STAMPING GROUND DANCE FESTIVAL
notes about the annual Journeys to Manhood ritual
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forum notes • STAMPING GROUND 2003
courtesy of David do Santos
mens meeting & discussion about the annual ritual

The foundation of a rite of passage is about death & rebirth, a focused moment to be aware of what we are leaving behind and what we are inviting into ourselves - Will Bulmer

These notes are from the first meeting of men @ stamping ground 2003 for discussion of the annual men & boys journeys to manhood ritual. Included within the meeting was a large amount of forum style discussion on the subject of maleness and associated ideas. Many thanks to all contributors to the forums and discussion about ritual. Without your persistence and patience during these forums, our rituals and festival vibe could not have become all it was. You are all remembered in the minds of the men and women present during the ritual.

These notes were taken by my furious hands during the forums, I believe the forum after "dirty priest" was audio taped which of course would be much more accurate in translation from forum to paper. I’m hoping for the next festival to have a mini disk recorder handy to capture these important discussions. Stamping Ground is such an amazing site for male evolution; being a broad mix of nationalities and ages, with both genders represented, as well as the creative force valued as the foundation for global improvement - seen at the core of presentations and performance works: the unique nature of the forums, the participants important contributions will hopefully be acknowledged through the reports of the festivals highlights.

Apologies to anyone misquoted or omitted in the writing of the notes. A certain amount of the notes are fleshed-out to make the ideas readable.

Thanks to Stuart Shaw for presenting the forum in the form of a fishbowl — in which a small circle of 5-6 discuss ideas with the large circle of 50 — 60 participants. People in the middle stay until they have spoken their ideas, then leave. As a person leaves, another may enter from the outer circle
Men & Boys Ritual
themes from last year’s event (Jan 2002) that are retained
Rites of Passage
Trials set by older men for younger participants
Using fire elements
Acknowledgement — emergence to manhood

Things we have noted as result of ritual
Transformations in young men who participated
The ritual connects with deep feeling within the participants

Open Discussion — things we wish to address through ritual 2003

Peter Stock
Major disappointment in role models this day and age
Inappropriate male role models appear weak, helpless and hopeless.
Emptiness in the current Male to child connections based on particulars
In the ritual, we can choreograph a simple coming together to address this.
Young people are the important ones here, their quality of creativity is a guide to us all.
(quoteing from documentation he read)
Children under 3 are highly creative in their investigation of the world — in their investigations of the world about them — 99% is done creatively.
By the age of ten, only 33% of children have retained creative abilities to interpret the world
This rate stays for life (or drops even lower)
So it is important for the creative impulse to be inspired through the ritual.
It is distressing for us to see it drop away
Arts practice is so devalued & pulled out of common culture — killed off
Creative impulse is too destroyed with this devaluing of creativity.

Tony Wolf
Creativity - ability to articulate
Tragedy — with no structure the creative impulse becomes dangerous, a constant test of self against extreme odds.
E.g. — guys driving too fast in cars, drinking too much — seeing what they can get away with.

Travers Ross
Best things about ritual are Lap Laps and Body Paint - ochre
When the boys are together it makes a show for all of us - a connection between all the males — looking the same and dressed the same.
The clothing and the dance become a uniform — it unites us.

Eddie Kay
Intimacy of man.
In Glasgow the male culture is individualistic
Nill intimacy except from father, touch and hugs
Freedom of gesture doesn’t happen in day to day between men (or from men)
It is important to show we can hold each other for long times & be comfortable with that, there is no need to feel uncomfortable when being in contact with other men.
Majority of the world cannot deal with it
Intimacy between men should be pushed right up there as theme for ritual
Intimacy between men can be beautiful and not about competition

Morgan Lewis
Acknowledge this is Bangoon (?soz if wrong spelling) land — Koori Land
Having representatives of kooris here, Alex (licke) and Jason important
As Australian White male it is important we link with that
To give HOPE to people who come from stuffed up families/drug families
The worst poverty is poverty of the mind and soul
It is important to create from your own heart and mind

Phil
We are all here to express who we are and what we are (the festival & in existence)
We are all here going
"this guy is like me"
"I look up to him"
"I don’t look up to him"
Adrians’ afro Cuban class taught me how tribes express the same thing but dance it different
(Adrian Medina often described the creating of different dance styles in Cuba, where many black African slave tribes were taken years and years ago, and in the time of carnival, once a year for a week, they would dance and express and explore each others dance styles, celebrating their roots and influences at large, thus creating salsa, tango, merengue, rhumba, etc…. Cuba is now renowned for keeping the styles as consistent as when they first appeared and teaches dance degrees on a major scale.)

Eddie Kay
It is all about sharing — sharing our things — not competing, but coming together

Stuart Shaw
The Zubanti tribe practice a belief in 10 sets of 8 years in their lives till they become a man
It is good we have so many ideas, but also consider how can we transform/transmute such ideas as we have listed in to movements, sounds and choreographies.

A general outline of 2002 Ritual (described in another document)

Strong themes from last years ritual;
Women protecting the boys, passing the boys from mothers circle to men through the arms of all the men collectively as a tunnel and into the realm of testing.
They were tested with a riddle, a question they must answer on paper with pencil.
They were given plenty of time and all answers were correct
Something akin to;
"Strong is my shield, and sharp is my blade, but
What is my greatest strength?"

