Spanish

I have been telling stories every week in a school in the mountains near Madrid for several years. But one Monday, I noticed that something was different as soon as I walked through the door. The children were moving in silence with serious faces and the teachers were whispering in the corridors. Soon I became part of the secret that everyone already knew: the father of one of the girls from the 5th grade and died the day before in unpleasant circumstances.
And I was just about to tell stories to this girl’s class! The pupils came in looking confused and I could see from their faces they were withholding their emotions. I decided to keep to my plan and tell then a Finnish story about a magic pine cone with magical powers that could multiply everything by one thousand. At the end of the story, I told them how sad I felt about what had happened and about my desire to send this girl love and strength to overcome this difficult moment in her life path. I also hoped that the magic pinecone could multiple the effect even more.

Spanish / Catalan / Basque / Galician

Spanish / Catalan / Basque / Galician

Europa!

Where does Europe begin? Where does it end? Along what border, village, or mountain range...? Is it called Europa as in Sweden? Or is it Europe, as they say in England? Or again Evropa as in Serbo-Croatian? Is Europe a sign of separation, or rather a promise of overture? Is Europe defined by what makes us different or what makes us alike - through our desires and fears? And why, by the Gods, does Europe have the name of a Phoenician princess?

But whatever the answers might be that we continue to search for here, onething is sure - stories have always been able to travel far and wideacross Europe, needing neither passport nor visa, bringing along whatneeds to be said, and sharing generously with all who would like to listen.Stories have been presented here as ‘borderless’ and this is indeed the case. But at the same time they have roots, powerful roots, and roots can be of two natures: they can dig down deep into the earth, or run along just under the surface. The roots of storytelling share these two characteristics. They plunge profoundly into the culture or cultures of the country where they were born, but also spread out from the homeland and may grow in other lands, adapting to the local language and culture.

And if the imagery here has to do with the ground, the earth, it could be extended to the other traditional elements as well: stories have travelled over the seas with sailors and adventurers – so they can flow like water; they can be ‘airy ’ and ‘breathy ’ and be sung from one place to another; and they can even inflame you, as the tongues of fire in the biblical reference or in the image of the carnival fire eaters, and even in the Mayan as well as Chinese ideo-gramatical writing systems in which to speak is represented as fire spit from the mouth!

Spanish – Catalan – Basque – Galician

We tell and narrate tales to find ourselves in them.

We give them voice through the air we breathe, so that its frequency echoes in the one that listens.

We tell ancient and modern tales through our body and our way of expressing.

We tell from within our inside, leaving room for the emptiness so that this vacuum can express itself.

That is why we breathe the words we orally give away to whoever listen to us.

All the rest happens by itself, nobody else takes part.

Tales arise from the storyteller´s emptiness, from its zerO, which is Oxygen, and from there the tales display themselves in Orality.

From Orality, through that zerO´s Oxygen, they come back to the each one´s emptiness.

From one silence to the other, going through the teller´s voice.

Translated by Estibi Minguez

Spanish

Jan Blake interviewed by Estrella Escriña

I met Jan Blake during the Tales conference in Beja, Portugal (September, 2015) and I have the pleasure to listen to a conference and to attend to a workshop that was really inspiring. I have to thank Sonia Carmona, that give me the idea to make this interview. 

Compiled by Karen Chace -- www.storybug.net 

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Spanish

David Ambrose, Storyteller and Director of Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival, (Wales, UK), accepted the invitation to be interview for AEDA’s website.  Jennifer Ramsay was the interviewer and she elected to follow the structure of ‘The Hero’s Journey’, a common structure in traditional wonder tales. We hope you enjoy reading the interesting result.

Once upon a time there was a young man called David who had a flare for organizing events. David loved bringing people together and he dreamed of creating a space for artists to interact with enthusiastic audiences. He would often venture out into the underground alternative Arts scene in London and Guildford to be with like-minded people.  The freedom of this experimental rebellion against the normal, straight arts scene opened up a whole new world. His dream became reality when he became director of multi-disciplinary Art Centre in the south of England and he dedicated his time and energy to organizing events there for many years.