Ceridwen's Cauldron: Myths and Tales from Around the World

I will begin each class with a song, and will then tell a traditional story. These stories will not be recited from memory or read from a book, but told in language which is improvised anew each time in response to the moment. I will tell the following stories: "Sleeping Beauty," "Rapunzel," "Proteus," "The Birth of Taliesin," "the Theft of Idun's Apples" and "How Raven Stole the Sun and Moon." These stories will be told with drum and/or guitar accompaniment. Students will learn by listening to the stories, as well as by responding to them afterwards through discussion and simple theater games. For example, students may be encouraged to choose a part of the story which inspired them, and to create a sound to represent that part of the story; we will then combine all the sounds the children have created into a single song. On another day, they will be invited to create hand gestures or body moments to represent certain parts of a story, or to draw a part of the story which inspired them while I play guitar. We will definitely discuss the cultures out of which these stories come, but the primary goal of this class is to connect with each story in a playful and personal way.
          The songs will be from a variety of cultures (African, American, Middle-Eastern, etc.) and will be simple to learn.