Workshops
Janet offers workshops to support creativity and curiosity for adult or children, as well as develop some oral storytelling skills..
These can be linked to “Whose Constellation is it anyway” or “Star Stories for Children”
The Nuts and Bolts of Oral Storytelling - a tool kit.
Discover different ways to learn a story to tell, and then how to tell a story using your voice and body, as well as the words. Explore how to apply oral storytelling skills while telling children or adults, making presentations, and sitting interviews as well as inspiring your written work.
You’ll find out why doing things three times is important, how to approach stories from other cultures,and how to make a story your own.
Suitable for beginners and improvers.
This is a day’s workshop – best done 10-4:30pm with a 45 mins break.
Janet Dowling is a professional storyteller and has helped many a quivering wreck to become a confident storyteller!
She has delivered this workshop at Sidmouth Folk Week for over 20 years, with people returning as they understand more. Several of the founders of story clubs in England have attended these workshops, as have some on the professional stage.
She has shared these tools with people in Canada, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Israel as well as School teachers, Writers, PhD Candidates, Bereavement volunteers, Hospices, Relate volunteers and the WI in England and many other places. It has given the tools to people who like to understand the structure of a story before they feel confident telling a story or making up a story.
Folktales of the Cosmos workshops
New stories from Old
This workshop explores some of the characters in existing stories from across the world- and develops their back story. Helps with character development and creativity. Participants will be supported to feel confident to tell their new stories .
Age appropriate as needed for adults or children. (Two and a half hours.)
Playing with the patterns our brains see
This workshop takes the pure dots of the night sky and encourages participants to allow their creativity and their pattern-seeking brains to find new shapes in the night sky, then shape these images into a new story. Participants will be supported to feel confident to tell their new storiesAge appropriate as needed for adults or children.
(Two and a half hours.)
Biodiversity Workshop Walks
Janet offers story walks (with or without puppets) to tell some of the traditional stories of trees and plants, animal and birds, even the fish and insects.
The walks last an hour with several 5 minute stories punctuated by a walk to a different part of the landscape eg trees, to river to orchard, to bridge etc and can reflect your local flora and fauna if sufficient information given in advance.