A Study on Social Participation Dance and Dance Performance in the 1960s

This study researched into ‘social participation dances’ in the 1960s, which is politically a period of confusion. ‘Social participation dances’ referred to in this study are dances that participated in various events (spaces) in general society. During the foregoing period, dancers were active not only in simple artistic activities but also in various spaces in society, and in such spaces, dance activities of ordinary people, who were not dancers, were also very active. Viewing the foregoing as a special characteristic of the dance culture of the 1960s, this study was intended to examine it from the perspective of ‘social participation’ of dances. Meanwhile, the 1960s was a period when the Park Junghee regime came to power through the May 16 Military Coup, and the Federation of Korean Arts and Culture Organizations and organizations under the Federation of Korean Arts and Culture Organizations, where dancers were active, basically existed on the basis of the Park Junghee government’s state-led ruling system and cultural policies, and had a government-controlled nature that they had to comply with the government’s basic policy directions. This study referred to the newspapers and video materials of the time to investigate the aspect of the social participation of dances in the 1960s, which took place in the political and cultural background as such. Among the dance articles recorded in newspapers, all articles corresponding to ‘social participation dances’ were found and categorized by topic to identify the stream of the social participation of dances in the 1960s, and the tendencies of the works (choreography tendencies, movement styles, etc.) were analyzed through dance videos.