musical mud stomp - Global Ecovillage Network

Description of Challenge

Dance and festivity has been separated from building / construction due to over-emphasis of specialisation and modern building techniques. Dance has been relegated to dance halls and building has been relegated to builders, however both are innate instincts that we all need to honour in each of us, from toddlers through to elders.

The world's best building material is directly under our feet and all we need to do to recognise its potential, is to dance on it.

Solution

Community members take on roles of a team and deploy community organising strategies to organise and host festive musical mud stomps during the warm weather in locations accessible to many people of all ages. These events blend entertainment and community service and are made up of audience, dancers, acoustic music and drum orchestras, food preparers/servers. Theatrics are woven into the performance piece. The goal is to give people experiences of witnessing strength in numbers on their own terms, either as audience members or participating performers. The mud mixed and homogenised by the barefoot mud stompers is used to build with – either as rammed earth, cob, mud brick or other earth masonry method. The dance connects many memories to the mud/building material and therefore the structure that is built. It provides another avenue for dance and music, beyond pure entertainment.

David Mitsak says

April 23, 2017 at 1:25 am

To put on a barefoot mud stomping dance production there are both muddy and non muddy roles. Non muddy include audience, music and food. The muddy barefoot mud stompers will be learning and demonstrating (like in a cooking show) the recipe for a building material that has been used for building some of the worlds oldest, best buildings, settlements and homes. They will be getting a feel for it and the audience will get the visual feel for it and the squelchy sounds of it and the earthy smells.The barefoot mud stomping dance simultaneously -creates a better building material -for the builders, cooks and chefs – because we are going to make some stoves here, while simultaneously providing our musicians, choreographers, drummers, singers, and audience members – with real life dancers to inspire, accompany, entertain and provide new rhyme and reason to play, clap, cheer and join in.

Another part of the equation is food and serving food. Not just help yourself food arrangements- but serving food- creating a transaction of give and receive. Therefore this dance building dance must also be given credit for giving the gardeners cooks and servers more reason to plant, cut, prepare, cook, and serve. When we do our stomp we will be looking for people to fill all roles. Food like music is a fuel for this dance, this production. Food is tied closely into time and timing – through our body clock and cyclic rhythm.

Start with self.
A goal of this production is to squeeze as much good vibes, fun, music and memories into each square inch of building material. And since we are going to such extraordinary lengths to put all this good stuff into our building material, we should start with putting our best good vibes into our own bodies. So everyone close your eyes and we are going to charge our bodies with the smiling vibration, the inner smile. (1 minute guided meditation) So really we should start with ourselves and build from there.

All the senses immersed to combat distraction deficit.

Building AND Dance and food. All in one. Simultaneously, seamlessly, paradoxically synchronised and intertwined and blended. This experience can be created by ordinary people. It is designed to stimulate all the senses together at once and act as medicine for our distraction deficit disorder. Besides -taste, touch, smell, hear, see…the famous 5, we also want to activate our sense of rhythm, our sense of humour, our sense of teamwork, sense of fun, the 6th sense, our sense of balance and harmony, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, and a sense of belonging.

Crossing over from audience

The barefoot mud stompers and their accompanying performers are creating a new kind of entertainment which includes an obligation-free invitation to join in. Our audience is not only invited and encouraged to cross over the line into the performance, but also expected to. We totally expect some of you to cross that line, on your own accord of course. No coercion necessary. Not that there’s anything wrong with remaining in your seat as the audience -as audiences in the traditional sense of the modern definition of the word do- in fact staying seated and watching is encouraged and supported equally as much as any other role. It’s just that the freedom lies with you-whether to stay in your seat and enjoy the show as observer and applause-provider, or to join in as an active participant at any point whenever you feel like it. From the audience perspective you are also invited to look for ways that this performance can be enhanced, and then be that change that you wish to see.

Dance building -dance ……building. With food.

