Master of traditional Korean dance, Kong Ok-jin, has died at the age of 81.

Kong had been under going hospital treatment in her hometown of Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province since suffering a stroke in 1998.

Born as a daughter of a pansori master father, Kong Dae-il, she learned the Korean traditional narrative song and lived as a dancer through her life from the time she entered the Joseon drama company in 1945.

Kong was loved by working-class Korean audiences for her creative solo performance combining her humorous “cripple’s dance” and dances featuring the motions of animals.

She was the first dancer from an Asian country to give a solo performance at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and performed in many countries, credited as the dancer best representing the sentiment of working-class Koreans.