본 연구의 목적은 한국무용이란 장르가 어떻게 만들어졌는가를 사회 문화적 맥락 속에서 재검토하여 한국무용이 민족주의의 산물이며 오리엔탈리즘이 재생산되는 장소임을 논의하는 것이다. 필자는 한국무용이 어떻게 형성되었는가에 초점을 두어, 한국무용이 문화적 관습 ...

본 연구의 목적은 한국무용이란 장르가 어떻게 만들어졌는가를 사회 문화적 맥락 속에서 재검토하여 한국무용이 민족주의의 산물이며 오리엔탈리즘이 재생산되는 장소임을 논의하는 것이다. 필자는 한국무용이 어떻게 형성되었는가에 초점을 두어, 한국무용이 문화적 관습과 고정관념에 의해 구축된 것이며 사회권력 속에서 이데올로기의 관여가 있음을 논의한다. 한국무용은 사회 변화에 따른 문화적 담론의 구성체이자 그 결과이다. 따라서 한국무용의 옳고 그름을 위한 새로운 기준을 세우기보다는, 한국무용이 민족주의일수록 서양과 동양, 보편성과 특수성이라는 이분법 속에서 서구중심주의와 오리엔탈리즘을 재강화하게 된다는 것을 이해하는 것이 필요하다. 서구중심주의적 가치체계에서 벗어나 진정한 의미에서의 탈식민주의를 추구하기 위하여 포스트구조주의적 접근에서 한국무용이란 장르의 정체성을 재점검하는 것이 필요하다. 필자는 한국무용이 일본, 서양 문화와 폭력적 조우를 겪으면서 한편으로 모방, 한편으로 저항을 하면서 새로운 상황에 대응하려는 자율적인 노력으로서, 근대문화의 산물로서, 특수한 역사적 구축물로서 발전되어 왔음을 논의하고 역사화한다. 연구방법은 문헌 연구로서 포스트구조주의적 접근을 활용한다. 구조주의가 이항대립을 근거로 통일된 질서, 체계적 특성, 객관적 의미를 사회 현상 속에서 발견해 내고자 했다면, 포스트구조주의는 구조주의가 주장하는 객관성에 의문을 제기하고 담론의 경합 속에서 움직이는 의미와 차이, 사회권력, 과정 속의 주체에 주목한다. 포스트구조주의는 미셸 푸코의 지식의 계보학에 주요 근거를 둔다. 푸코의 계보학적 분석은 무용학자들에게 특정 문화 형식에서 권력 관계가 어떻게 작동하는지 그 역사적 과정과 복합성을 드러내는 통찰력을 제공한다. 즉, 한국무용이 당대의 사회 속에서 어떻게 규명되고 있는가, 담론들이 한국무용을 어떻게 구성하고 평가하고 있는가, 그리고 이러한 과정에서 출현하는 일반적 전제들은 무엇인가에 주목하여 한국무용 속에서 권력 관계가 어떻게 작동하는지 그 역사적 과정과 복합성을 드러내는 것이다. 포스트구조주의는 전통적으로 자연스럽게 받아들여지고 있는 기존의 관습과 고정된 의미들을 비판적 시각에서 재검토한다는 점에서 문화현상에 대한 새로운 독해를 제공하고 있다. 본 연구의 진행은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 한국무용을 지칭하는 용어, 분류체계를 고찰하고, 이러한 변화에 영향을 미친 사회적 요소를 재검토한다. 둘째, 한국무용의 미학적 특성에 대한 기존 논의를 재검토하여 그 중 일부가 야나기 무네요시의 한국예술에 대한 오리엔탈리즘을 재생산하고 있음을 논의한다. 셋째, 한국무용은 나오키 사카이가 논의하는 서양과 동양의 쌍형상화 도식 속에서 형성되었음을 논의한다. 넷째, 국립무용단과 주요 무용가들이 서양을 보편성과 이상화된 독자에 위치시키고 한국을 특수성에 위치시키면서 한국무용의 주요 레퍼토리들을 창조했음을 논의한다. 다섯째, 한국무용을 제도적으로 유지, 발전시키고 있는 대학교의 무용교육 체제와 삼분법을 논의한다. 여섯째, 문화재 보호법은 서구화로부터 소멸되는 전통무용을 보호하고 문화정체성 재확립에 크게 기여했으나, 전통의 상품화와 박제화를 초래하였음을 논의한다. 일곱째, 한국 무용계의 발전을 위하여 한국무용이란 장르의 미래지향적 방향을 모색한다. 본 연구결과가 무용학 발전에 기여하는 바는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 전통의 보존과 재창조, 현대화를 통한 한국문화 정체성 재확립은 국내 무용계에서 주요 쟁점이다. 본 연구는 한국무용이 고정된 실체가 아니라 역사적 구성물로서 유동적임을 드러내고, 한국무용에 대한 열린 자세의 필요성을 부각시키고 있다. 또한 대중들의 삶과 문화를 공유할 수 있는 지점에서 한국무용이 복합적으로 다양하게 재구성되어야 함을 논의함으로써, 본 연구는 무용가들 및 무용학자들에게 21세기 세계화 시대에 부응하는 한국무용의 재창조와 인식론적 전환을 가져다 줄 것이다. 둘째, 한국무용에 대한 기존 연구는 대개 주요 안무가에 대한 역사적 서술, 미학적 가치평가, 일대기 등이 대부분이었던 반면, 본 연구는 포스트구조주의적 시각으로 한국무용의 정체성을 재검토하기에 한국 근현대 무용사 연구의 새로운 패러다임을 제공하고 있다.

