STAMPING GROUND DANCE FESTIVAL - RESOURCES for SUPPORTERS

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OTHER BACKGROUND READING ABOUT STAMPING GROUND
> Initiation - Joe Scoglio,.Presentation at inaugural Stamping Ground, Jan 1997
> Spawning Aussie Billy Elliots - Clare Sneddon, 2001
> The Warrior's Art - Stuart Shaw - Presentation at Stamping Ground '98
> Gender & Dance - Guest Editorial - Peter Stock (1998)
> What Participants Say
> Reflections of 7th annual event - Matthew Cornell, Joshua Mu
> Reflections of 6th annual event - January, 2002 - Helene Markstein
> Choreographers Report - Stix & Stones • 11 JAN 2002 - ChristosLinou
> Report -Body Mind Centering & Performance Enhancement Workshops sg 2002 - LLewellyn Wishart
> ABC TV Australian Story - transcript of program about TRAVERS ROSS & Stamping Ground - screened 6 Sep 2001
> SBS TV Global Village - transcript of report about 5th annual stamp by producer, Richard Gurney - screened 30 Oct, 2001
> UGLY PAGE
> RESOURCES & LINKS General Dance Stuff - articles about dance (contributions welcome - eg. your link or article or info about your event or organisation), Links to mens resources.
> RITUAL Jan 2003 - forum & prelim planning- notes by David do Santos

Stamping Ground Dance Festival
1997/98/99 Bellingen NSW
Performance Analysis HELENE MARKSTEIN

Because I'm documenting a festival, I will try to be as simple as I can using the first 3 Stamping Ground events as a unit, a 'whole thing' - 'the performance' - and ask that this be viewed as a 'work in progress' as it is an on-going festival and I now find myself in the position of 'Documentor'. This means I am not looking at the content of the individual classes/workshops/etc. and am using these as the cluster of categories, elements that make up the Festival.

The Documentation I have
Received/Residuals;
o Video - filmed by myself/and others of; Workshops/Ceremonies/Rituals/Performances/Forums/Daily Warmup classes/Local 'talent' Performances for the festivals entertainment/Enrichment for Teachers/Dance Health/Bitch-Grievance sessions/Site work/Bushdance/Men's issues,
o some Posters
o Courses and Workshops offered
o media releases 1999,
o daily /weekly 'Timetables'
o Flyers - Info Sheets and Registration Forms
o Tutors Profiles
o Questionnaire (recorded comments from previous participants)
o Adverts from - Dance Australia/Realtime
o Article from Dance Forum 'Gender and Dance' 1998
o site map
o Daily Fees list
o costings for some of some equipment / Hall hire/Advertising
o Correspondence to Journals/Eisteddfod Committees offering 'Scholarships' to the 'Festival'-
o example of letter from scholars parents acknowledging 'billeting' arrangements.
o example of e-mail declining invitation for Forum Paper
o Proposed Public Events and Forums Schedule
o Correspondence from ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation), accepting offer to include 1000 Citizen's Statements in support of Native Title in the 'Stamping Ground' mailouts
o Example of mailout including A.N.T.R. Statement and
o Feedback 'questionnaire'
o Photos

What I have made
o Photos
o Brief - 'what I learnt' notes from Courses /Workshops attended
o Notes from ceremonies attended
o Notes from rituals attended

What I hope to add
o Recollections and memories triggered from re-watching video documentation.
o Recollections and memories from periods between performances/workshops/ceremonies etc.
o A video collated & edited from the overall footage -
divided into; workshops/ceremonies/rituals/
performances/forums. To be used both as archival material and as an example to attract both tutors and participants to the next Festival.

Performance Analysis Stamping Ground Festival
Bellingen NSW
January 1997,1998,1999

This analysis is an examination of the elements that make up the festival
making interpretation of what is happening - and my evaluation thereof.

I will look at place/space, the dispersal of events within the Festival, looking at it as a ritualistic event, the roles within, practice as performance and performance as practice, the temporal aspects and some of the shifting gender and cultural issues. Using the documentation of mainly video, photos, timetables, notes and memories triggered from these.

Introduction
'Stamping Ground' the Festival, occurs every January for a duration of 16 days, held in the village of Bellingen (2600+ pop.) on the Bellinger River, on the NSW mid-north Holiday Coast, midway between Brisbane & Sydney. The purpose of the Festival is more than the offered Men's and Youth's Action Arts Festival. It functions on many levels, artistic/social/ritualistic/mentorship/educational basis.

