Choi Seung-hee

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. 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.

After graduating from Sookmyung High School at the age of fifteen, she went against her father's wishes and studied under modern dancer Baku Ishii in Japan, where she distinguished herself as a talented dancer. She developed her own modern dances inspired by Korean folk dances, which had been considered as lowly works. She was supported by numerous 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.