This essay aims to reexamine how the genre of Korean Dance has been constructed and to argue that Korean Dance is a cultural product of nationalism and in some cases, it reproduces Orientalism. I investigate how Korean Dance is (re)invented as a genre ...

This essay aims to reexamine how the genre of Korean Dance has been constructed and to argue that Korean Dance is a cultural product of nationalism and in some cases, it reproduces Orientalism. I investigate how Korean Dance is (re)invented as a genre based on cultural practice and stereotypes, and how it involves ideological complexity in social power. I argue that Korean Dance is constructed according to socio-political, cultural changes, and reflects contemporary discourses. I utilize poststructuralist approach as a research methodology because it provides a new reading of Korean Dance, discursively focusing on meaning in motion, difference, social power, and subject-in-process.
Korea’s modernity narrated as negative has caused Korean dance terminology to change over time and led Korean dancers to reinvent tradition-derived contemporary Korean dance with postcolonial consciousness. Korean Dance was reinvented as a nationalist project for symmetry and equality to and in a mimetic desire for western dance. Because Korean Dance was reconceptualized as a tradition-derived dance form and artistic dance genre rather than an ethnic dance, it is already based on the idea of creativity and individuality. Korean Dance is a contemporary dance genre in which dancers consciously recover modern subjectivities and recreate Koreanness by deploying the western idea of creativity as a tool to narrate their worldview. There is a politics of categorization in dance classification. Different standards are applied for each dance genre -- nation for Korean Dance, dance genre for ballet, and temporality for modern dance. Korean Dance situates the West in an idealized readership and is co-constitutive with western dance. In a sense, colonial mentality permeates through the categorization of representing Korean Dance as a symbol of the non-modern, amorphous, and non-rational: there is on the one hand, Orientalist internalization in the idea of Korean Dance because the West is positioned as an idealized readership, and on the other hand, postcolonial consciousness in reinventing Korean Dance equivalent to western dance. Sinmuyong (New Dance) and Korean Creative Dance, which are considered subtypes of Korean dance, are, I argue, socio-cultural products of nationalism to reinvent contemporary Korean dance, embodying the ideas of individuality and creativity from the beginning of its reinvention.
The Korean National Dance Company and its related senior dancers have played an important role in developing Korean Dance as an artistic dance genre. Dance departments at universities contributs to the development of Korean Dance as an artistic dance genre because they institutionally categorize and develop the dance major into three areas: Korean Dance, ballet, and modern dance. Cultural Property Preservation Law have reshaped traditional dance in a fixed context. It contributes to the preservation of traditional dances but results in the taxidermization and commodification of Korean Dance.
Korean Dance is not a fixed entity but a historical construction. It is a nationalist project, still in motion, constantly changing. This understanding of Korean Dance gives us a starting point to answer why the searches for authentic Korean Dance and debates on the terminology of Korean Dance have been long and controversial. My research on Korean Dance in a poststructuralist view provides an open flexible attitude about Korean Dance to Korean dancers and scholars. Korean Dance should be deconstructed and variously reconstructed in a site where popular people’s lives and cultures can be shared. We need to acknowledge the historical significance of nationalism, which facilitates and maintains the development of Korean Dance. But we need to go beyond nationalism in order to reconstruct Korean identity in the age of globalization in the twentieth century. We should know how nationalism has contributed to and has impeded the development of Korean Dance.