For the preceding months participants receive fliers/information, registration forms, updates on courses and tutors profiles mailed out regularly. As a participant you are expected to arrive fit, ready for physical exercise, armed with mosquito repellent, suncream, hat, swimming costume, and a water bottle. The sub-tropical area is summer hot at this time of year, the river and the beach are as an important part of the Festival as is the focus/central point of the enormous Memorial Hall, a major dance space and the administrative site for the event.

Memorial Hall houses all information relating to the festival, displays maps showing other venues & site-work locations, posters, daily bulletin/communications board, billeting or accommodation information, canteen, class & workshop schedules, performances, social dances and sometimes video rushes of class work. This is the primary location of festival workshops and events, a place to keep tabs on daily changes to timetables and other happenings, or to just hang out and watch classes between other events or courses.

The courses/workshops on offer are vary each year and referred to as Action Arts for Men and Boys, all movement-based and for all ages and levels of expertise - such as all the dance traditions of Ballet/Contemporary/Jazz/Tap/Funk/Street Dance - and a broad range of others such as Contact Impro, Experiential Movement, Martial Arts, Fire Working Skills, Circus Acro, Action Moves for Boys, Stunt Work, Sword Work, Body-Mind Centering, Pilates… Forums/Papers given on Men and Boys issues related to the Action Arts and dance environment are equally, and as variously represented, along with the ritual of ceremonies, and everyone's participation in these.

To focus on the temporal aspects.
The overall pace is a physical rush, from warmup to class, from course to performance. People arriving every day during the first week from all over Australia and overseas, some old faces some new. Each year -picking up from where they left off a year ago, as if it were yesterday.

This is a special 'out of time' position.
It is it's own capsule - 24 hour 'lived in time' for the length of the festival.
"Bello time" - short for Bellingen time, is a loose, open-ended time, (as opposed to 'city' time - where most 'dancers' are working) often referred to when people don't arrive on time or classes/barbecue/performances start late. Though not practiced at all during the Festival, due to the demands of most practices, "bello time" is often referred to and helps to give an air of ease, the laid-back holiday Festival atmosphere.
The 'time' is scheduled out between sessions, days or weeks. 'Quality' time, in workshops, classes, courses, forums, performances and 'Valuable' time, in rituals, ceremonies celebrations, social dances. Over the weeks certain classes and workshops are core activities, such as early morning Ballet, Warm up, Contemporary dance, Jazz, Tap, Boys Fire Workshop, Body Mind Centering, Action Arts for Boys, but others may change or new things added in to the time-table, like 'Designing the Space' or a spontaneous one-off session. All designed to keep everyone moving, the pace is relentless and doesn't cease till the day after the Festival is finished when people return to the major cities/airports or wherever home is.
'Time out' is between 'the work' of classes, workshops, or courses. The time for action freezes, private rehearsal, sore muscles, injuries, local television, the beach, the river, the Promised Land, sleep-in, an invite to a local's home for 'time-out', local markets for a hair colour change, a trinket or what may become a costume or accessory.

All this 'time-out' 'glues', the 'social' interaction across the tribe, an opportunity for lots of 'jamming' both musical and movement-wise in the form of hours of Brazilian Capoeira or Contact-Impro, 'Fire' work or 'Sword' work. All these juxtaposed against the 'training practice' time, where the emphasis is on professional practice with outstanding tutors, across the board in dance practices from contemporary through to ballet, partnering, jazz, modern, pas de deux, funk and tap, or martial arts, qi -gong, stunt work, aerial wire-work, fire sculpture workshops, circus acro - all ongoing without breaks back to back throughout the Festival. The 'experiential' workshops also having a 'time' all their own, usually extended sessions taking all day working internally in 'process' work.

The division of segments roughly break into: Workshops/Classes/Showing of work created in workshops/Demonstrations/Performances within performances/Rituals/Ceremonies/Forums/Fun & Revelry.

