the works of full-length dramatic dance in South Korea until the performance of “Domi buin” (Lady Domi) in 1984, it is confirmed how much ahead of time her choreography of “The Tale of Sado Fortress” was in terms of perfection.
Ⅴ. Conclusion
This study has examined Choi Seung-hee’s career and works from her early realist dance through proletarian dance to socialist realist dance, which was completed after her defection to North Korea. She was awakened to the socialist ideology while retaining close ties with the literary world, which served as a rendezvous for new intellectuals, and attempted for the first time in Korea to adopt realism in the field of dance by absorbing the idea in full. This study traced the process in which her realist dance world changed in accordance with the shifts in direction of the KAPF, the nation’s major literary group.
Based on the awareness of the realism of proletarian literature, Choi Seung-hee created realist works in 1930-1932, which in turn led to the invention of proletarian dance in 1931-1932. As her proletarian dance received severe criticism at the time, she suspended it before long, from 1934 to 1945. This is why it has not received proper recognition for its meaning and artistry in the Korean dance history. This study permits to explain for the first time the external causes for the low evaluation of her proletarian dance as follows: first, the absence of “feminine beauty of Joseon” in her dance, which male mainstream society wanted to see in her dance; second, the fading of socialist realist literature, which was closely connected with her artistic world, owing to imperialist Japan’s clamping down on socialism. Overall it can be said that the extinction of her proletarian dance stemmed from these external complex causes, not from her lack of artistry.
Her proletarian dance was revived splendidly as socialist realism after her defection to North Korea. The greatest achievement of her socialist realist dance is that it led to the creation of the first full-length dramatic dance in the Korean peninsula. She introduced this form of dramatic dance from Soviet ballet and created her own full-length dramatic dance with Korean content. The historical significance of her full-length dramatic dance can be summarized as follows: first, it upgraded the status of dance to “art”; second, it contains a feminist perspective; and third, its choreography shows a high degree of completion.
All these considered, Choi Seung-hee’s early realist dance cannot be simply dismissed as “failed dance.” She is the Korean first woman to incorporate socialist ideology into her own artistic world in male dominant society. It was really a pioneering idea. Her early modern dance works reflect her anguish over the colonial reality of Joseon and her sense of social participation as an intellectual of the time. These themes show how she tried to reveal the contradictions of society, not only as a sinmuyong dancer with brilliant creativity but also as an intellectual with a sense of mission. And her socialist realist dance deserves a better evaluation in that it led to the pioneering of the full-length dramatic dance, which can be referred to as the completion stage of socialist realist dance.
This study suggests that Choi Seung-hee is the first realist dancer in the history of Korean dance, and has showed its significance and relevance to her achievement as a socialist realist choreographer. It has also clarified how her proletarian dance, which has been fragmentarily studied, was related to her realism and became the basis of her socialist realism. In conclusion, the socialist realist works of Choi Seung-hee, Korea’s first realist dancer, deserve reevaluation as works of great significance, as much as her sinmuyong dance works, in the Korean dance history.
