La Volta and Gum-Mu: A Comparison of Court Dance from 16th-Century England and 18th-Century Chosun

摘要

This thesis compares court dances between 16th-century England and 18th-century Chosun in efforts to determine similarities and differences between dance movements and paralleling them to popular philosophies such as Confusianism, Yae-ahk, Silhak, and Neoplatonism. These time periods were chosen due to the spike in artistic expansion and accomplishments, especially in court. Dance served as a tool of connectivity and influenced not only the culture, but also the country's politics and society. In addition to the historical background of each time period, my method of research involved choosing the prominent leaders of each era, who made a difference in art and were considered leaders of a Renaissance period. To explain how the dance movements are associated with the philosophies, I chose the most popular dances during the given time period, La Volta in England and Gum-mu (Sword Dance) in Chosun, and used printed books and poems. Despite the fact that the pieces were from two completely different countries and eras, there were similarities shown in the dance movements such as harmony, symmetry, order, discipline and manners, all of which are important aspects of Confucianism (Yin-Yang and Yae-ahk) and Neoplatonism. The main conclusion that was drawn from this thesis was that court dance was not only created for entertainment but it was also a factor that heavily influenced the society and politics. Court dance was used to show the leader's power in both countries and circular integration, in which country folk adopted court dance in their communities' repertory and royalty adopted country-dance in court repertory. It also taught social etiquette and manners that ultimately brought different social groups together and represented court success in harmony and therefore the country.