Kea island-Greece

Report of Meeting and workshop in KEA 21st -25th July 2013

SUNDAY 21ST – THURSDAY 25TH JULY
Tutors and trainees attend the “9th Folktales Festival” in Kea, and participate at the 4 day-workshop and last meeting of this Grundtvig program.

Sunday, 21/07/2013 

Tutors and trainees arrived in Korrissia, Kea. There were all invited to attend the bilingual presentation of the Epitome in English language of the ‘Greek Catalogue of Magic Tales’.


Then followed a Welcome Party at Night, at Vourkari village.

Monday, 22/07/2013 

- Coordinators meeting: David Ambrose, Paola Balbi, Davide Bardi, Giorgos Evgenikos, Michael Harvey, Manya Maratou, Agnieszka Aysen Kaim, Kersti Ståbi, Nikoleta Chirpilidou, 9:30-10:00 and discussion about the program, the schedule, the meetings.
- Physical warm up “the Sun Salute”, 10:00-10:30, at Korrissia beach by Gianna Filipopoulou

-Interactive Workshop “Simonides of Ceos: The Art of Mnemonics”, Fundamental principles of mnemonics and how these contribute to storytelling, 10:30- 12:00, at Cultural Centre, by Giorgos Evgenikos (David Ambrose as Simonides, using different techniques of mnemonics).

-Workshop “Odysseus as trickster, leaning on Homer as a guide and teacher”
We worked on oral epic and the shaping of the sound of speech. Participants “brought” with them a few lines of a traditional epic, narrative ballad or story song from the culture they are representing, in the original language, that was used as “sound material”, a traditional one, so that the cadence or metre has been used (and tried) over time to carry stories. Working in groups, the participants created new narratives, closely based on Homers words, using the epic form as inspiration and material for the creation of new stories. Material given in Greek and English, 12:15 – 14:00, at Cultural Centre, by Manya Maratou
- Workshop “Odysseus as trickster”, 18:00 – 20:00, at Cultural Centre, working in couples of 2, we experimented with traditional oral forms by learning verses of songs and poems in languages other than ours, working on rhythm, by Mania Maratou

Tuesday, 23/07/2013
- Coordinators breakfast meeting 9:30-10:00 and discussion about the schedule, the meetings.
- Physical warm up “the Sun Salute” 10:00-10:30, at Korrissia beach by Gianna Filipopoulou
- Workshop “Odysseus as trickster”. The participants were divided into 4 groups and played with the material (games and exercises) supplied by the workshop leader. There was a coordinator, one for each group. The participants were taking rhythms from the other countries and putting it in the odyssey text. We played with the theme of Odysseus and developed short multilingual performances, 10:30-12:00, at Cultural Centre, by Manya Maratou
- The groups working on their own, 12:15 – 14:00 at Cultural centre, with their group coordinators.

- Presentations of each group work, 18:00 – 20:00, at Cultural Centre, Coordinator: Manya Maratou

- Feast at Korrissia beach, accompanied by local deserts and drinks: karydopita kaimaki icecream, ouzo, tsipouro, raki, participants told stories, played music, dance and sang till late.

Wednesday, 24/07/2013
- Coordinators meeting 9:30-10:00 and discussion about the reports.
- Physical warm up “the Sun Salute” 10:00-10:30, at Korrissia beach by David Ambrose and the greek group.
- Free vocal improvisation, With the Odyssey as inspiration we explored codes of voice in a free improvisational environment, 10:30-12:15, at Cultural Centre Workshop leader: Manya Maratou
- The groups prepare, 12:30 – 14:00 and 18:00 – 20:00 with their coordinators.




THURSDAY 25TH AND SUNDAY 28TH

- Coordinators last breakfast meeting about the evaluation of the workshop, the surveys, the final reports.
- The groups created multilingual performances of stories from the Odyssey, using the experimentations on language as creative ideas, which were presented to the public of the Kea festival, at two different sites and times, and were received with enthusiasm.
- All groups were supposed to present their work, only three of them presented it at Karthaia, due to an illness in some participants.

All groups presented their work on Sunday noon at Gialiskari.

OUTCOME

The workshop and meetings seemed to be successful. The participants had the chance to stay all at the same place and attend exclusively the 3 days-workshop and meetings without other parallel events- followed the successful conditions of a previous meeting place. Some of the non Greek Grundtvig participants (David Ambrose, Paola Balbi, Davide Bardi, Michael Harvey, Agnieszka Aysen Kaim, Kersti Ståbi, Dafydd Davies Hughes, Beata Frankowska, Jarek Kaczmarek) made their own storytelling performance during the 9th Folktales Festival, contributing to the multilingualism of the Festival.

The aim of the workshop was to explore further the idea of multilingual storytelling with the group of participants that have been working on that theme during previous meetings. The ideas set for exploration within the workshop were derived from the two basic components of oral storytelling, form and content. Form, in this context, refers to the musical aspects of language, rhythm, melody, cadence and the actual sounds each language uses. For content the choice was Homer’s Odyssey, a common ground story known and loved by many cultures Participants discovered several ways to work on multilingual performances.

The participants experienced understanding different storytelling traditions through sounds, they gained a deeper understanding of their European cultural identity and they made friendships across natural and linguistic boundaries that will never be broken.