The therapeutic effect of relative satisfaction on pain treatment: focus on gobchuchum (a hunchback dance) of Ok-jin Gong

Abstract

Ok-jin Gong's hunchback dance is considered to be a strange dance in Korea. However, there have been no reports of the effects of music and dance therapy as a pain treatment. The aim of this article is to argue that watching and listening to the hunchback dance of Ok-jin Gong may have significant effects as a form of pain treatment. The creator of this style of dance suspected that dance in general can be an outlet for our inner emotions. Her dance in this case has received critical and complimentary reviews as well. However she has been cited as the main culprit behind the destruction of traditional dance forms in the Korean dance world. Nonetheless, her bewitching stage presence attracted much attention. She satirized the feelings of the under privileged' through music and dance. We tend to feel somehow relative poverty and small in the presence of a rich and successful man. On the other hand, the artist felt that it is the public who would be relatively comforted and satisfied in the presence of the weak and handicapped. A free spirit that makes us forget pain is the very essence of her dancing. Her dance and music sound as if she sublimated her sadness and ugliness, changing it to happiness and beauty. She puts herself in a low position and spreads a sense of freedom and relief to the world. Hence, the author felt that innumerable people have been comforted in these ways by her dance.