2009 Spinning tales - weaving hope
July 26th till August 1st 2009 in Denmark
This will be the third symposium in a tradition that started in Järna in Sweden in 2005, when Inger Lise Oelrich arranged the first 'International symposium for storytelling as a healing art'. We were about 120 participants from 32 contries who had gathered for a week to discuss and learn about this special path for storytelling.
We talked, we laughed, we cried, we went through all sorts of emotions and we decided to meet again and again, sharing our interest in spreading the knowledge and learning about what stories can do when they are taken in different directions.
See the desciptions of the previous meetings.
We welcome all who are interested in 'Storytelling as a healing art'
WORKSHOPS
1. Alexander MacKenzie: Parcifal and Personal Leadership in Business
2. Bente Klerke, Denmark: Creating healing Stories
3. Inger Lise Oelrich, Sweden: Healing words: Revitalizing the earth through story
4. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, USA. Community Healing
5. Nancy Mellon, USA: The Eloquence of the the Body
6. Roi Gal-Or, Israel/England: The Doors of Perception
Karsten Mathiasen, Denmark: Storytelling about Forgiveness, every day
Klezmerduo, music, dancing - mornings
Symposium leader: Marianne Christensen
1. Parsival and Personal Leadership in Business
The story of the Parsival Quest is an ancient myth of Pan European origin. It tells the story of a journey of an idealistic young man
who is beset by the troubles of the world as soon as he decides what he wants to do with his life. Difficult decisions and
disappointments characterise his journey to the castle of the Holy Grail and beyond.
As a metaphor for Personal Leadership it provides an excellent framework for exploring contemporary issues of success,
recognition and wealth in a business environment. This workshop is highly experiential and focuses on what drives us internally
and externally to achieve what we want in our worklife.
Workshop leader: Alexander Mackenzie is Managing Director of Parable UK Ltd. Parable has been an independent consultancy since 1994 offering Storytelling within a business context.
Alexander's background is as a professional storyteller, care manager for challenging youth and a teacher before becoming a business consultant. The essence of all Parable programmes is based on experiential learning that combines head, heart and practical application of the arts in Business.
2. Creating healing Stories
The universal language of storytelling offers us images of transforming power.
We will search in myths and folktales, and listen to the sounds and the silence of the landscape, to find healing images for new stories.
Out of this we will try to create enlivening stories for our present lifesituations, questions and tasks; and stories to transform specific troubles in childrens lives - nightmares, fear for spiders, spite in the school, or whatever we wish to address.
Workshop leader: Bente Klerke, Denmark, is a storyteller and a Waldorf teacher. Besides this she works as a
voice therapist with the healing power of the voice. Has since 1985 worked with children, youths and adults, in the field of theatre, dance, singing and storytelling - as a teacher, therapist and artist. My intention is, through creative processes, to form a space where each individual's power of creating can be expressed.
3. Healing words: Revitalizing the earth through story
Today we have an environmental crisis that comes out of our lost connection with the living earth. The symptoms are manifold: depression, anxiety, pollution, truancy, conflict, just to name a few. Fixing it from the outside is not enough. As human beings, however, we have a core relationship to the earth as our birthright. This means we carry within us true knowledge of how to help. But how to access it?
Every human being can develop their inner connection to the earth as a living being, thereby strengthening the individual´s health and the vitality of the planet. A potent way of doing this is through storytelling and the spoken word with the faculties this entails. During this workshop we will explore the natural surroundings of Marjatta, working with creative imagination, spontaneous storytelling and old folktales. Listening to the voice of the earth can help us become co-creators of a future full of potential and promise.
Workshop leader: Inger Lise Oelrich, Sweden, is a theatre director and storyteller, working with creativity and storytelling in adult education for the past 25 years within theatre, education and businesslife. Besides a love of telling stories, she travels widely giving workshops and talks on storytelling as a healing, helping art in many walks of life. Inger Lise has initiated several international symposia, recently “Storytelling as a Pathway to Peace? 2007 in Sweden and is the founder of “Storytelling for Life?, ALBA and a new nordic part-time training for healing storytellers. More text here
4. Community healing
The workshop will consider how group participation in story shapes community identity, using examples from the
Coastal Salish of British Columbia in their revival of their spirit possession winter ceremonial complex and the stories supporting that and in the use of stories to support communities who have reduced diabetes or become relatively free from the harmful effects of alcohol and drug abuse.
