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Ausdance NT kindly sponsored 4 Top End youths to attend Stamping Ground 2003. Here are are some reflections on the experiences of Matthew Cornell and Joshua Mu from Darwin.
Dance is not Optional (Matthew Cornell, Darwin)
Not a single word can describe the amazing adventure 3 weeks of dance can be.
To me personally it was an awakening, an epiphany, an eye opening experience as someone
with a disease may feel when they meet someone else with the same illness and find
that they aren’t alone but rather more alive because of it.
I have a passion for dance, and dancing for 3 weeks straight, with nothing else,
was already like a dream for me. But the best thing, the best thing were the people.
The atmosphere was great, people’s attitudes were amazing and their acceptance of
one another was exceptional, unsurpassed. The primary force which affected me however
was that here, in this small town in a small state on the smallest continent of the
world were 700+ people who loved dance and were near as passionate as I was.
I met people who have done amazing things, given up amazing sacrifices or opportunities
to be a dancer. I met people who had been through times in their life so rough that
at times, dancing was the only thing they had, the only thing that brought them comfort.
It made me proud to be a dancer, more proud than I had ever been to, not only admit
it, but broadcast it. I AM A MALE DANCER. It’s the best feeling, and as hard as it
may be for some people to understand, even better than sex. My other male counterparts
may quiver at the thought that something so elective and as optional as dance would
come before the fibres that drive the very existence of a species. But that's not
how I see it.
Dancing is not an option to me; it’s not just a hobby. Ask any surfer, any true surfer,
if surfing is an option for them, if they could just hang up their board and not
go out because they were simply too busy, as them to separate it from the rest of
their life. They won’t. They can’t. And there is nothing different about dancing.
Dancing is in the blood, it’s in almost every ritual, every culture, every group
of people have dance in their ancestry. Dance is a way of life. It runs in
our blood, as thick as the need to eat, to drink, to reproduce. I challenge you to
name one culture, so rich in its heritage that is devoid of dance. Society needs
dance, people need dance, males need dance. Too many times men are discouraged
to dance, discouraged to feel the euphoria that comes with dancing. But that is society,
and I alone can not change society. Instead, I will challenge people and their ideas
of just what it is to be a dancer. I will not only be a dancer, but a proud one who
will scream, at the top of my lungs that ‘they may take our lives but they will never
take our daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaance.
In my life I will affect people who will change their views about dance and male
dance, in my life I will live the dream that so many people choose or are taught
to disregard. I will be a dancer. And if I have that, I see the rest of my
life falling in to place quite nicely. I have something that so many people live
their entire life without, I have a passion. And I refuse to conform and simply
ignore that which burns so true inside me.
I want to dance, and I’m taking steps to make it happen. What do you want?
Matthew Cornell
Darwin, 31 Jan 2003
Stamping Ground for me was the best thing to ever happen to me not just as a dancer
but also as a young male adult. I could only scrape the top of the iceberg in this
attempt to put what stamping ground gave to me in words - but I know what some of
the words would be. Inspiration, sharing, creativity, improvement, beauty, soul,
passion, power, learning, culture, art, grace, concentration, practice, love, friendship,
speed, flight, happiness, skill, confidence, and dance… I go to stamping ground full
of enthusiasm and anticipation but thinking all I’ll learn will be how to be a better
dancer and to learn new styles. I come back to my hometown Darwin (this may be suss,
but) with a new outlook on life and where I want to go in the future. The people
at stamping ground came from all over Australia as well as NZ and a few tutors from
the far corners of the world. But what surprised me was that they all were very different
as people and as dancers yet everyone including myself felt a connection and I think
because we all at some stage in our lives had acquired a passion and soul for the
art of dance. For whoever that didn’t feel connected they certainly did by the end
of the 16 days of the festival, that I can be definitely sure of. My main point in
mentioning this is to support the fact that it was almost unrealistic how everyone
got along so well. We shared with each other, loved each other, and helped each other
and that by the end of the 16 days we had sadness in our hearts for leaving, as if
we were leaving our families. And like many of the ‘stampers’ I swore no matter what
"I will be back."
Joshua Mu
3rd Feb 2003
Stamping Ground acknowledges sponsorship of scholarships from
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