Artististic statement

The artistic statement of the barefoot mud stomping dance or the musical mud stomp is: (what if) the worlds best building material is directly under out feet – and all we need do to realise its potential is to dance on it. (To the sounds of music and the smells of fire and cooking)

Best building material

Let’s break it down. The worlds best building material. By best we mean:
-weirdest – we like mud’s weird factor. -mud is considered both dirty and clean – it makes money for the soap companies -yet its used in spas to clean the pores of our skin from the inside out and draw out heavy metal toxins because its magnetic. Mud baths fetch a pretty penny. Mud is affiliated with the some of the weirdest words- some of which don’t even qualify as real words. gloopy, gloppy, sloppy, squishy, mushy mooshy, icky, ooey, gooey. As far as a building material its the most misunderstood, un-understood. unknown, best kept secret – It’s a bit like when surfers find the next best undiscovered surfing beach that has waves that have been rolling in since the beginning of time-with locals who don’t surf – its not just the waves that make it the new best surfing beach, its the combination of the waves and the unknown-ness of these waves. With mud, its the mystery and confusion around why this amazing building material has somehow been hidden from us for so long, (while sitting directly under our feet and all around us at all times) especially in this “Information Age,” that adds to its allure and bestness. The fact that our diligent, robotic, nerdy, technocratic, all seeing, all knowing, and open-sourced world has somehow missed something as phenomenal and simple as this, makes for an exciting glitch in the matrix. The lack of answers as to why there is such a great hole of understanding of such greatness is great in of itself. The layman can gain enough knowledge in a hands-on weekend workshop to go up against life long industry leaders -both the hands on kind and the theoretical kind, and give them a run for their money-especially if we are talking environmental sustainability.
Now lets look at the fun funky music and dance component of the equation. If music and dance is the thing that we use to unlock the power of the earth beneath our feet to make this superior, funky building material then this is a call to action to find our choreographers, musicians, singers and dancers and bring them to this cause. The barefoot mud stomping dance stands to expand the status and purpose of music beyond the ethereal world that governs imagination, emotion and thoughts and give it a seat at the table of the physical, material, functional world that gives us walls, furniture and cooking appliances. Musical mud stomps make music the key component to alchemising physical materials into a building material to build with. We will create a new kind of dance with a new kind of thinking that comes with a new kind of crazy that makes so much sense. Its a new kind of dancing that has all the same good things as all the old kinds of dancing – all the same amount of silly looking moves, the same amount of rhythm and style or lack thereof, the same amount of possible movements and infinite possibilities, the same amount of potential passion and carefree-ness and dexterity and subtleties, – all of what the old kinds of dancing offers but with a new surface to dance on, and with dancing on this new surface if you can call a mud pit a surface, things will be different. Things will be different once we include mud on the list of things to dance on. Dance becomes altruistic too. Dance becomes an action of the do-gooders, the charitable., the act of dancing becomes generous and kind. Music and dance has always been the secret key to humanity -part of what makes humans special. We all know about the beauty of music and of its healing power. We know what music and dance does to our soul and how it feeds our spirit. We’ve all heard about dancing away our cares-What are some of the cares that dancing can erase? Lets create a list. Music and dance can erase virtually all (these listed) cares. The limits of what dance and music can do for us correspond to the scope of what surfaces we dance on. Until now there have been limits to what cares we can dance away, just as there have been limits to what we dance on. Mud is not an accepted material to dance on..yet. And that is our job. To normalise dancing on mud so that we can expand the list of cares that we can dance away.. Once we start dancing on mud we’ll be able to dance away more cares. We are all used to dancing on wood, concrete, tiles, carpet, sand at the beach, grass at the park at the concert and Lionel Ritchie talks about dancing on the ceiling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovo6zwv6DX4. Some of us even know about dancing on grapes to make wine. On any given evening, in any given continent and any given city or town we’re likely to find a whole bunch of humans dancing on these surfaces and dancing away a long list of cares. Now if we add mud to the list of surfaces that we dance on – Icky ooey gooey gloopy mud-once we cross over into accepting mud as a legitimate surface to dance on then we can take the idea of dancing away our cares- to the next level. The barefoot mud stomping dance holds the promise of not only dancing away all the problems and cares that dancing has traditionally been associated with dancing away, – but it also holds the promise of being able to dance away some of the main problems and cares that we don’t normally associate dance with being able to dance away. There are some problems that we have not been able to dance away until now. Previously we’ve been able to dance away the stress of unpaid shelter bills, temporarily but we haven’t been able to dance away that problem long term. In other words, at the end of our dance, we typically still have our mortgage and rent bills waiting for us and they might have even gotten bigger in the meantime. Barefoot mud stomping offers the possibility of dancing away that problem long term because we are dancing our way into and through the process of creating shelter or its main components. We are going to dance the bricks and mortar of the walls of a house into existence. We can also dance into existence the floors and some of the furniture and appliances such as stove, oven and fireplace. All together this can make up the majority of the costs of a house….and if we combine this with some other cost saving measures, things can start looking lighter and brighter.