The changes in tempo - From workshop to forum from ceremony to jams, the 'time-out' is between the formal segments but form an important segment of it's own.
Breaks - mainly happen late at night centred around eating together. Jams in the Scout Hall / Contact /Capoeira/Music-making) - individual Performances / getting from one venue to the other/ coffee shop /restaurant breaks in town - The pub - The Bowling Club / Communal meals / Riverside or beach BBQ's / Screenings of video rushes & recent works by attending tutors/invites to local dance people's homes/meetings for the 'Colony/Dancer's Retreat' / Printing up posters for a new workshop/class /performance or taking time helping on the Front Desk/ chatting about personal practices/ networking contacts in the field/Concerts (Groups etc. eg; Black Moses, Flloyd Vincent and the Child Brides) / Community Bush Dances/raves/Scottish Country Dance

The continuous disclosure is the build-up of observable skills and responsibilities (especially noticeable with the younger boys) Anticipation of incoming tutors for the second week. The big build-up of excitement for the closing fire ceremony and the "Burnin' up the Tallowood" revue - always a breathtaking performance of content created in workshops.
The 'time' is broken up on a Daily Basis/timetables for varied lengths/ from one session only/day workshops compared to every day for 3 hours for the duration of the Festival with all types of variations like a 2 or 7 days only making choices difficult.

There are many cross rhythm durations, taking spontaneous structure or impro, carrying a movement from class work/courses to movement seen in performance or ceremonies, taken into the wider community of the town where impros/jams may form part of the local market entertainment to advertise the event/or just have fun and jam with the locals. A 'found movement' from a warmup may evolve into an ongoing 'greeting' carried through the entire Festival. Process happens in between and during and 'up to' 'outcomes' which may be a performance or the closing ceremony. Part of some of the manufacturing process, works towards a performance where the process itself, literally goes up in smoke/destroyed as part of a ritual, the closing ceremony or performance.

The Festival's historical reference is to itself, with the 4th Festival coming up, histories are "which year?" and what happened!

The place/space - community and 'People's Space' environment.
Apart from River's Ballet Studio, a smallish well-equipped private school, where the local Ballet/Spanish and Contemporary classes are taken and the Scout Hall that also doubles as the 'scholars' accommodation. The classes are held in various large public halls - Showground Halls/ Memorial Halls /Luncheon Booths / outlying township Hall's, Gleniffer Hall/ Kalang Hall - they are 'austere' and 'countrified' - a shoestring feel that carries a certain aesthetic. Though the floors have been lovingly restored through the year for use in this Festival, they are sometimes dirty, dusty, musty, carrying all the 'vibes' of their past 'histories' of use.

Rituals and ceremonies are conducted outdoors, making full use of the visual beauty of the area's public spaces - from the riverbanks for Aboriginal Dreaming Exchange, The Medicine Wheel Ritual held up-river in a secluded area, of which there are many along the Bellinger river. The Men's Aboriginal Dreaming Exchange is held at the Never-Never Creek, in a riverside area with magnificent natural backdrop of purple hills and surrounded by Bellingen's rolling fertile green fields. This environment is an important part of what makes this festival and whether being in the position of performer or audience together in these surrounds everyone is a participant.
Site specific work, the Hungry Head beach has been used twice with the close-by estuary/lagoon featuring in part of the event . The Promised Land also being used for rituals and ceremonies .The final closing ceremony is heavily designed beforehand and worked on through long daily workshops with men helping boys, handcrafting all the devices used. Using the methods to make these props as a safety and intricate skill exercise for the boys. They take pride in the craftsmanship of their finished product that will, to conclude the closing ceremony, be 'burnt' - but during this performance ritual they come away from it 'changed' - an equal with the performing men, their mentors and role models, responsible and respected as such. The Bellingen Fitness Centre gymnasium featured in the 1999 Festival for Jungle Gym where the men wore various primal representations of 'gym' attire. Generally in performance work there is no 'costuming' as such - even for individual performances, mainly everyday wear/dance class gear/ light well worn cottons - except in the Aboriginal Dreaming Exchange where the men wear a hand-dyed 'loin-cloth' affair with headband and ochre markings painted on the body. A similar 'costume' is sometimes worn in the closing ceremony and 'Burnin' up the Tallowood' revue finale item, always worn in a 'men only' performance or ceremony. 'Valley Showcase' performance, where local performers strut their stuff for the visitors - from belly dancers to the local ballet students is a contrast to the rest of the festival "costuming", for the bright colours and considered costuming for Spanish dance, large student group contemporary dance pieces, theatre dance and displays. The only definite costume memory apart from the Commedia Masks of the first year and the full African feathered costumes of the same year, was a 'gender' performance featuring satin boxer shorts with hearts on them.