We will explore the indigenous world view in which our personal identities are shaped from the collective and
community stories which tell us how to see the world and how to act to perform the roles into which we have been born, have been assigned, or have taken on. We will see the greater power of story when it is enacted symbolically
(through sacred objects) in community with coherent and connected participants for the purpose of everyone's healing.
Workshop leader: Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, MPhil, USA/Canada
For full information about this workshop read this.
Learn more about Lewis Mehl-Madrona ->
5. The eloquence of the Body
With a look at recent scientific evidence, learn a practical approach to self-transformation through the wise old art of storytelling.
Discover how to speak to and from heart, liver, lungs and all your bodily parts. Learn how storytelling can be a shamanistic art and science that awakens specific healing energy dynamics.
Nancy offers a wealth of new insight to medical practitioners, storytellers, healers and community builders, by exploring the human body as the foundation for transforming the human story.
Workshop leader: Nancy Mellon presents workshops and courses at locations throughout the USA and internationally.
An adult educator and former teacher, she is now a psychotherapist. With a specialty in healing through the arts,
she is a pioneer in therapeutic storytelling. In her courses and workshops she awakens storytelling skills to meet a broad range of challenging situations. Nancy Mellon's most recent book gives deep insight into the physiology of body and soul.
Nancy has written several books on storytelling, recently 'The Eloquence of the Body' was published.
6. The doors of Perception
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite?. --William Blake
What is it like to be you? Can we truly see each other?
How can we approach conflict situations without closing the doors of our hearts to the other side of the story? There are some stories, which are no longer serving us in the world today. Behind the door to the invisible world of imagination are many new stories waiting to be told ?will you dare opening it?
In this workshop we will use the power and wisdom of traditional and biographical stories to heal conflict, clean and open our perception to welcome into our lives change and new possibilities of insight, hope and Joy.
Workshop leader: Roi Gal-Or, Israel/Englandperforms and teaches storytelling at Emerson College and Sussex University, UK.
He gives workshops internationally on social development and is researching the relationship between traditional and personal stories in the world today. Roi is the organizer of "Healing Words" the International Storytelling and Art Festival for Peace, Whitsun 2007, "Gate to Humanity", Israel.Visit www.adam-insan.org/festival, www.schoolofstorytelling.com
Workshop about forgiveness Karsten Mathiasen
Every day after lunch
Over countless years, Karsten Mathiasen has gathered and told stories about forgiveness and reconciliation, alongside working as a circus clown in his own circus. He believes that forgiveness is the greatest healer and that acts of forgiveness provide powerfully creative sources for stories that guide us towards a better future - both on the personal and global level. ?Let us find the stories that work like small sticks in the wheels of revenge and hate!? Karsten is looking forward to facilitating the daily lunchtime storytelling session on this fantastic subject.
You can find his "Think Tank for Forgiveness" on the website www.tilgivelse.dk
Symposium leader Marianne Christensen
is a teacher of adults, hypnotherapist, storyteller and experienced organizer of several workshops and seminars.
Has been teaching storytelling in Denmark and Estonia.
In her home town, Vordingborg, she has trained a group of historically interested people to be
museum guides. They take people on walking tours around the town and tell lots of stories about people and places in Vordingborg.
Karsten Mathiasen, Denmark, will facilitate storytelling about forgiveness
The Klezmerduo will participate with music throughout the week.
International storytelling event: Thursday the 30th of July by the Goosetower and the Museum of Vordingborg. Free entrance. Sponsored by the municipality of Vordingborg
Leader of symposium: Marianne Christensen, Vordingborg, Dk
The symposium is organised by ALBA in cooperation with Marjatta and Vordingborg Fortællerkreds
For more information visit: www.mariannechristensen.dk
Read Mariannes blogg: www.storytellingsymposium2009.blogspot.com