Prepare to build, then focus on dance, and the building will come.

The building of structures part is a part of the vision -its part of the dream- in a more longer term sense, but for the short term, as in right now, lets forget about building structures a bit. We’ll leave that in our back pocket for now. Before we get too carried away with building dreams, lets dance…. in an altruistic way, in a nerdy way, in a building way. Put on your bare feet and dance, for the cause. Talking too much of buildings too early on, might scare away the singers, and song writers, and the choreographers and dancers and performers and the audience. (Building is not entertaining) And we don’t want that. We want them to stay. Over time we have separated dance from building and now they seem to be on opposite ends of the field -almost enemies. We will bring them back together as unified allies fighting for the same cause, but little be little. So, for the dance of the reality of-the here and now-plan, we want to focus on injecting as much song and dance into our mud -to differentiate our mud from any other mud out there. We want to create the most musically and humanly infused mud as far as the eyes can see. We want to create the most danced on, song and chant infused mud as far as the nose has ever smelled. We want to create the most good vibes and happy memory infused mud and music- as far as the ears can hear, for as far back and forward as our memories can remember. Lots of long lasting memories. Thats what we are here to create. And building something and completing it will help us do that, so yes we will be building something and whatever that becomes will depend upon how much we dance. Let’s focus on our dance and music and good vibes and make it the best. Also the more we dance on the mud, the more homogenised it becomes or the more well mixed in becomes. The more well mixed it is, the stronger it is as a building material – so the stronger our building becomes.

Comments

David Mitsak says

April 23, 2017 at 1:25 am

To put on a barefoot mud stomping dance production there are both muddy and non muddy roles. Non muddy include audience, music and food. The muddy barefoot mud stompers will be learning and demonstrating (like in a cooking show) the recipe for a building material that has been used for building some of the worlds oldest, best buildings, settlements and homes. They will be getting a feel for it and the audience will get the visual feel for it and the squelchy sounds of it and the earthy smells.The barefoot mud stomping dance simultaneously -creates a better building material -for the builders, cooks and chefs – because we are going to make some stoves here, while simultaneously providing our musicians, choreographers, drummers, singers, and audience members – with real life dancers to inspire, accompany, entertain and provide new rhyme and reason to play, clap, cheer and join in.

Another part of the equation is food and serving food. Not just help yourself food arrangements- but serving food- creating a transaction of give and receive. Therefore this dance building dance must also be given credit for giving the gardeners cooks and servers more reason to plant, cut, prepare, cook, and serve. When we do our stomp we will be looking for people to fill all roles. Food like music is a fuel for this dance, this production. Food is tied closely into time and timing – through our body clock and cyclic rhythm.

Start with self.
A goal of this production is to squeeze as much good vibes, fun, music and memories into each square inch of building material. And since we are going to such extraordinary lengths to put all this good stuff into our building material, we should start with putting our best good vibes into our own bodies. So everyone close your eyes and we are going to charge our bodies with the smiling vibration, the inner smile. (1 minute guided meditation) So really we should start with ourselves and build from there.

All the senses immersed to combat distraction deficit.

Building AND Dance and food. All in one. Simultaneously, seamlessly, paradoxically synchronised and intertwined and blended. This experience can be created by ordinary people. It is designed to stimulate all the senses together at once and act as medicine for our distraction deficit disorder. Besides -taste, touch, smell, hear, see…the famous 5, we also want to activate our sense of rhythm, our sense of humour, our sense of teamwork, sense of fun, the 6th sense, our sense of balance and harmony, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, and a sense of belonging.

