Kim Jones to study Korean modern dancer during national summer institute

Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones will join 25 higher education faculty in Chicago this month for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute: Making Modernism: Literature, Dance, and Visual Culture in Chicago, 1893-1955. Funded by the NEH and running from July 18 to Aug. 5, the summer institute will explore creative expression in Chicago from the turn of the 20th century through the aftermath of the Second World War.

While in Chicago, Jones will conduct archival research in the Newberry Library to continue her ongoing studies of Korean dancer/choreographer Choi Seung-Hee (1911-69). Widely regarded as Korea’s first modern dancer, Choi lived an eventful life through the Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean war. As a performer, she traveled to cities throughout the world – including Chicago – but her dances have not been seen outside of North Korea since 1945.

“During the Japanese occupation, Choi rose to fame as a representative of Japan performing around the world,” Jones said. “This was very unusual for a female Korean national to have such status and privilege during the Japanese occupation. During her overseas tours, she started calling herself a Korean dancer in her programs, rather than a dancer from Japan. She danced Korean folk dances with a modern sensibility to help expose Korean culture. After World War II, Choi relocated to North Korea, following her husband, who was a sympathizer with the Worker’s Party of Korea. In the 1960s, she and her family were purged, and in 2003, the North Korean government released a statement confirming her death in 1969. In North Korea, Choi and her work were considered a threat because they offered power to people to assemble and unite against authority at a time when North Korea focused on dance, music, and art to only support nationalistic propaganda.”

Read more on the College of Arts + Architecture website.