Teresa Whitaker

Rhythm and a mercurial voice are trademarks of Teresa Whitaker’s lively and joyous performances. Teresa tells original stories and traditional myths and folktales, weaving in participatory music with songs, guitar, Celtic harp and percussion instruments. She treasures these ancient stories for the depth and imagination that live within all cultures. She believes that within these stories are all the archetypes and aspects of the human journey; that they are mirrors reflecting to the listener what is both unique and universal in human experience. She believes that all people are storytellers, and that storytelling builds community.

She was born and grew up in Cynthiana, Kentucky where she was gifted with a love for the natural world and an ear for story and song, often discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary. She asserts that storytelling strengthens the imagination and increases children’s capacities for problem solving, compassion and empathy. She believes that people are natural story creators, and that it is through stories that we consciously and unconsciously shape our lives and our world.  Story and song are food for the imagination and essential to our capacity to have vision and hope.

She has done hundreds of residencies and teacher workshops. She has performed in schools, libraries, universities, and hospitals and at festivals and conferences. She performs for children of all ages and for adults. She lives in Cynthiana and in West Suffield, CT. She is a member of the CT Performing Artist roster and the New England Performing Artist roster. She is a member of the CT Master Teacher Roster where she has received training in Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theories. She is in training with Parker Palmer’s “Courage to Teach” work. She is also part of “Storytelling Arts” a non-profit storytelling organization which works in Trenton schools and does teacher workshops and summer institutes at Princeton University.
 
She worked for seven years as an artist and mentor with “The Elder Initiative” a branch of the MA Cultural Arts Council, in collaboration with Liz Lerman’s “Dance Exchange”. She has participated in a wide variety of community projects working with elders and children, collecting life stories and creating stories and songs.

She has researched and collected lullabies extensively and has used them in a variety of therapeutic settings. She works monthly at Yale New Haven children’s oncology units facilitating parents to create stories and lullabies about their children.

She has been an artist in residence twice at St. Mary’s College in southern MD. She has co-led a retreat for women storytellers for the past eleven years in VT each August.

Teresa will work closely and collaboratively with schools, hospitals or other sponsoring organizations to create a residency where their specific curriculum goals will come alive through vital participation.

Some residencies that she has done numerous times include:

Learning to Tell Stories
In this residency the focus is on listening, speaking and learning to tell a folk tale. Students work to develop evaluative listening. There is a strong focus on oral skills such as using descriptive language, improvising dialogue and vocal expressiveness. Students develop their abilities for pictorial thinking, sequential imaging and learn ways to initiate audience participation. Students are encouraged to find their own voice and storytelling style and to explore different styles of interpretation.

In this residency students learn how to find a good story. They learn how to break it down into step-by-step learning through visualizations, storyboards, essential gestures, character voices, sounds and tableaus. Students learn to use repetition, to find key patterns and images within a story. Students become storytellers sometimes sharing their new skills with other grades, the whole school, or some place else within the community. All such residencies include theater games, creative movement and music.

This residency can also include workshops for parents or teachers to learn storytelling skills. It can also include a school wide storytelling festival. If the residency has targeted one particular grade level then those students can travel to other classrooms to share their stories.

Storytelling and Writing
Students are exposed to a wide variety of folktales from many different cultures. Using a folk tale as a starting point they may retell from a particular character’s perspective, create a monologue, or describe a landscape or character. They may craft a poem or song. Students deepen their understanding of sensory memories, motifs, variants, dialogue, story structure and descriptive language. There is a focus on meaning making, both personal and universal. Themes within the stories may inspire original and/or personal stories. All activities will be focused on deepening children’s abilities to imagine vividly with the goal of transferring those imaginative capacities into their writing.

Creating a Lullaby Tradition
Teresa has worked with a wide variety of parents, including very young parents to explore the many facets of lullabies and to learn to create their own lullabies. The creative act of writing an original lullaby strengthens the parent’s self-confidence and deepens the bond between parent and child.

Oral History Projects
Teresa has had numerous experiences in oral history work, including intergenerational projects. Students learn interviewing techniques, including open and closed questions. They learn to place personal stories within historical contexts. They learn creative dramatic techniques for interpreting and expressing another person’s story.

Listening to the World
Students hear a wide variety of folk and fairy tales from many different cultures. They explore themes and motives, they infer and predict. They use art, drama and music to retell and to also create original stories.

In all residencies students will learn such skills as:

• Support peers, take risks, feel pride in accomplishments
• Consciously develop the imagination
• Share creative work and build a storytelling community
• Performance skills
• Learn to give positive feedback
• Learn to offer creative suggestions when asked
• Learn to utilize creative suggestions

Have fun!!!!!