This 3 week, full-time storytelling course focuses on the art of telling true-life, autobiographical stories. By the end of the course, you will have the skills necessary to shape and craft any story that you want to tell, whether it’s around the kitchen table to your family and friends or to a room packed full of people!

Many people have a story they want to tell, especially now, when we have had time to reflect more on our lives during the Covid 19 pandemic. It might be an important moment in their lives, something funny or sad that involved members of their family that are not with them anymore, or their personal involvement in a larger, historical happening. But there are many questions about how to do this well:

How can we make a story compelling and memorable?
How can we share a true life story so that it is not just egotistical?
How can we tell a story as if it were a gift to our listeners?
How can we move people, touch them, help them see more clearly what it is to be human?
How can we be completely present, revealing our whole selves, at ease with our true voice, words and presence?

The course will include practical story crafting, including key skills that are not required for the telling of traditional stories and coaching in small groups amongst other things. It will conclude with a public sharing of our stories. Some storytelling experience is beneficial but beginners will also be considered.

The timetable will be Monday – Friday 9.30 am – 1 pm and 2 afternoons of coaching from 2 – 4 pm. The other two afternoons will be for private practice. Friday afternoons will be free and there will be a performance on Friday evenings.

This is a residential, fully catered course, limited to just 6 participants. For cost, further details and to book, go to www.friends-of-amari.org.

Some of the intrepid participants of the 2021 course at the Cafe in Amari

We learned anew to appreciate the support of our neighbours, friends, colleagues and the wider community during the Covid 19 pandemic. How do we ensure that special community spirit and sense of support doesn’t fade away as life hopefully returns to normal?  How can our business organisations, spiritual centres, youth groups, schools and old age facilities become even more resilient and creative?  Wherever we live and whatever we do, how could we ourselves be part of helping to provide and maintain the well-being of society?

In Southern Africa, it’s said there was a time when, if you or your community was sick, the first three questions a traditional healer would ask were, “When did you last sing? When did you last dance? When did you last tell a story?”  Many of us are forgetting the natural healing wisdom of singing, dancing and storytelling, but it’s not too late to make it part of our lives again and help keep both our hearts and the hearts of our communities healthy.

This popular 5 week, full-time course (Mon – Fri 9.30am – 3.30pm), will give you the opportunity to learn or deepen your skills as a storyteller, as well as equip you to go out into your community, be it a school, hospital, neighbourhood, old people’s centre, church, business organisation or just your friends and family, and begin working with story. Suitable for both beginners and those already on their way, the course will cover the skills of telling traditional tales, the creating of spontaneous stories, story games and skills for community building through storytelling. Working playfully and deeply we will uncover the storyteller that lives naturally within you so that you can go away with a foundation of storytelling skills to help keep you and your community resilient, healthy and connected. After 12 years, this is the last time Sue will be hosting this course for the foreseeable future.

Cost: R19,500 for South African participants and R35,000 for international students.

The course is limited to 14 participants. To book, or for further information, please email Gilly on gilly@cybersmart.co.za

Sue and Gengezi in Erin Hall Feb 2020