Storytelling & Body Language Pointers

1.  Plant your feet and get a comfortable, confident posture to begin.

2. Take a breath and make eye contact with a friendly face before beginning.

3.  Eliminate “uhs” by pausing periodically when you are speaking.

4.  Image the story in your mind and describe what you see.

5.  Focus on perceptual details (colors, sounds, tastes, smells, movements).

6.  If you rock or move your hands in a repetitive way, make the movements fit with the story’s rhythm. 

7.  Surprise the audience with a few dramatic or sudden movements.

8.  Be yourself and speak from your heart.

How to Learn Stories

From a Storyteller or Audio Tape:

• Listen to the story several times.

• Visualize the story as you listen, you may want to close your eyes.

• Try to retell the story aloud to yourself. Make sure you find a comfortable place to try this.

• Listen to the story again.

• Tell the story again to yourself or to someone else

From Written Material:

• Read the story several times.

• As you read the story, visualize what is happening.

• Try to retell the story aloud to yourself without looking at the story.

• You may want to draw pictures from the story or write down scenes, characters and events with bright colors. Colors aid memory.

• Read the story again.

• Tell the story again to yourself or to someone else

From Memory:

• Think about a story you want to tell that you were told or a story from your own life experiences.

• Try to visualize elements of the story.

• Put swatches of color on paper that give you the feeling of the story to open up your memories.

• Try to tell the story aloud to yourself.

• Tell the story again to someone else.

• You may need to do research to flesh out your story (i.e. interview a family member, or find a written documentation of your story).

Remember you need to tell a story many times before it is stored in your memory, possibly up to 10 times. Stories are best when people hearing them can see vivid pictures in their mind, so use this fact to learn to remember stories. Visualize the scenes in your mind as you tell the story. Great Greek orators learned how to tell stories using visual images as keys. Use the same trick.

A great source for stories is accounts of relatives, events from your life, or scenes from your dreams. Another great idea is to find folktales from your cultural roots. Go to the children’s section of the public library in the folktale division and you will find a great resource.