Scottish Storytelling Centre and Network Blethers Issue 29 Autumn 2014 Historic Independence Referendum ONCE UPON A PLACE Stories are the immaterial map that As we go to press with the autumn issue of Blethers, Scotland has allows communities to gone to the polls in an historic Independence Referendum. Scottish navigate their politics are never going to look the same, due to the energy and surroundings and give grassroots activism that has developed around the debate on what meaning to the kind of society Scotland should become. Many pundits have spoken landscape. Old legends of the decline of politics and of democracy withering by neglect. The of place link people to evidence of recent months defies these pessimists. their lands and give us an insight into the events, hopes, fears and So what does that mean for tragedies that shaped a community over the culture? The unpredicted centuries. cultural surge is a clarion call And of course one of the best ways to get to for arts organisations to be know a place is to learn its stories and more engaged at the local myths. The Scottish International Storytelling level, and for more people Festival (24th Oct - 2nd Nov) provides a throughout Scotland to be wonderful opportunity to see Edinburgh, actively involved in the Scotland and the world through the lens of shaping of our cultural life. the tales of this and many other lands. The campaigning has had Creative connections between live narrative many creative aspects, not and place in Scotland, Europe and the Pacific region will be celebrated, exploring the least those brought about traditional and innovative ways in which by the National Collective, but their effort will be wasted if we do not people express their sense of identity by follow through in making the arts an inspirational presence through 'seeing stories' in their landscapes - rural every strand of social and community life. and urban. It is for that reason that the Scottish Storytelling Forum is now We are also delighted to be marking the 10th working so closely with the Traditional Music Forum and the anniversary of Edinburgh's designation as Traditions of Dance Scotland Forum. Through TRACS, our unified the world's first UNESCO City of Literature umbrella, we aim to contribute to a vibrant, healthy society playing with celebrations of Edinburgh storytellers - Sir Walter Scott in the 200th anniversary of its full part locally, nationally and internationally by building on local his first novel, Waverley; Robert Louis ownership of culture. Stevenson who links us with the Pacific; and In that endeavour we have a huge resource of song, music, dance raconteur extraordinaire of the Old Town, and story which was nurtured by our foremothers and forefathers. John Fee. That is not a static inheritance but something crying out to be carried Warm nights of tales in good company await into the future in new forms and patterns that feed into all the us in Edinburgh and in venues across contemporary arts as well. It is a time of promise in a challenging Scotland, and together we will cross the world, and the arts of tradition in Scotland and worldwide bring threshold to a world where mountains are rocks tossed by giants and caves are wisdom, joy and hope for humanity. passages to the Otherworld. It will be an This issue of Blethers reflects that growing collaboration between incredible journey. story, song, dance and music and we look forward www.tracscotland.org/festivals Y T E to the creative years and decades ahead. R L L O I T N S G H C S I E T N T T O R C E S Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR T: 0131 556 9579 E: [email protected] www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Scottish Storytelling Forum SC020891 Blethers A Welcome to… From this issue, Blethers will include contributions on traditional music, song, dance and across artforms from the Traditional Music Forum and Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. Here is a brief introduction to the two organisations. Traditional Music Forum (TMF) Walk down Waverley Bridge or of Scotland. One answer to the Traditional music has been one of Sauchiehall Street any day of the question 'what does the Forum do?' Scotland's cultural success stories in week and you'll hear the sound of is contained in that membership. It recent times, exemplified recently the pipes, Scotland's iconic, sonic collects and archives, it teaches, it by its high profile at the badge of identity. There are other develops skills, it promotes, it Commonwealth Games, and in musical sounds though that are provides platforms for the events like Celtic Connections, equally distinctive - Scots and Gaelic performance of Scotland's Hebridean Celtic, and Piping Live. song, the fiddle, accordion and traditional music - from the These great high points are Clarsach, all with accents as recording studio to the club to the platforms for work that has been redolent of their local origin as any concert stage - because that's what going on at the grass roots for speech. All of them can be classed its members do. more than a generation. Taken under the broad and welcoming together, the high profile events What the Forum also does is heading of Scotland's traditional and the continuing activity on the represent that network at a music. ground make a strong, interlocking national level, enable mesh which reinforces all of The Traditional Music Forum is the communication within, to and from body which advocates the value of Scotland's culture. The Traditional it, offering the voice of Scotland's Music Forum is a vital part of that. those sounds, those distinctive traditional music in fields such as vibrations, to Scottish life and education (formal and non-formal), For more info on the Traditional culture. It does so as the sum of its cultural tourism, social enterprise Music Form visit parts and as an emergent partner in and cultural policy. We catch up www.traditionalmusicforum.org the wider body known as TRACS. with each other at the annual Trad What are its parts? The Forum is a Talk conference in March and network of some eighty traditional support each other in various ways music organisations from every part throughout the year. Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland (TDFS) Tap your toe to the sound of the pipes, fiddle or accordion and you're dancing to the rhythm of Scotland. Scottish dance has flourished over Today, Scottish traditional dance is facilitate the development of the centuries alongside traditional most known for four distinct types: educational resources, facilitate music and storytelling, evolving and ceilidh dancing, step-dancing, training, and increase access to absorbing influences from new Highland dancing and Scottish research and archive materials. In cultures to fuse into a fascinating country dancing. Each has its own addition to membership services, history. One of the earliest distinctive background but TDFS aims, as part of the wider structured uses of dance recorded technique, movements, footwork TRACS body, to support was in the performance and telling and patterns are common to all. collaboration across traditional of stories, as a means of Alongside these, there is a wealth artforms and advocate traditional committing knowledge to memory. of dance traditions from all over the arts at a national level, securing a From castles to stately homes, from world that have now found a place place for traditional dance in the village halls to family kitchens, within Scottish communities and fabric of Scottish life. dance was of great significance to contribute to the richness of the Membership of the Forum is open people and had an important social traditional dance landscape. to all who support, engage with, or and community-defining function. The Traditional Dance Forum of have an interest in traditional In some contexts it was a test of Scotland is inspired by these dance. To find out more about strength, stamina and agility - traditions and works with, and on traditional dance or joining the Highland dance was once used to behalf of, its membership to Forum, visit test men aspiring to join the provide a platform for exchange www.tracscotland.org/tracs/ Scottish regiments. and critical debate. The aim is to traditional-dance 2 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Issue 29 Autumn 2014 Storytelling and the Arts of Change Illustration: Henry Rivers The renaissance of live storytelling is He is to be thanked for undertaking It is essentially a group of stories the subject of some landmark books this task, and if the book provokes collected from holy books, historical this year. In Storytelling in the some arguments and debate then legends, folk tales and contemporary Moment filmmaker Michael Howes that is all to the good, as we reflect experiences by Martin Palmer and sets out to explore 'a contemporary on the inspiration of traditions and Katriana Hazell. Apart from useful verbal art in Britain and Ireland', and the challenges of change. introductions, the stories are left to the result is a most practical survey of Another sort of change is to the fore speak eloquently for themselves. what is happening with storytelling in Storytelling for a Greener World. But in fact this book is addressing now. The approach combines that of Mike Howes would surely approve of another of our global frontline a documentary filmmaker surveying the exemplary way in which this book challenges: the displacement of the field and that of an taps traditional sources and then people, the refugee experience, and anthropologist commenting on it. shows how they can creatively the potential rise of xenophobic This may not satisfy academic engage with the challenge of 'the demonization of 'the other'.