Generally 'performances within the festival are basic affairs with minimum costume and functional lighting for 'staged' work accompanied by live music or audio backing. Audiences are mostly the participants themselves and apart from a few showcases, stages are informal/unstructured and site specific. The major performances are staged in the Memorial Hall with the stage area being the Hall floor area in front of the proscenium and taking a full 7/8 of the floor space - pushing any audience into the remaining 1/8th - this is also indicative of where the Festival places the audience in the importance of all things - this festival is for the performers & participants. Sometimes aerial performers fly above the space or ask the audience to sit in the space and perform against one of the walls on the same level as the audience.
The sound/music relies on marimbas, flute, various drums, African Bells etc. that are played by other dancers & musicians not performing in the piece, sometimes dancewomen who also help in a role as 'minders' or 'herders', 'points of reference' or drummers.

More complex pieces are sometimes performed collaborating designer/choreographer/aerial specialist with light effects and objects as part of the design. The Aboriginal Dreaming Exchange is a ceremony that is repeated each year, one for the men and one for the women, The women are not allowed to watch what happens in the men's business and only get to see what happens from snippets of video footage. The Women's Dreaming Exchange ritual is centred on more light-hearted matters, cheekiness, fun, the main part of the ritual being a repeat of what happened in the preceding years, The Rainbow Snake Welcome Dance, "Looking between the 'spaces' " (shadow dance) and Animal Dances, are also done at the beach with both men, women and children. Every year a new addition is added to the overall Performance/ritual but these basic dances have a ritualistic feel about them - having done them each year, the younger girls feel they know them, the part most enjoyed being the ritualistic make-up of forearms, lower legs, faces and hair, dotted and slashed with ochre colours. The Medicine Wheel ritual is also a very hush-hush ritual. This is for men only, a 'Sweat Lodge' that women only hear tantalising little bits about and always in reference to the preceding year!

The Boys Fire classes are ongoing throughout the Festival, taking the middle of each day, towards the end and before the closing ceremony, older men join in and it is 'secret men's business', each boy is assigned an older 'brother' , who takes care of the youngster's personal safety during the closing fire ceremony. From the class work we talked about ritual process being concerned with transformation, a process involving change - through time… 'a rite of passage' This has strong parallels with the Stamping Ground Festival. An open Forum each year discusses and addresses the need for this in our society. Young and older men sharing their own experiences of when and if the 'rites of passage' happened for them, how they felt about it. The 'rites of segregation', being separated out of everyday life, into this ritual zone marked temporally and spatially.

The transition, ceremonies and rituals within the festival's time, is where the change happens, with everything freeing up… this is the zone of anti-structure traditionally, with people 'performing', 'creating', 'more' than they imagined they could. The experienced perception is wild, exciting, alive, sweaty, and immediate (liminal). The 'rites of re-aggregation', the process of re-entry into society, being the final Closing Fire Ceremony that the wider community is invited to view. It is spectacular and moving, featuring all the men and boys, especially the young boys that have been training for the entire festival time. They face "tests" during the ritual and emerge showing readiness for new responsibilities and with a strong measure of their new found importance in the community as 'emerging men' - the boys take the experience as a change of status and definitely show 'their changed selves' somehow. This has now come to be a ritual, is repeated, passed down each year in a slightly different manner but nevertheless a similar pattern each year and one that is looked forward to, both by participants and observers. The Classic Narrative structure is observed here corresponding to a 'beginning' - 'before' - 'during' and 'after'. While a general topic of conversation Post Stamping Ground follows the line of , "Why can't it be on all year round?' and "Why does it have to stop?', "I want it to be on always!" The Conservative -Social structure staying the same, everyone going back to their individual lifestyles afterwards, until it all starts again the following January. A Colony/Dancer's Retreat based on the Festival has been mooted and shows some interest during and towards the end of the Festival, a form perhaps of trying to prolong the event, but interest wanes as soon as everyone is back in their usual lifestyles.

The roles within. The energy/ sweat/ heat /bare bones/ sore bones - This total acceptance of who you are inside the festival context - 'a participant.' - whether a young boy, a teacher, an old man, a renowned dancer or a housewife with 3 kids is an important part of what creates the out of time experience. The tribe is broken up into 'old timers', scholars, dancers, women teachers, academics, local young women dancers, young boys and their parents, and men & boys from 2 local aboriginal tribes. The general appearance of participants is totally mixed from 7 year olds to 70 year olds, men, boys, women and girls. From all walks of life and social backgrounds. Gender issues kick-start the Festival, are relevant in all the advertising/pre-Festival organising and during the first week, but seem to subtly be over-ridden with 'Dance/movement issues towards the second week with enquiries from women who want to be part of it and parents who thought only men and boys were involved. The people who have been for the 3 years have a 'special position' as being the 'old timers ' in the 'tribe' of dancers/movers who attend with people coming from Asia, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Gulf of Carpentaria, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania.

