Choi Seung-hee

Choi Seung-hee ( November 24, 1911 – August 8, 1969) was a leading Korean modern dancer.

In early 1920s Korea, it was uncommon for a family with conservative Confucian beliefs and ideals to allow for their child to study dance.

At a time of anti-Korean sentiment heightened by the Korean independence movement and a false rumor that the ethnic Koreans were taking advantage of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake to commit violence, which triggered the Kantō Massacre upon the Koreans, Ishii was progressive and open to the Koreans.

Although the dance group performed successfully and brought in a lot of income, they struggled financially because of Ishii's debts.

He did not have the sufficient salary to give to his dancers.

To pay his debts, Ishii lowered the quality of the performances in exchange for quantity.

Choi and two Japanese dancers decided to leave the group.

Choi returned to Korea and founded her dancing art institute called the 최승희무용예술연구소.

She had both Korean and Japanese students.

Upon her return, she was placed in a spotlight because of the political implications and weight of her international work as a Korean dancer.

Magazines and newspapers wrote about her Western dance, dancing abroad, and personal life in Korea.

The Korean media had a large interest in her work as a dancer and as part of the "new woman" phenomenon.

he was particularly subject to media gossip as an unmarried woman.

Choi differentiated herself from traditionalism, but also from the new women who specifically identified breaking jeongjo (chastity) as a more modern practice.

Choi was continuously a  subject to the public's backlash, as there were several rumors about her  committing acts of adultery.

Despite Choi’s desire to be recognized for developing new dances in Korea, the Korean society only regarded her as part of the "new woman" trend, setting her against the traditional ideal of women.

She was seen as an entertainer in the eyes of many Koreans rather than as a modern artist.

Choi did not initially intend to study Korean dance at first, as the Korean society did not hold dance to the esteem of fine art; instead, dance was seen as a lowly form of entertainment associated with the gisaeng (courtesan).

However, in 1926, he decided to accept her because he thought her addition would encourage a better relationship between Korea and Japan.

She was mesmerized by Baku Ishii's performance, especially at his expressions of darkness and torment.

Ishii accepted Choi, and even offered to teach her for free and send her to music school.

After Choi gained her parents' reluctant permission, she left for Japan with Ishii, his wife, his sister, and his students on the next day on March 25, 1926.

Choi was Ishii's second Korean student.

The first was Kang Hong-shik who left Ishii later and became a movie star under a Japanese name.

(The maternal grandson of Kang Hong-shik is Choi Min-soo, who is known as one of the most acclaimed actors in South Korea now).

Choi is an important figure of early modern dance in Korea, Japan and China who gained worldwide fame in the 1930s.

Choi was born into a yangban-class family in Seoul, Korea during the colonial period, and was also known by the Japanese pronunciation of her name, Sai Shōki.

Despite the Japanese policy of Sōshi-kaimei, a policy of changing Korean names to Japanese names, she retained her Korean family name of Choi.

Sai is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character for Choi, and was not considered Japanese.The multiple pronunciation of her names shows the existing complex cultural relations within the Japanese Empire.

When she was a child, her family faced financial trouble after their lands were taken away by the Japanese.

Their only income came from her brother Choi Seung-il's manuscripts.

After graduating from Sookmyung High School at the age of fifteen, she tried to become a teacher to help her family financially.

She passed seventh amongst 860 applicants, but was rejected due to her age.

She was told to return a year later.

Her brother, Choi Seung-il, suggested her to join Baku Ishii to learn the art of dance.

Baku Ishii was a prominent Japanese modern dance and ballet dancer (and the father of Kan Ishii who became an actor and a classical composer during the 1940s-1960s).

Choi Seung-il was part of the Korea Artist Proletariat Federation (KAPF), and had many connections in both Japan and Korea to journalists and intellectuals.

This made it possible for him to connect Choi with Ishii as Ishii also did work for the KAPF.

At first Ishii  was hesitant to admit Choi as his student, as he believed that the Korean public did not appreciate dance and thought that their performance resembled that of a traveling circus instead of a respected troupe.

Ishii was reluctant to accept Choi as his student because of how they would be viewed by the Korean and Japanese public.