This essay aims to reexamine how the genre of Korean Dance has been constructed and to argue that Korean Dance is a cultural product of nationalism and in some cases, it reproduces Orientalism. Many Korean dancers have eagerly (re)defined today's Kor ...

This essay aims to reexamine how the genre of Korean Dance has been constructed and to argue that Korean Dance is a cultural product of nationalism and in some cases, it reproduces Orientalism. Many Korean dancers have eagerly (re)defined today's Koreanness through dancing bodies, reinventing tradition for Korean identity in various ways. Although there have had no consistent types and definitions of Korean Dance due to its derivative features, Korean Dance have been developed in Korean dance community, with three categorization of dance -- Korean Dance, ballet, and modern dance -- which is acknowledged and used only in Korea. This rigid practice contributed to the reconstruction of Korean identity in an independent genre, but today it becomes a site of heated controversies because it limits many Korean dancers to narrow environments for creativity. Some scholars problematize the concept of Korean Dance, questioning the necessity of Korean Dance or suggesting alternative terms. Earlier works on Korean Dance tend to essentialize what Korean Dance is by focusing on chronological, historical narratives, its characteristics, categorization, and aesthetic evaluations about major choreographers. They contribute to the development of dance studies marginalized in Korean academy to some degree, but do not consider the ideological meaning of Korean Dance because they develop their arguments, premising that Korean Dance should, indisputably and always, be developed for Korean identity. This understanding have continued to internalize western-centered thought into Korean dance world by reinforcing the binary thought of the western as universal and the non-western as particular. Therefore, it is necessary to trace the formation of Korean Dance in order to seek for decolonization in a real sense. I situate Korean Dance as a site where discourses on modernity, nationalism and Orientalism are paradoxically intertwined. I discuss how Korean Dance is (re)invented as a genre based on cultural practice and stereotypes and how it involves ideological complexity in social power. Korean Dance is constructed according to socio-political, cultural changes, and reflects contemporary socio-cultural discourses. This essay provides a new research paradigm for dance history in Korea by re-exploring what Korean Dance is in terms of poststructuralism. While structuralism focuses on unified order, systematic characters, and objective meaning in the binary system, poststructuralism discursively concentrates on meaning in motion, difference, social power, and subject-in-process, problematizing structuralist objectivity. With this poststructuralist methodology, I look at main issues of Korean Dance as follows. First, I look at dance classification for Korean Dance, and reexamine what caused the change in terminology for Korean Dance in socio-political aspects. Second, I reexamine the discourses of Korean aesthetic and reveal that there is an Orientalist view in Yanagi Muneyosi？s study, which has been reproduced in Korean Dance. Third, I examine Naoki Sakai？s study on the history of Japanese thought and argue that Korean Dance is constructed in what Sakai calls, the co-figuration of the West and the East. Fourth, I examine how the Korean National Dance Company and senior Korean choreographers have recreated representative Korean Dances. I argue that they position the West as an idealized readership and the East/Korea as the particular. Korean Dance is reinvented as a nationalist project for symmetry and equality to and in a mimetic desire for western dance. Fifth, I examine university education system, which institutionally reinforces the three categories of dance -- Korean Dance, ballet, and modern dance. Sixth, I discuss that Cultural Property Preservation Law have reinvented and reshaped traditional dance in a fixed context. Seventh, I discuss the future direction of Korean Dance in the twentieth century.

