The People's Sorrow, Expressed Through Dance Steps and Released to the Sky...(Comprehensive)

Lee Ae-ju, Chairman of Gyeonggi Art Center, Passes Away at 74 on the 10th
Her Movements Soaring to the Sky Inspired Hopes for Democratization
"In This Dance, I Put All of Myself, My Life, Practice, and Ideals"

Lee Ae-ju, Seungmu

Lee Ae-ju, chairman of the Gyeonggi Arts Center who wished for democratization through dance, passed away on the afternoon of the 10th. She was 74 years old. According to her family, she was diagnosed with cancer in October last year. She fought the illness at Bundang Seoul National University Hospital and passed away on this day.

She was a holder of the national intangible cultural asset Seungmu, a dance that expressed the sorrow of the people in the 1980s through dance movements. Her representative solo dance was "Barammaji" (Welcoming the Wind). It was first performed at the opening performance of Yeonwoo Stage in 1977, accompanied by the samulnori performance of Kim Deok-su and Lee Kwang-soo. The gestures, as if soaring to the sky, became famous as they embodied the wish for democratization. During the June Struggle in 1987, it moved the hearts of the public more passionately than any slogan in the streets and squares.

Wearing plain clothes, she expressed suffering with her whole body to console the spirit of martyr Park Jong-cheol, who died from water torture. At the funeral of martyr Lee Han-yeol, who collapsed after being hit by a tear gas canister, she led the funeral procession and performed a dance of catharsis. At that time, she said, "My movements belong entirely to the people, and they represent the path of the nation and the current of unification. Therefore, in this one dance, I stake everything?my life, my practice, and my ideals."

"The dance 'Barammaji,' which artistically reorganizes the history of rising above the challenges of divided dictatorship, water torture, electric torture, and tear gas, is the result of a desperate effort to achieve the highest level of dance artistry. Each movement of 'Barammaji' is thoroughly based on the form and content of our dance from the very spark, aiming to revive the distorted and destroyed people's spirit and to develop it further today."

Born in Seoul, she began dancing at the age of five. She inherited the authentic tradition of Seungmu from traditional dancer Han Young-sook (1920?1989) and became a holder of Seungmu in 1996. From 1999, she performed the Teobeolrim dance barefoot, visiting symbolic places on the Korean Peninsula. This is a shamanistic dance from the southern Gyeonggi region, performed to clean or expand the ground by moving around in all directions.

She also devoted much effort to nurturing younger generations. From 1996, she worked as a professor at Seoul National University College of Education for 16 years and served as an emeritus professor from 2013. She held positions such as artistic director of the Korean Traditional Dance Association and president of the Han Young-sook Dance Preservation Society, and in 2019, she was appointed chairman of the Gyeonggi Arts Center. Her term was until September 15 of this year.

Her surviving family includes her younger sister Lee Ae-kyung (Korean dancer) and brother-in-law Im Jin-taek (Pansori master). The funeral is being held at Seoul National University Hospital Funeral Hall Room 1 in Hyehwa-dong, Seoul, with the funeral procession scheduled for the morning of the 13th. The joint funeral directors are Yoo Hong-jun, distinguished professor at Myongji University, Choi Yeol, chairman of the Environmental Foundation, and Chae Hee-wan, emeritus professor at Pusan National University.