Shaping New Koreanness: Training Systems for Changjak Chum ("Newly Created Dance") of South Korea

Dancing bodies are continually shaped by—and simultaneously reshape—the training systems they regularly engage with. This dynamic interplay reveals that training systems are far from static or immutable; rather, they are ongoing sites of negotiation of ideas and values. Focusing on changjak chum ("newly created dance"), a new form of Korean dance that emerged in the mid-1970s as a means of interrogating and articulating contemporary Korean identity, this essay examines the discourse surrounding newly developed Korean dance training systems ( gibon ) and how they have functioned as critical sites of identity formation. Gibon (literally, "basic") refers to a system of foundational movements, drawn from traditional Korean dance and arranged into sequences to be practiced regularly. These systems serve not only as warm-ups but also as generative foundations for building movement vocabulary and choreographic tools. Deeply embedded in the sociopolitical contexts of a new Korea in the 1970s—postindependence, post-division South Korea— changjak chum arose in opposition to sinmuyong ("new dance"), a form that originated in the 1930s during the Japanese colonial period. Leaders of the new form were tasked with developing "our own" movement vocabulary capable of expressing "new Koreanness." In doing so, they required newly devised training systems—both rooted in precolonial traditions and responsive to changing realities. This essay argues that the newly developed gibons collectively demonstrate how changjak chum has worked to establish its own technical and aesthetic foundations, thereby creating a distinct dance form capable of embodying new Koreanness.