Telling it Like a Dastaan – Cancelled

This workshop introduces the ancient Dastaan traditional form of storytelling.

SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP:

1. Introduction to Dastaan: brief history, style, texts and its relevance today
2. A short demonstration of a Dastaan in the traditional form
3. Learning how to tell it like a Dastaan: Participants will learn the key principles and techniques used by a Dastaan practitioner to breathe life into stories and keep audiences enthralled and keep coming back for more. The session will start with body and voice awareness exercises

What to expect:

• Dastaan practitioners were known to keep audiences spellbound for many hours at a stretch, night after night, as they told a story.
• Every storyteller aspires to be a magician; he too wants to keep the audience spellbound, he too wants to transport them to various worlds, he too wants them to suspend disbelief. Dastaan shows us the way.
• Storytellers and aspiring storytellers can learn the same principles & techniques that Dastaan practitioners used to achieve that result. Participants can expect to get not just a peek into the world of Dastaan but also adapt the best practices from there to their own storytelling.

Learning:

• Dastaan practitioners used a certain kind of language, tone, voice and body movements to breathe life into their stories. They broke up their stories into episodes or chapters without letting the audience interest falter or waver.
• Through this workshop participants will pick up Dastaan style storytelling techniques and skills that they can incorporate into their story sessions – this will add a new dimension and expand their storytelling vocabulary & repertoire.