Practice as performance/performance as practice
What holds all the elements of performance together here, are the individual practices of each style and discipline, the individual styles being accepted and respected as part of the larger whole - the performance/Festival of Stamping Ground.
Susan Leigh Foster,(1999) in 'Dancing Bodies' Theatre and Dance Performance Analysis Selected Readings Semester 1, 1999, describes a similar ideal as aimed for in this Stamping Ground Festival when she talks of; The "hired" body: These choreographers have not developed new dance techniques to support their choreographic goals, but instead encourage dancers to train in several existing techniques without adopting the aesthetic vision of any. They require a new kind of body, competent at many styles. The new multi-talented body resulting from this training melds together features from all the techniques discussed above: it possesses the strength and flexibility found in ballet necessary to lift the leg high in all directions; it can perform any movement neutrally and pragmatically, as in Cunningham's technique; it has mastered the athleticism of contact improvisation, enabling a dancer to fall and tumble, and to support another's weight; It articulates the torso as a Graham dancer does; It has the agility of Duncan's dancers.

The analysis of movement, across all the styles on offer during the festival is related mainly to fitness and physicality across age and skill levels, not necessarily shape or fitness defined. The relationship between the individual and the group is linked to a respect for individual practices and training, quality of movement, gestures and styles. A pushing of physical ability, a sharing of found or practiced talents. A sharing of 'passion', the line is blurred between performance and practice, this is their 'life'. People are now talking of a "Stamping Ground style of movement".
Genre - grouping of performances/ritual/ceremonies/workshops according to shared characteristics identifiable within the context of socio-cultural backgrounds and dance or training practices. The subject matter - gender based issues, stereotypical observations and send-ups, media, the environment, dance/styles, movement often related to inner journeys, a spirituality and every day issues. Observable from participation over the 3 years, young women's personal styles progress with a technique based on moving with men dancers, a strength of style and physicality, not usually associated with ballet technique, noticeable among the many pre-professional/professional level young women participants who attend each year.

Shifting gender and cultural issues.
As part of a guest editorial, 'Gender and Dance' in Dance Forum Autumn/March Peter Stock (1998) writes; Hostile attitudes to male dance are endemic in the wider cultural setting and are no secret to dance men and boy students. In Australia theirs is amongst the most denigrated of vocations for males.

Gender was the dominating factor at the first Festival -'Male-Driven Dance', 'Bloke's stuff', 'Focussed on Maleness' and at the beginning of each following festival - a 'Men and Youths' Action Arts Festival - however, towards the end of the first week it is replaced by the 'dance factor' which is the over-riding dominant regime, meaning all the different facets and issues of dance-action arts take precedence within all areas of the festival from classes through 'break times' to before and after performances/ ritual/ceremonies/raves.

The gender demarcation is interesting - given that this is a 'Men's' Dance Festival - there is an ongoing special emphasis on 'for men only' workshops/daily warmups and rituals like -The Medicine Wheel and the 'Dreaming Exchange' with the politics strongly supporting Native Title ,( a signed Citizen's Statement in support of Native Title is sent out and signed at Registration Time.) with separate sessions for men and women and some Contemporary Dance classes are for men only, eg. a 'gendered body' workshop, working towards a performance, Men only warmups and men's ballet. For these classes it's important that the "men only" status remains in place, to encourage men and boys to feel free to express their movement in their own space, without having skilled young females to compare themselves to. Meaningful knowledge in the company of men and a dance community gives affirmation. Having older unskilled men seen to be 'giving it a go' and their best physical shot, is inspiring and instructional to a young boy, when the status is undiminished within the men's group dynamic. However many of the participants are women (about 1/3rd) and there are special workshops for both genders with cross-over practice areas that both attend usually in highly skilled dance areas like Contemporary Dance /Ballet /Pilates/Choreography/Physical Theatre/Body Weather /Yoga/Enrichment for Teachers/Dance Health/Pas de Deux/Choreo process.

It's a mixture of anomalies - with a 'common understanding' within the Festival that these anomalies go side by side. Women are invited to participate in the first week but this has overrun into participation over the entire length of the festival over the 3 years. There is always mixed controversy about this in the first few days (every year!) but by the end of the first week usually it's not relevant.

