Australia Dancing - Stamping Ground Dance Festival (1997

Stamping Ground Dance Festival (1997 - 2005)

Markstein, Ela: Ritual preparation, riverside at Bellingen, New South Wales, Stamping Ground Dance Festival, 2002

Stamping Ground Dance Festival was held annually in January from 1997 to 2005 in Bellingen, New South Wales. Founded by Peter Stock, the Festival was a celebration of male dance and the action arts. Stamping Ground functioned on artistic, social, ritualistic, mentoring and educational levels and was billed as 'a gathering for all men and youths illuminating the athletic and creative qualities of the movement arts... questioning the ownership of the dance and challenging destructive ideas, fears and compulsory attitudes which inhibit the personal development of men.'

The Festival incorporated public performances, workshops, courses, events, ceremonies and revelry across a range of dance forms including ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap, funk, street dance - and a broad range of other movement arts such as contact improvisation, experiential movement, martial arts, fire working skills, circus acrobatics, stunt and sword work. Stamping Ground presented courses and workshops by Australian dance professionals including Patrick Harding-Irmer, John Utans and Gerard van Dyck. These resulted in a series of performance works shown throughout the festival.

Following the final Stamping Ground Festival in 2005, Travers Ross instigated a festival in Coffs Harbour that developed initially into the Intensive Festival and more recently into the Utopian Dream Festival, taking place from January 2009. Ross was a participant in every Stamping Ground Festival, initially as a young dancer and later as a teacher. He featured in the ABC television documentary Australian Story based on the 2002 Stamping Ground Festival. Utopian Dream is conceived as a multicultural dance festival with international professional choreographers of diverse dance styles ranging across ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap, Latin, Bollywood, street styles, indigenous dance styles and circus skills.

See also: Harding-Irmer, Patrick

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