Dancers, artists urge gov't to include dance classes in school

An elementary school playground in Songpa-gu, Seoul is seen in this May 27, 2020, file photo. Korea Times file

By Park Ji-won

A group of dancers including Kang Sue-jin, artistic director of the Korean National Ballet, actor Park Sang-won, professor of the Seoul Institute of the Arts and Kim Bo-ram, artistic director of Ambiguous Dance Company urged the government to introduce dance classes in elementary and middle schools as part of their efforts to expand the rights for students to receive an arts education.

“Dance has been categorized as sports in school since the nation's first education curriculum in 1955. However, the 21st century is the age of culture and art and it should be a must to learn arts (dance, fine arts, music and acting) in school,” a dance education innovation committee founded to urge the introduction of dance classes in school wrote in a recent press release.

Categorizing dance as one of the artistic activities in school is a big task for the dance world, it added.

The committee is planning to hold a press conference Friday and start a campaign to urge the government to expand its definition of arts education before the revision of the country's education curriculum which is scheduled to take place in 2022.

The committee is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 to introduce dance classes in school. It consists of many dance schools in universities, art associations and members of dance troupes of state-run art companies.