Choi Seung-hee

This is a Korean name; the family name is Choi.

Choi Seung-hee
Choi Seung-hee in 1930
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl	최승희
Hancha	崔承喜
McCune–Reischauer	Ch'oe Sŭnghŭi
Revised Romanization	Choe Seung-hui

Choi Seung-hee repatriated from Beiping to Korea, 1946.

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

Biography

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.^[1] After graduating from Sookmyung High School at the age of fifteen, she went against her father's wishes to study under modern dancer Baku Ishii in Japan, where she distinguished herself as one of the most talented dancers. She developed her own modern dances inspired by Korean folk dances, which had been considered as lowly works. She was supported by Japanese intellectuals including Yasunari Kawabata, and corresponded with both Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso. She was also a vocalist, and made recordings at Taepyeong Records and Kirin Records (in Manchukuo) before making her 1936 album Garden of Italy at Columbia Records Japan.

After the start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, she was sent on tour of the front lines by the Imperial Japanese Army for propaganda purposes and to raise troop morale.

After the end of World War II, she went to North Korea with her husband, who was an active supporter of the Workers' Party of Korea. She established a dance school and was given an official position within the North Korean administration. In 1951, she was asked to visit Beijing to perform for Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. However, in 1967, she was purged by the party, and disappeared from public view. However, on February 9, 2003, an official announcement was made that she had died in 1969, and a monument proclaiming her a "People's Actress". Issues surrounding her death remain undisclosed.

Films

• 1998 - Choi Seunghee: The Korean Dancer. Produced and directed by Han, Sung-Joon. VHS video. West Long Branch, New Jersey, United States: Kultur.

See also

• Korean dance

References

1. ^ Park, Sang Mi (2006). "The Making of a Cultural Icon for the Japanese Empire: Choe Seung-hui's U.S. Dance Tours and "New Asian Culture" in the 1930s and 1940s". Duke University Press. http://positions.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/14/3/597. 

External links

• Choi Seung-hee at the Internet Movie Database
• Choi Sung-hee page at Korea.net
• Choi Seung-Hee page at KBS
• Dancer, Choi Sung-hee's student at Naver Cafe
• 1933 Recording of Choi Seung-hee discovered at Korean Times
• Hanto no maihime at Jiji shashin sokuhou

Persondata
Name	Choi, Seung Hee
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 24, 1911
Place of birth
Date of death	August 8, 1969
Place of death