UC Riverside

301 Pages·2013·1.86 MB·English

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
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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
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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.
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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,
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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.

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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

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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

Issues of Circulation: “Laban” Methods as Bodily Knowledge in
Globalization.……………………………………………………………..........234

Endnotes………………………………………………………………..247

Conclusion…………………………………………………….......................................252
Endnotes………………………………………………………………..263
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………264

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