The Story of ‘The Crane Bag of Stories’

Developing an animistic performance piece where I let go of control was a real challenge; not managing the performance, the balance of energies and of time; but trusting in the interaction between the ‘Spirit’ of teller, of listener, of story, of performance, and of place.  I had to consider how to do this. 

The roles of the ‘Walker between Worlds’, what we have recently, in the West, begun to call the ‘Shaman’, and the Storyteller were often combined in the same person.  Rather than ‘Walking between Worlds’ for the community the ‘Storyteller’, as a ‘wayfinder’, guides you out of your ‘normal’ world and then brings you safely back.  In this the story is not simply about entertainment, though that element is there, the story also questions, challenges, teaches, informs, the Story taking the role of ‘Oracle’. 

From this place the ‘Crane Bag of Stories’ emerged into my reality as a Storytelling ‘Walker Between Worlds’.  Telling stories to stones, each stone holding a story and a representation of that story; I crafted a bag to hold the story-stones.  I trust the audience to pick a stone, the stone which emerges will carry the story that needs to be told in that place, at that time, that needs to be heard by someone in that audience. 

A bag of stones, each carrying a story, what stories will be drawn from the bag today?  What messages will they carry?  What stories need to be heard?  Come draw a stone and listen to the story.