Crossing over from audience

The barefoot mud stompers and their accompanying performers are creating a new kind of entertainment which includes an obligation-free invitation to join in. Our audience is not only invited and encouraged to cross over the line into the performance, but also expected to. We totally expect some of you to cross that line, on your own accord of course. No coercion necessary. Not that there’s anything wrong with remaining in your seat as the audience -as audiences in the traditional sense of the modern definition of the word do- in fact staying seated and watching is encouraged and supported equally as much as any other role. It’s just that the freedom lies with you-whether to stay in your seat and enjoy the show as observer and applause-provider, or to join in as an active participant at any point whenever you feel like it. From the audience perspective you are also invited to look for ways that this performance can be enhanced, and then be that change that you wish to see.

Dance building -dance ……building. With food.

Artististic statement

The artistic statement of the barefoot mud stomping dance or the musical mud stomp is: (what if) the worlds best building material is directly under out feet – and all we need do to realise its potential is to dance on it. (To the sounds of music and the smells of fire and cooking)

Best building material

Let’s break it down. The worlds best building material. By best we mean:
-weirdest – we like mud’s weird factor. -mud is considered both dirty and clean – it makes money for the soap companies -yet its used in spas to clean the pores of our skin from the inside out and draw out heavy metal toxins because its magnetic. Mud baths fetch a pretty penny. Mud is affiliated with the some of the weirdest words- some of which don’t even qualify as real words. gloopy, gloppy, sloppy, squishy, mushy mooshy, icky, ooey, gooey. As far as a building material its the most misunderstood, un-understood. unknown, best kept secret – It’s a bit like when surfers find the next best undiscovered surfing beach that has waves that have been rolling in since the beginning of time-with locals who don’t surf – its not just the waves that make it the new best surfing beach, its the combination of the waves and the unknown-ness of these waves. With mud, its the mystery and confusion around why this amazing building material has somehow been hidden from us for so long, (while sitting directly under our feet and all around us at all times) especially in this “Information Age,” that adds to its allure and bestness. The fact that our diligent, robotic, nerdy, technocratic, all seeing, all knowing, and open-sourced world has somehow missed something as phenomenal and simple as this, makes for an exciting glitch in the matrix. The lack of answers as to why there is such a great hole of understanding of such greatness is great in of itself. The layman can gain enough knowledge in a hands-on weekend workshop to go up against life long industry leaders -both the hands on kind and the theoretical kind, and give them a run for their money-especially if we are talking environmental sustainability.
Now lets look at the fun funky music and dance component of the equation. If music and dance is the thing that we use to unlock the power of the earth beneath our feet to make this superior, funky building material then this is a call to action to find our choreographers, musicians, singers and dancers and bring them to this cause. The barefoot mud stomping dance stands to expand the status and purpose of music beyond the ethereal world that governs imagination, emotion and thoughts and give it a seat at the table of the physical, material, functional world that gives us walls, furniture and cooking appliances. Musical mud stomps make music the key component to alchemising physical materials into a building material to build with. We will create a new kind of dance with a new kind of thinking that comes with a new kind of crazy that makes so much sense. Its a new kind of dancing that has all the same good things as all the old kinds of dancing – all the same amount of silly looking moves, the same amount of rhythm and style or lack thereof, the same amount of possible movements and infinite possibilities, the same amount of potential passion and carefree-ness and dexterity and subtleties, – all of what the old kinds of dancing offers but with a new surface to dance on, and with dancing on this new surface if you can call a mud pit a surface, things will be different. Things will be different once we include mud on the list of things to dance on. Dance becomes altruistic too. Dance becomes an action of the do-gooders, the charitable., the act of dancing becomes generous and kind. Music and dance has always been the secret key to humanity -part of what makes humans special. We all know about the beauty of music and of its healing power. We know what music and dance does to our soul and how it feeds our spirit. We’ve all heard about dancing away our cares-What are some of the cares that dancing can erase? Lets create a list. Music and dance can erase virtually all (these listed) cares. The limits of what dance and music can do for us correspond to the scope of what surfaces we dance on. Until now there have been limits to what cares we can dance away, just as there have been limits to what we dance on. Mud is not an accepted material to dance on..yet. And that is our job. To normalise dancing on mud so that we can expand the list of cares that we can dance away.. Once we start dancing on mud we’ll be able to dance away more cares. We are all used to dancing on wood, concrete, tiles, carpet, sand at the beach, grass at the park at the concert and Lionel Ritchie talks about dancing on the ceiling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovo6zwv6DX4. Some of us even know about dancing on grapes to make wine. On any given evening, in any given continent and any given city or town we’re likely to find a whole bunch of humans dancing on these surfaces and dancing away a long list of cares. Now if we add mud to the list of surfaces that we dance on – Icky ooey gooey gloopy mud-once we cross over into accepting mud as a legitimate surface to dance on then we can take the idea of dancing away our cares- to the next level. The barefoot mud stomping dance holds the promise of not only dancing away all the problems and cares that dancing has traditionally been associated with dancing away, – but it also holds the promise of being able to dance away some of the main problems and cares that we don’t normally associate dance with being able to dance away. There are some problems that we have not been able to dance away until now. Previously we’ve been able to dance away the stress of unpaid shelter bills, temporarily but we haven’t been able to dance away that problem long term. In other words, at the end of our dance, we typically still have our mortgage and rent bills waiting for us and they might have even gotten bigger in the meantime. Barefoot mud stomping offers the possibility of dancing away that problem long term because we are dancing our way into and through the process of creating shelter or its main components. We are going to dance the bricks and mortar of the walls of a house into existence. We can also dance into existence the floors and some of the furniture and appliances such as stove, oven and fireplace. All together this can make up the majority of the costs of a house….and if we combine this with some other cost saving measures, things can start looking lighter and brighter.

