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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Transnational Circulations of "Laban" Methods: Gender, Power Relations, and Negotiated Meanings in Early Twenty-First Century South Korea's Modernity Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9m01r442 Author Hwang, Hye-Won Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Transnational Circulations of “Laban” Methods: Gender, Power Relations, and Negotiated Meanings in Early Twenty-First Century South Korea’s Modernity A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Critical Dance Studies by Hye-Won Hwang August 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Linda J. Tomko, Chairperson Dr. Anthea Kraut Dr. Derek Burrill Copyright by Hye-Won Hwang 2013 The Dissertation of Hye-Won Hwang is approved: __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to have had great professors, teachers, artists, and colleagues throughout my academic and artistic journey in the field of dance across South Korea, the US, and the UK. My diverse experience in both western and Korean dance studies, including Laban studies, has contributed to formulating my dissertation research from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective. I could not have completed my dissertation without the steadfast support and tremendous guidance of my chair, Linda Tomko. I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to not only her sophisticated comments and feedback on my dissertation but also her advice on professional work ethics throughout my academic processes at University of California, Riverside. I deeply thank Anthea Kraut, a member of my dissertation committee, for her insightful feedback, productive discussions, and warm encouragement. I sincerely thank Derek Burrill, another dissertation committee member, for his invaluable advice and strong support. I also thank Marta Savigliano and Sally Ness for their critical comments and advice for my qualifying exams, and Jacqueline Shea-Murphy for her contribution to my oral qualifying exam. I am grateful to SanSan Kwan and Mariam Lam for their interest in my work and encouragement for me to pursue this project at the early stage of my research, and to Wendy Rogers for her energetic support. I am grateful for financial support received from several UCR sources: the Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship, Department of Dance TAships, Gluck Fellows Program for the Arts, and Graduate Student Association Travel Grants. I am grateful as well for support from Phi Kappa Beta. Also, feedback gained from presentation of my work at several conferences has been very helpful: the 2011 iv Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) conference and the 2010 Dance Under Construction (DUC), the UC-wide graduate student conference. I would like to express my gratitude to faculty, staff, and students at the Korea Laban Movement Institute, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, the Dance Notation Bureau, and Nonhyun Social Welfare Center, as well as American and Korean Laban specialists and scholars who participated in my research by offering time for interviews, sharing archival sources and opening their classes. I also thank staff members at other resource centers such as the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City, the National Library of Korea, the National Assembly Library, Ewha Woman’s University Library, and the Korea Dance Resource Center in Seoul for assisting me with consulting articles, theses, and dissertations. I deeply thank Mira Kim and David Ralley who helped me with using Labanwriter to insert Motif symbols in my dissertation, and Kristin Noone for her proofreading. I thank my colleagues and acquaintances, Premalatha Thiagarajan, Szu-Ching Chang, Kristy Shih, Gabriela Mendoza-Garcia, Melissa Templeton, Adana Jones, Lee Singh, Celia Tuchman-Rosta, Haesook Kim, Youngja Bae, Tina Kim, Insun Long, and Susan Pak for sharing research ideas and emotional support throughout dissertation research processes. Last not but least, I would like to express my special thanks to my father, Kiyeon Hwang, mother, Yoonsoon Lee, sisters, brother, sister-in-law, brothers-in-law, nephew, nieces, and all members of my extended family for their years of love and support and belief in me to pursue my career as a dance scholar/artist. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Transnational Circulations of “Laban” Methods: Gender, Power Relations, and Negotiated Meanings in Early Twenty-First Century South Korea’s Modernity by Hye-Won Hwang Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Critical Dance Studies University of California, Riverside, August 2013 Dr. Linda J. Tomko, Chairperson This dissertation investigates western-developed “Laban” methods that middle- class Korean female Laban specialists transported to South Korea and, there, tactically adapted to South Korean contexts during the 1990s and the early twenty-first century. It particularly focuses on how these Korean women’s repurposings of “Laban” methods intersect with conditions of global capitalism and specific South Korean cultural politics, job markets, and dance instruction and employment networks. I claim that the specialists gained professional power by acquiring western-issued professional “Laban” credentials, which positioned them to create an alternative space for employment within already competitive and feminized dance markets. They founded the Korea Laban Movement Institute at home and have expanded their “Laban”-based creative movement education to the public with the support of a number of state and city grants. Their successful expansion of public dance/movement education has capitalized on opportunities afforded by the Korean state’s cultural policy since the early 2000s, which has included the promotion of public arts and culture education, including dance, to foster “cultural democracy.” At the same time, their approach to devising student-centered, experimental, vi and creative movement classes for laypeople that incorporate “Laban” methods has challenged longstanding models in South Korea for fashioning dance careers oriented to professional performance and dance education that focuses on technical training. I argue that these women’s recasting of “Laban” methods results not from colonial force, but from the choices they have made as South Korea’s modernity emerges within the frame of global economy. And, their embrace and adaptation of “Western” bodily knowledge and emphasis on cultivating individualism in and through Korean bodies have countered Confucian-based hierarchical authoritarianism and social collectivism. Taking a global perspective, this dissertation draws on interviews, observation data, and archival materials to explore the connections among multiple factors: culture and political-economy, global capital and nation-states, and physical practices and gendered labor markets. It also emphasizes the transformation of practices when they are transported transnationally. My case study shows Korean transmigrators negotiated new meanings, forms, and values of this deterritorialized western practice for their own purposes, and they did not simply reproduce western values. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………iv Abstract………………………………………………………………………………......vi Abbreviations and Glossary……………………………………………………………....x Introduction…………………………………………………………………….…………1 Transnational Circulations of “Laban” Methods………………………………...11 Methodologies………………………………………………………….……......19 Chapters……………………………………………………………….…………23 Endnotes.………………………………………………………………...27 Chapter 1: Changes in South Korean Society Since the 1990s………………………….33 Shifts in South Korea’s Domestic Sectors in Response to Globalization and Democratization……………………………………………………………........43 Shifts in Dance Since the 1990s: The Terrains of “Performing Arts” and “Higher Education”………………………………………………………….…..54 Endnotes…………………………………………………………………76 Chapter 2: Promoting Public Dance Education through State and City-Funded KLMI “Laban” Programs……………………………………………………………………….85 Foundation of KLMI and Its Development of “Laban” Programs for Children and Seniors………………………………………………………………………88 Funding and Expansion of KLMI “Laban” Programs…………………………...94 Emphasis on Bodily Self-Awareness and Creative Movement Experiments......111 KLMI “Laban” Classes and South Korea’s Twenty-First Century Biopower…129 Endnotes………………………………………………………………..137 Chapter 3: Korean Women, Power, and Acquisition of Western Bodily Knowledge and Credentials…………………………………………………………………………149 viii Middle-Class Women’s Status Shift in South Korea Since the 1990s…….......150 Middle-Class Female Dance Doers’ Gains From Global Access……………...161 Partial Empowerment at Home and in the World……………………………...171 Tactical Maneuvering by KLMI Laban Specialists.…………………………...181 Endnotes………………………………………………………………..191 Chapter 4: Negotiated Meanings of “Laban” Methods in South Korea’s Twenty-First Century Modernity……………………………………………………………………..198 Heyday of “Laban” Methods and Their Critiques in the West………………...202 Resistance and Revalorization of “Laban” Methods in South Korea………….212 Recasting of “Laban” Methods: Promoting Individualism in South Korea’s Twenty-First Century Modernity………………………………………………224