Road to Stamping Ground

I found The Road to the Stamping Ground video very interesting. I found myself very intrigued by the Aboriginal culture to say the least. I really enjoyed watching Jiri Kylián’s point of view on how he wanted to bring out Aboriginal culture into a modern ballet dance, he comes off as a very passionate choreographer. I like how he mentioned about how the Aboriginal dances are tied with nature, then watching Kylian’s Stamping ground performance he tied the two together in a beautiful and modern way yet you can still see the Aboriginal culture tied in as well. As I watched The Road to the Stamping Ground, I noticed how it was very important to Kylian to bring out his vision in such a way that didn’t separate nature and culture from the dance itself and he did a great job at it. I was reminded of nature by the dancers in the form of different animals, the way they moved, jumped and simultaneously danced together. Now the Aboriginal culture has carried their passion of dance from their ancestors and have passed it down from generation to generation, but in a sacred trust for over 40,000 years, it’s a way of life for them. What I got from watching Jiri Kylian narrate this, is he did not want to steal from their culture, instead he had a vision of tying them together in a respectful way, that I cannot imagine having such a vision myself, he was truly inspired by their culture. He went further than just their dance, he told the story of their culture, which is what I believe interested me the most. He explained where it originated from, he explained their way of life, and he showed off their passion. It’s not something he had to do by any means, if he really wanted to, he could have left the Aboriginal culture out, but not only did he want to bring it out into ballet, he wanted the Aboriginal culture recognized. He even said it himself, he did not want to imitate nor rob them but he was truly inspired by them. He really wanted their passion and way of life to be