The Forums however are always gender-based and dealing with Men's issues from whether 'boys in ballet' to talking about 'Anger', 'Initiation', 'Maleness and Dance', 'The Art of War'. Often a forum is complemented by a performance work linked to themes of the discourse.
Janet Karin (1991:85-6) gave a discussion paper on 'The Invisible Dancer - Boys and Dance' Dance - Australian Made at the AADE National Biennial Conference. In a paper given at this conference, Karin say's that in her experience; Boys and men learning dance are attracted by:

o challenge - both physical and intellectual
o movements requiring power and co-ordination
o music - especially rhythm
o logic and analysis
o recognition of their individuality
o taking responsibility for their own progress
o the chance to show initiative
o the sense of achievement
o the opportunity for self expression

They really don't like to be decorative, to be dominated, to copy or to conform without apparent reason, to repeat without logic, or to waste time. In fact boys and men are more demanding of quality in the teaching of dance.


What is the performance/Festival about and what is it saying?
Stamping Ground is as a Product, an event that could be called, 'out of time', in it's own 'Space - Time - Continuum', within its location, space, boundaries. The framing devices are the training practices and conventions that go with those practices which can be formal and traditional. The meaning conveyed is that all men and boys have a special place in the Movement Arts showing beauty and creative skills that are respected and honoured at this Festival. The practices and skills here are to nourish young men and boys, to unlock more of their potential and make their lives richer. The connotational level of significance for the phenomena being observed is, that this is an educational event for all concerned and, with the 'ripple effect', the total web of relations, to everyone they come in contact with. Some signs which relate across the categories to create clusters of special social significance could be: interest/excitement/participation/physical endurance/thirst for knowledge/enthusiasm/respect for skills/talents/willingness/wonder/tolerance.

As an educational exercise, Adshead (1998:166) In 'An introduction to Dance Analysis', sums it up: ...describing a process which if sympathetically taught, is crucial in coming to understand dance, to appreciate it more deeply and to value it.

Despite the initial intention of it being a Festival for Men and Youths, "to create awareness of male-focussed dance" by organiser, Peter Stock, the Festival has shaped itself into what it is. The reality overcomes and crosses gender and social/ethnicity/practices/traditions making what could have been exclusive, into inclusive, with the unifying force being a celebration of dance/ movement - it's creative and physical attributes/action arts, values, imposed on the whole festival's participants.

Reasons for documentation
My reasons for documentation are that boys/youths/men can be robbed of their 'natural' movement and freedom to express through dance their creativity - this festival offers a chance to 'give it a go' whatever their movement background, with skilled role models to inspire/teach/jam/play/in the widest possible way with all forms of the action/movement arts. The only documentation that was available in the form of a 'souvenir video' produced each year by an amateur film-maker/musician (a non-dancer and non-participant), perhaps the only non-participant in the Festival except as his role of video photographer. The 'souvenir' concentrated on the showcasing of the local talents who bought his souvenir and he carefully gave everyone a bit of footage. I felt it did not adequately show the Festival for what it was, or was representing. As a student with obsessions in this area my own video footage of classes showed what the process was, the interest, focus and development over the years in these workshops. For dancers and scholars this 'process work' is more interesting. In doing this I have happily found myself in the position as on-going documentor.

As further notes - for ongoing documentation.
The time-out section is not adequately represented in my documentation. I think it has more of an important part . There are no 'personal observational notes', the notes from classes need to be added to as well, because the personal account is missing there - the little amusing asides, other than the strict training information bits, are absent. Little things are often in the video footage but unless there is some notation, it means nothing. Like the girl who, showing off after being advised not to attempt a tricky movement, sprained her knee and was grumpily in bandages for the rest of the Festival, an example for everyone to be warmed up and prepared physically before attempting certain work. Another young woman who developed glandular fever during her showcase gala to raise funds to go to full-time dance education in Sydney was reluctantly watching on the sidelines when able, after having participated for 2 years. A young man from Perth taping his bleeding feet up, because "He MUST dance!" and all the turns he loves are tearing the skin off his bare feet. The snakes - including a resident python at Memorial Hall! Notation from the men only classes, I have nothing in my documentation, because I am not privy to these events, but next time will ask someone to take notes to be added in. The after effects on the town - How the boys registrations at the local ballet school now numbers 30 boys! An amazing number for anywhere, let alone a small country village. That this Festival is now in the minds of the town people as being an acceptable thing for their boys to be attending is an example of the cultural shift taking place because of this Festival.

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