Storytelling and Biodiversity

Storytelling and Biodiversity course will develop 3 different levels or stories (basement, ground floor etc… do you get the joke?). We will work on stories from science, from our own lives and from the living tradition stories:

• you will tell directly from your experience of biodiversity. This part is sensual and intuitive and we develop it through connecting to the amazing nature around us at Opsal farm. We begin with finding a relaxation and contact inside our physical self. Then experiment with using our voices and listening outside. This is a personal experience which we then share with each other.

• Through existing stories from the oral tradition, we focus on the elements of the story which relate to biodiversity and retell the story with a new focus. The story is born again in relation to this moment and in encounter with nature. Depending your background you can develop the story for different audiences, inside or outdoors.

• You will tell about one of the species found on Opsal farm. Spring is bursting forth and there are wildflowers, trees, butterflies and birds to meet. Here we also use research as a background and expand factual knowledge into a form with narrative and images.

During the course weekend we will sing, dance, walk and enjoy ourselves by the fireside. The body and the voice are awakened and with it, what we also need most for storytelling – the heart.

How to tell stories in and about nature for adults and children.

Storytelling can bring nature closer to us. Storytelling can open our eyes to the mysterious creatures and processes going on all around us. Dull dry scientific facts can become entertaining through storytelling, and as our senses are engaged.

 Here at Opsal Gard we focus on biodiversity, and in May the wild flowers unfold very fast with the long daylight hours and all the myriad insects and birds delight as a new spring emerges. During the course we will go on an expedition to search for the voices of nature. We learn how to listen to one another and to the buzzing life around us and how to tell outside – no mean feat as the beauty of nature may compete with our human voices!

The course takes place on this a beautiful 200-year-old farm that is being coming back to life. Nobody has lived here for 50 years but now teams of young volunteers are working daily to support the wild native species.

You don’t need storytelling experience to participate in this course.

The course is led by Georgiana Keable.