Prepare to build, then focus on dance, and the building will come.

The building of structures part is a part of the vision -its part of the dream- in a more longer term sense, but for the short term, as in right now, lets forget about building structures a bit. We’ll leave that in our back pocket for now. Before we get too carried away with building dreams, lets dance…. in an altruistic way, in a nerdy way, in a building way. Put on your bare feet and dance, for the cause. Talking too much of buildings too early on, might scare away the singers, and song writers, and the choreographers and dancers and performers and the audience. (Building is not entertaining) And we don’t want that. We want them to stay. Over time we have separated dance from building and now they seem to be on opposite ends of the field -almost enemies. We will bring them back together as unified allies fighting for the same cause, but little be little. So, for the dance of the reality of-the here and now-plan, we want to focus on injecting as much song and dance into our mud -to differentiate our mud from any other mud out there. We want to create the most musically and humanly infused mud as far as the eyes can see. We want to create the most danced on, song and chant infused mud as far as the nose has ever smelled. We want to create the most good vibes and happy memory infused mud and music- as far as the ears can hear, for as far back and forward as our memories can remember. Lots of long lasting memories. Thats what we are here to create. And building something and completing it will help us do that, so yes we will be building something and whatever that becomes will depend upon how much we dance. Let’s focus on our dance and music and good vibes and make it the best. Also the more we dance on the mud, the more homogenised it becomes or the more well mixed in becomes. The more well mixed it is, the stronger it is as a building material – so the stronger our building becomes.

Elyssa M Serrilli says

April 24, 2017 at 7:52 pm

Way to go, David… keeping it muddy, brightening hearts!

johanna ide says

May 10, 2017 at 6:36 pm

yes, here it is….
thanking you for the inspiration,it is what i have already been doing–alone!!
adding cactusgel, its a very potent component of my muddy hut, a green jelly slimy and stinking stuff that enforces my little walls… i suppose you already know this? cutting the thick green leaves of the cactus fig tree and leaving them in water for one month.. so i’ll keep dancing, hoping for some friends to join in this wonderful experience.. then to spalm it on the woven structure of olive and other woods, what a joyful “work”!!
keep dancing

hoping to meet you soon