Alette Willis, lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, imparted an interesting workshop on the art of telling stories
On the weekend of 11th and 12th May, Alette Willis, author, storyteller, secretary of the Scottish Storytelling Forum and Chancellor’s Fellow in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh, imparted an interesting course to a group of 15 people on the basics of the storytellinig art.
Using as a base some of the traditional stories of The Earth Stories Collection, Dr Willis instructed participants on the techniques of memorisation and playing of stories conveyed by her master, the storyteller Shonaleigh Cumbers, possibly the last Drut’syla; that is, the traditional storyteller of the Yiddish communities in the East of Europe, a tradition that goes back many centuries.
This workshop, that was imparted in the natural environment of Prado Negro, in Granada, Spain, in the Avalon Home, became a true breakthrough for most of participants, due to led them to discover some aspects of storytelling that they never thought could be found in something as simple as telling a myth, a legend or a folktale. In fact, quite a few people in the group were deeply moved by the way in which the story they had selected to learn to tell connected with intimate, deeply emotional aspects of their own personal history.
In short, the workshop meant a beautiful experience for the participants, as well as a valuable learning for their work as educators or therapists or storytellers.
This workshop was possible thanks to the sponsorship of the University of Granada, through its Faculty of Education Sciences, which generously supported this activity.