Korea's modernity narrated as negative and passive has caused Korean dance terminology to change over time and led Korean dancers to reinvent tradition-derived contemporary Korean dance with postcolonial consciousness. Korean Dance is such an example ...

Korea's modernity narrated as negative and passive has caused Korean dance terminology to change over time and led Korean dancers to reinvent tradition-derived contemporary Korean dance with postcolonial consciousness. Korean Dance is such an example involving the ideological complexity of creativity. Korean Dance was reinvented as a nationalist project for symmetry and equality to and in a mimetic desire for western dance. Because Korean Dance itself was reconceptualized as a tradition-derived dance form and artistic dance genre rather than an ethnic dance, it is already based on the idea of creativity and individuality. Korean Dance is a contemporary dance genre in which dancers consciously recover modern subjectivities and recreate what it means to be Korean by deploying the western idea of creativity as a tool to narrate their worldview and story. Korean Dancers use their agency to appropriate the western idea of creativity for their own purpose and to subvert further colonization.
Korean Dance is constructed in Naoki Sakai calls the schema of configuration, the interworking of the universal and the particular. There is a politics of categorization in the three categorization of dance (sambunpop). Different standards are applied for each dance genre -- nation for Korean Dance, dance genre for ballet, and temporality for modern dance. The idea of Korean Dance situates the West in what Sakai calls an idealized readership and is co-constitutive with western dance. In a sense, colonial mentality permeates through the categorization of representing Korean Dance as a symbol of the non-modern, amorphous, and non-rational: there is on the one hand, Orientalist internalization in the idea of Korean Dance because the West is positioned as an idealized readership, and on the other hand, postcolonial consciousness in reinventing Korean Dance equivalent to western dance. Sinmuyong (New Dance) and Korean Creative Dance, which are considered subtypes of Korean dance, are, I argue, socio-cultural products of nationalism to reinvent contemporary Korean dance, embodying the ideas of individuality and creativity from the beginning of its reinvention.
The Korean National Dance Company and its related senior dancers such as Song Pom and Kim Paek-pong, have developed Korean Dance as an artistic dance genre. Dance departments at universities contributed to the development of Korean Dance as an artistic dance genre because of the trend to institutionally categorize and develop the dance major into three areas: Korean Dance, ballet, and modern dance. Accordingly, the dance curriculum usually focuses on these three dance genres, and the university dance graduates who major in Korean Dance, as professional dancers, continue to develop Korean Dance as an artistic genre in multiple ways on stage. Cultural Property Preservation Law have reinvented and reshaped traditional dance in a fixed context. It contributes to the preservation of traditional dances but results in the taxidermization and commodification of traditional dance.
Korean Dance is not a fixed entity but a historical construction. It is a nationalist project, still in motion. My research on Korean Dance in a poststructuralist view provides an open flexible attitude about Korean Dance to Korean dancers and scholars. Korean Dance should be deconstructed and variously reconstructed in a site where popular people's lives and cultures can be shared. We need to acknowledge the historical significance of nationalism, which facilitates and maintains the development of Korean Dance. But we need to go beyond the nationalism in order to reconstruct Korean identity in the age of globalization in the twentieth century. We should know how nationalism has contributed to and impeded the development of Korean Dance. This essay provides a new research paradigm for dance history in Korea by re-exploring what Korean Dance is in terms of poststructuralism.