Storytelling Starters ~ Getting Participation/6
Today is St David’s Day (more on that later) and also the last of my current series. Getting Participation has focussed on Early Years children but is applicable, I believe, to all ages. Enjoyment and relish of words; the value of vocal tone and pauses; the enormous power of silence – all such things can make an enormous difference in storytelling. On other previous occasions, I’ve written about rhythms, refrains and rhymes as vital in helping children to feel included and also, of course, about props.
But today I want to write about the over-riding point of all this, namely why participation is worth bothering about and the value of working to achieve it. I have a storytelling anecdote which might help me convey what I’d like to say.
Why it’s worth it:
One time I was telling stories to a class of 14 and 15 year-olds in a Welsh School in mid Wales. We were in an otherwise empty room for the storytelling. The pupils were sitting on cushions on the floor and looking very relaxed. Some began moving onto their stomachs, their heads propped up on their upraised hands. Suddenly, surprisingly, right in the middle of the story, one of the boys moved onto one arm, lifted his head up and spoke to the room. ‘What’s going on here?’ he said. ‘What’s happening to us?’
The boy sounded stirred as he said this and not in the least disrespectful and what he said immediately provoked a murmur of response from the other pupils. ‘We’re listening to a story,’ they said and, as if this was exactly the answer he’d needed to confirm something he was feeling, the boy quickly moved back onto his stomach, head once again cradled in his hands, and I went on with my story.
It’s the power of becoming absorbed in something that raises you beyond yourself even as it takes you deeper into yourself. To experience this feeling, indeed to be able to experience it at all, is a very stirring thing. It can make us feel less alone, can give us a sense of the value of life. It’s what can enable us to become part of listening to a concert or play, engage us in social causes, be able to be part of a funeral service or enable us to be part of family or community events. I know storytelling can give us experiences of this feeling and help us to value it too.
Dydd Gwyl Dewi/St David’s Day:
So this is where St David’s Day comes back in. St David’s is where I come from. It’s a magical place and one I’ve felt part of it ever since my family moved there from Fishguard, 15 miles away, when I was a young adolescent.
I love the surrounding countryside and the nearby coast. I love the valley in which St David’s Cathedral was built and I still deeply love the story of Dewi Sant, St David.
On his death bed, Dewi Sant urged people to remember the little things that they had heard and seen from him. ‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain a glywsoch ac a welsoch gennyf fi.’
It is attending to the little things, I have come to appreciate, that brings the bigger things into being.
My photos this week are of the statue of David’s mother, Non, at what is reputed to have been his birthplace and some daffodils in my garden.
Tags: absorption, bothering, Dydd Gwyl Dewi, St David's Day, St Non