Boys were paired up with men and discussed strengths.
Then a talking circle between all men where we named our strengths
Boys then had two trials — a group exercise where the boys and men worked together to retrieve their written strengths, which had been placed in a high out of the way suspended basket.
On their own they had to run through a hoop of fire.
Boys presented with tanto sized wooded daggers with "Stamping Ground 2002" etched into them.

Peter Stock
The theme is water this year (2003) since we are in drought — to highlight water as important, vital and since fire is too dangerous in drought.

Stuart Shaw
Lets start coalescing ideas
Water — place/aspect
How can we incorporate ideas and things?

David B.
What to do about, energy and affection, becoming a father in this society
Baptism and giving away sins — going through a passageway
Burping waters

IDEAS ON RITUAL
Location @ the Never-Never waterfall/picnic area, Bellingen.
This site has a natural river/lagoon, an open grass area, trees and vantage points.
It has rocks, leaves, all sorts of natural things about it.

Andrew
Every young boy can have a creative musical instrument
Men can pass on dance to the young boys — a series of gestures they learn a dance phrase/gesture from each of us

Luke Rhodes
Instruments — click sticks, stones in water — take care of sharp sounds though underwater

Kiren
Soundscapes with water, leaves and rocks could be created in natural situation.
Lighting? — different states of water + air
Vocals + the aspect of fear through vocalising
Take the risk to challenge yourself, go in and ask questions
This breaks your fear down
Thus express the feminine (or fearing) aspect of the male that isn’t shown in public.

Zac OR Kalib (soz guys)
Initiation is for everyone — any man wether 20, 30, 40 or 50 years old
Because some men don’t get to grow up.
We all need and can transform some aspect of ourselves through the ritual.

Adrian Medina
Men are discriminated — the attention of video & magazines — lots of big companies are here and doing us over. Adrian himself turned down a modelling career to teach dance.
Humans need a soul — where is the soul in modelling — connecting with the soul is what we can do — dancers need soul or else their dance is empty
Artists can create happiness in the world — think about your heart and your head.
We are like Roses in water - a rose in your heart
Work from your heart — don’t think in your pocket — it’s not worth it
Make your god, your award, your home.
Every moment should be lived with love — have pride in love
no one is perfect — so remember human being is the best mistake in the world.

David Do Santos
If we can have a situation where we can Soap Box @ the ritual — where we can share some of the things we have said today and encourage others to share them @ the ritual.

Will Bulmer
The space must be prepared
The energies must be honoured and ancestors invited into the space
Rites of passage can happen @ 29
The foundation of a rite of passage is about death & rebirth, a focus moment to be aware of what we are leaving behind and what we are inviting into ourselves
Before manhood there is dependency
In the preparation stage of the ritual, we need some time to reflect — to find out what we are leaving behind and what we are inviting in
A passage of human bodies being linked with flowing in the river
Time for the participants to be close

Tony Wolf
Other years have been roles of heavy and masculine warriors, what about water as feminine?
This ritual can be a balanced thing between Feminine and Masculine.
Rocks under the water — using the rocks as well as the water Earth and water as symbols of strength and solidarity.
Partnering — one person holding another person up in the water (gorgeous!) for a long time

Peter Stock
Neural Connection
Within the community we need to reconnect our neural pathways — between each other — the pathways of communication.

Mark Rook
Connection happening
Ie; a kid from stamping ground who told and taught a friend about the things he learnt @ the festival.
So;
6 tribes of kids could be made and trained in something — then the tribes learn from each other — put it all together as a giant collaborative phrase.

Luke Rhodes
The image of the hug
Giant group hugs with boys on outside and men on the inside & vice versa.
Holding up all the boys and all the men (in the air)
Chants and words and feelings expressed — develop chants.

Instruments — stones — sacred stones with paintings on them, leaves, water splashing, spiralling…..

Andrew
To acknowledge different backgrounds
One step to contribute to the dance — a LARGE group dance — every participant contributes step @ a time so it becomes shopping list style dance.

Phil
Mating & Death
Trying to find meaning
Why we are here
What are we doing
Getting past drink and drugs and suicide — these things are used to express darkness/sadness
So express through noise and movement
A balanced male and female — masculine and feminine
What about a CELEBRATION ritual? A celebration of who we are.

Josh Wolf
Connecting with Feminine like mum
The independent male, connecting with mother @ 40

Rob
Careful pick of virtues — balance them — stamping ground is very special
There is a lack of ritual in current aussie culture — a boys to men ritual — it’s about change.
We should create a list of things that have made a change
What has been good — collate

Will Bulmer
Masculinity and the Yin & the Yang
The full moon & the empty moon
The element of rite, circling, waves
Cycles of life & cycles of water

Jonathan Bollen
Taking water in the mouth and spraying it into the face of others
Giant water splashes! Choreographed water splashes.

Tony Wolf
An initiatory rite should be genuinely demanding
Ie: heavy river stones — something that requires genuine team work.

Peter Stock
Many rituals are witnessed, it’s not show business, it is a full on ritual.
Important we honour the role of the women — this can be re-included
The women had a form while the men had a form too
Borrowing/receiving something from the women before/after trials.

**Discussion breaks up into a vote for a committee to create the actual choreographies and brainstorm the particulars of the ritual, they continue discussion for a short while organising next meeting of committee**

Committee;
Rob, Zac, Kalib, Phil, Traver Ross, Liston Rua, Peter Stock, Alex (lickie), Luke Rhodes, David Do Santos, Tony Wolf, Martin, Will Bulmer, Stuart Shaw, David Wood.


forum notes, courtesy David do Santos • STAMPING GROUND 2003

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