A Study on National Folk Arts Contestand Dances in Chungnam Province －Centered on a Dancer Lee, Mi-Ra－

With recent global countries’ efforts competitively trying to inscribe their intangible cultural heritages into UNESCO’s representing list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, the interest of folklore arts in each region is amplified again. Encouraged by these social stream, this study aims to review the formative process and characteristics of dances in Chungnam province, centered on the entries for the competition of National Folk Arts Contest totally produced by Lee Mi Ra. The result of the study is as follows.First, National Folk Arts Contest offered a beginning to step up restoring original dances in Chungnam province and its succeeding work.Second, ‘Eunsan Byeolshin Dangut nori’, ‘Geobuk nori’, ‘Asan Tug-of-War Play’, ‘Hoetbul Sam nori’, ‘Deungbaru nori’, A farmer’s song ‘Sanyuhwaga’, etc. which are the representing folklore arts of Chungcheong province, were totally directed and disinterred by Lee, Mi-Ra. She represented them considering the locality in order for each play to correspond to its intention such as wishing a good harvest year and long life as well as good health, reinforcing the spirit of teamwork between community residents in the basis of the thought of loyalty and filial piety in accordance with folklorists’ playscript.Third, even if there was a limit in embodying original intangible cultural heritage of which characteristics of a scene or improvisation is strong, Lee, Mi-Ra’s enthusiasm to preserve and inherit intangible cultural heritage of Chungnam province laid a cornerstone for disinterring, inheriting and developing folklore arts of Chungcheong province.