- Venue
- Scottish Storytelling Centre
- Date
- Wednesday, October 23, 2019
03:30 PM - Address
- Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1SR
- Location
- Scotland
- Organiser
- Lithuanian Art and Culture in the UK
GARDEN OF TALES: STORIES FROM LITHUANIA
Live Storytelling at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival “Beyond Words”
https://www.sisf.org.uk/
About the artist and performance:
Step into the garden, luscious in summer and white with snow in winter. Sit under the blooming branches, taste the apple from the tree of life. Listen to stories from the worlds above, below and our own in between. Lithuanian storyteller Daiva Ivanauskaitė introduces us to traditional stories weaved with songs of her Baltic country as part of the Lithuanian Days in Scotland.
About the artist: Daiva Ivanauskaitė tells tales inspired by myths and folk tradition from Lithuania, Scotland and other lands – stories about tricksters and cheeky devils, stories about fairies and dragons, stories about stories.
Daiva makes every tale her own, finds parallels with her life and explores themes of identity, environment and togetherness. She deftly guides the audience through her vivid, enchanting imagination and heightens her stories with interaction and Lithuanian songs. Daiva performs on stage at festivals and spoken word events, with community and women’s groups, with families and in schools. She delivers storytelling workshops, training and courses that can involve stop-motion animation and other arts and crafts. Also she facilitates story work and brings the art of storytelling into organisations and businesses.
Daiva is the artistic director of Lithuania’s first storytelling festival and regularly performs in both her native land and her adopted home of Scotland. Born into a family of spirited singers and gardeners, with her childhood in theatre and academic background in history, Daiva worked in education and film before discovering her own storytelling voice. She then came to study the craft under David Campbell, Janis Mackay and Jean Edmiston. Daiva often collaborates with the Village Storytelling Centre in Glasgow and performs at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. Daiva tells stories in English and Lithuanian.
“Daiva’s style has so much strength and charisma. She paints such vivid images that they stay in my mind! I still can see the magic table, the dragon with many heads, the fern flower and the bed on fire! Her body language is very expressive and her face and eyes are so alive when she tells stories. Her choice of stories is always excellent. And, above all, Daiva is such a honest storyteller.”
Inés Alvarez Villa
