In the Spring of 2014, I spotted a post on Facebook by ALBA an organisation for Storytelling for Healing. They were hosting a week long symposium for Storytelling for Healing, "Tree of Life" in the Summer, in Karjaa, in the South of Finland. It's the town where my husband grew up, so we had visited many times.
I looked at the details - it was all in English - I recognised the names and faces of some of the workshop leaders and, although this was an area of storytelling unfamiliar to me - or maybe BECAUSE it was so unfamiliar - I liked the look of it - but it wasn't really affordable to me.
Then I met Maria Serrano, known as Maria Storytelling, when she came to the story cafe. She mentioned that I should consider going to the symposium and I told her that my finances were strapped. "Well", she said, "if you join ALBA before our AGM, we will be having a prize draw for all our members and the prize is free attendance to the symposium - you would only need to pay for your accommodation."
"How much is membership?"
"Only €20"
How could I resist? I joined ALBA
I couldn't go the AGM as it clashed with a 2 day workshop with Claire Hewitt, visiting from Scotland. Also at the workshop was Anna-Maria Toivonen, a folk singer turned storyteller, who had worked with Claire at the Medieval market - bilingual stories.
After the workshop, and a catchup in the pub, the three of us walked home along the river. They went off to the shop and I headed on. I had just left them when my phone rang. It was Maria Serrano
"How did the AGM go?"
"you won!"
"what??"
"Congratulations, you won the prize draw, see you at the Tree of Life!"
I was on my own, I was grinning, I must have looked like a complete lunatic! I couldn't decide whether to run back to the shop and squeal with the girls like a teenager or what to do, so I just stopped where I was. It turned out I was at a bus stop and a bus pulled in... so I got on and went home.
I secured funding from the Finnish-British Society for my accommodation and off I went....
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Thursday, 27 August 2015
There was once a woman in search of something...
In October 2010, in a preview of Turku's year as European City of Culture in 2011, there was a storytelling festival called Nordic Voices.
Some friends had been to a couple of events and were really impressed, so I took myself along the finale event - and evening of storytelling with 10 storytellers from Northern Europe. Each told a story, mostly in their own language - including Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Greenlandic Inuit and English.
I am not a linguist, I struggle with Finnish, which is the language of my chosen home country, despite learning it on and off since 1996. However, I understood every one of those stories.
It was a cold evening and the venue was by the river. I remember it so well. When the weather is really cold, the river runs slow and dark and the water is smooth - the reflections from the apartments and the power station across the river are almost perfect. Walking home from the performance I was full - full of stories, full of joy and excitement and my head was buzzing with ideas - I could do this! I can tell stories, I can share the joy of storytelling with other people, the language is not the most important thing, it's the image you create with your voice, your expressions, your body language - that's where the stories come from.
I had discovered something I could do in Finland without needing Finnish!
That same week, I attended two workshop days intended for teachers but as I am not a teacher, I left it to fate and chose the workshop group with the least people attending. It was run by Claire Hewitt, an English storyteller based in Scotland. We played storytelling games and we made a bag from felt - handcrafting while we listened and told.
Claire and I struck up a friendship and she has become my Mentor in this journey.
And so it began.... I simply told all my friends and family that I was going to be a storyteller and I started telling stories - as simple as that!
At every opportunity I listened to English storytellers and attended workshops when available. I talked to people working with stories, storytellers and storytelling festivals. I began hosting a monthly story cafe where anyone could come and share stories in a any language.
Every now & then, when other English speaking Storytellers were visiting, I would arrange formal and informal performances and sharings.
After a while I started going into schools and telling stories in English to children who were native speakers, or were learning English. These sessions expanded into Storytelling clubs for students to practice storytelling skills. In the last year or so I have begun running storytelling workshops for teachers who would like to use storytelling in language (and other) classes.
So, what next....
Some friends had been to a couple of events and were really impressed, so I took myself along the finale event - and evening of storytelling with 10 storytellers from Northern Europe. Each told a story, mostly in their own language - including Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Greenlandic Inuit and English.
I am not a linguist, I struggle with Finnish, which is the language of my chosen home country, despite learning it on and off since 1996. However, I understood every one of those stories.
It was a cold evening and the venue was by the river. I remember it so well. When the weather is really cold, the river runs slow and dark and the water is smooth - the reflections from the apartments and the power station across the river are almost perfect. Walking home from the performance I was full - full of stories, full of joy and excitement and my head was buzzing with ideas - I could do this! I can tell stories, I can share the joy of storytelling with other people, the language is not the most important thing, it's the image you create with your voice, your expressions, your body language - that's where the stories come from.
I had discovered something I could do in Finland without needing Finnish!
That same week, I attended two workshop days intended for teachers but as I am not a teacher, I left it to fate and chose the workshop group with the least people attending. It was run by Claire Hewitt, an English storyteller based in Scotland. We played storytelling games and we made a bag from felt - handcrafting while we listened and told.
Claire and I struck up a friendship and she has become my Mentor in this journey.
And so it began.... I simply told all my friends and family that I was going to be a storyteller and I started telling stories - as simple as that!
At every opportunity I listened to English storytellers and attended workshops when available. I talked to people working with stories, storytellers and storytelling festivals. I began hosting a monthly story cafe where anyone could come and share stories in a any language.
Every now & then, when other English speaking Storytellers were visiting, I would arrange formal and informal performances and sharings.
After a while I started going into schools and telling stories in English to children who were native speakers, or were learning English. These sessions expanded into Storytelling clubs for students to practice storytelling skills. In the last year or so I have begun running storytelling workshops for teachers who would like to use storytelling in language (and other) classes.
So, what next....
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