• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
• /
• no.23
• /
• pp.105-158
• /
• 2011

Due to the system of sending selected hyanggi(local entertaining woman) to the government office in Seoul after the abolition of the system of gyeonggi(entertaining woman in capital area) during the reign of King Injo(1595~1649), the kyobang-jeongjae(local dance performed for the provincial government office) had gotten into the court to be performed at the royal banquet as gungjung-jeongjae(court dance), one of which was seonyurak(dance of boating). It used to be performed for finale of the royal banquet in the late Joseon Dynasty and appeared in several uigwes(record for royal banquet) since its first appearance in the wonhaeng-eulmyo-jeongri-uigwe, documented in 1795, the 19th year of the reign of King Jeongjo. Considering that the yeoggi(female entertainer) responsible for the court dance, seonyurrak was the seonsanggi(selected entertaining woman from provinces) from the northwestern provincial villages such as Euiju, Ahnju, and Seongcheon etc., we can assume that the baettaragi, one of kyobang-jeongjaes whould have been getting into the court to become the seonyurrak as court dance. The baettaragi, kyobang-jeongjae of northwestern province that affected the development of the court dance, seonyurak was created as performance executed by entertaining women of kyobang(local supervisory office for entertaining women) on the basis of the fact that the envoy of Joseon dynasty to the Ming dynasty could not help but taking a sea route when Amaga Aisin Gurun had a grip on the northeastern area of China during the shift of power from Ming to Qing. There had been a lot of banquets for envoys in the northwestern province because of its geographical feature as gateway to trip to China and the baettaragi used to be performed by entertaining women belonged to local provincial office to consolate the sadness of separation with those who destined to depart to China and to hope for their safe return. The kyobang-jeongjae, baettaragi of northwestern province is recorded as performance with sorrowful song to put the pain of parting into work, according to many related documents. It puts together painted boats as props, the march of a couple of dancer dressed up as soldier with marching music called gochiak, the song and musical accompaniment before getting on boat, the dramatic expression of sailing, and the farewell song praying for safe return etc. It turns the situation of dispatching envoys for China by sea into performance with combination of music, song and dance. Created in this way, the kyobang-jeongjae, baettaragi had been performed at the various banquets for envoys departing for China and it affected the formation of court dance or gungjung-jeongjae called seonyurak through the activities of selected local entertaining women. It also exerted influence on other similar performance in provincial area because of the returning home of the selected local entertainers who finished their performance in Seoul and it had been performed with different variation at local banquet including locality in it.