On this page you'll find
a report on "Stix & Stones"
by choreographer,
Christos Linou
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Stix and stones
testosterone in boys and men
by
Christos Linou, Choreographer / Director / Performer
performed at 6th annual Stamping Ground - Friday 11 January 2002
All encompassing and physically invigorating....
With Sticks And stones I developed new methods and frameworks for presenting workshops
with a performance outcome. The premise
of the workshop was to create a platform for men and boys to talk about their experiences
and circumstances of bullying and violent behavior.
These talks were referenced to increase physical awareness of our bodies when we
are caught in challenging circumstances. Through gestures and actions in the trust
games, we examined school yard bullying and father to son bullying behaviors. With
this framework I was able to establish a daily rhetoric regarding the analysis of
this theme. I created a trusting workshop environment, which was represented in the
intimates ritual base formula of the final performance.
The basic structure of the workshop was designed around trust games and body warm-up
exercises. Within these exercises I was creating the possible performance scenarios.
We executed the same trust games each day, which helped the participants to develop
a familiar sense of their actions, expanding their physical vocabulary and allowing
them to gain confidence with their bodies and confidence in working with other male
bodies. From the discussions of participants stories and personal experiences I reflected
these with the actions from the trust games and shaped the work from a mixture of
stories This area was also the opportunity for me to cast certain participants in
particular character roles, highlighted in the performance. In particular, who is
seen as dominate and passive.
When I approached the participants about the work being performed, most were anxious
and not comfortable about performing workshop tasks. I found that I had to guide
them through the tasks, which they gained much confidence and realised that the games
developed were possible scenarios in everyday life, which would be played out and
presented in performance. There were wonderful breakthroughs in the attitude of both
the boys and men in the workshop. Initially I was discouraged by the negative approach,
with boys and men dropping in and out for the first few workshops. They did not perceive
the idea as being manly or macho enough to take part, they thought it was too whimsy
or poofy to be part of this form of physical /dance workshop. This is understandable
because the very nature of the work is designed to examine passive and violent behavior
in men and boys some did not want to deal with issues regarding bullying and personal
experiences
The workshop operated on various levels and presented a multitude of situations,
a fun and energetic movement / dance class, a rehearsal space in preparation for
performance, a platform to discuss bullying behaviors in boys and men as well as
examining testosterone as a scientific chemical reaction in the male body. At times
the subject matter was to hard for some participants to grasp. I did however encourage
the boys who came to the workshops to remain and allow the trust of the workshop
to develop the projects ideas. Often I said it's going to be a lot of fun, lots of
physical action, beating up adults, having your story heard, fighting games, hip
hop dance moves. Eventually the workshop numbers had been defined to 9 participants
(4 boys and 4 men) plus myself. This turned out to be very successful given the amount
of contact time I had to develop the workshop and performance (12 hours). Within
the small group we created an intimate physical theatre story telling performance
through to a personalized and ritual space, which may have not been so intimate if
the numbers exceeded 12.
Testosterone discussions were light as the participants were not sure of the scientific
study in the area. I continued to explain the effects of testosterone and how it
can direct action, along with demonstrating in role playing games being able to control
this testosterone agent and use its adrenaline to work creatively through the body
as opposed to creating a violent situation. Primarily it came down to how a man or
a boy could release this physically energy.
I explained the basics in testosterone behavior and the release of chemicals in the
body, which can be determined according to the need to feel challenged and positioning
yourself in the ranking system. Either you can be the king or slave. The issues of
pecking order were clearly defined, along with the needs of men and boys to be physically
vigorous. Most of the time when the boys were challenging one another, they also
entered vigorous wrestling and fighting actions, which were always monitored and
stopped when the actions could cause harm. I used the natural play fighting activities
of the boys in the workshop to base some of the examples on. A lot of the time the
boys were disruptive and the adults were becoming impatient with their wild activity,
because of the nature of a short concentration time in boys, within 10 minutes they
would begin disrupting the class by teasing each another, bully and eventually fight
and there would always be a pecking order established. I explained this in the workshop
of this phenomenon in boys and began looking at the reason why there is bullying
and the acceptance of the position in the rank of the group. Later the boys had realised
that what they were doing was negative behavior and the general disobedience in the
workshop subsided and the boys concentrated and went on to present an excellent performance
interpretation of the theme. The averages age boys 9 years old and the adults 30
years old.
A main focus was, avoid violent actions and find creative physical outlets.
Allow for the ranking system to establish itself when in the company of angry men,
avoiding violent behavior and create creative physical challenges, like dance and
sport to release testosterone. The many comments and discussions have confirmed that
this examination of behavior in men and boys is something which can be rationalized,
that it opens the possibility of creating new methods in dealing with issues of bulling
and violent behavior. The men in the workshop were profoundly touched by the short
time we all had together and the trust created in areas which previously may have
seemed confronting and frustrating. Men quoted they will be less strict and let boys
be a little more chaotic.