Sea Creatures

Drip and splash and drip and splash and drip and splash!  Landlocked Sea Creatures can be found in the folklore of many cultures.  The Seal Woman or Selkie shows up on the shores of Scotland and Iceland.  The Merman is remembered as is the Man Whale in Iceland.  All have aspects in common.  Likely they represent the fact that we humans are made greatly of water, that we have a longing to discover more of the hidden world below the surface of water, that we do not always feel that we fit in the environment that we find ourselves in.

Fellow storyteller, Linda Shantz Kereztes, inspired me to look at all of this and we put together performances for a Pop – up Public library and for Shelflife Bookstore in Calgary.  I wondered if we could add another dimension to the theme by adding an element of musical collaboration.  Lucky for us, we found two talented artists, Brittany Rae and Nathaniel Chiang.  Brittany brought her ethereal operatic voice and sang a Newfoundland shanty called The Maid on the Shore, a piece called The Seal Man and Lorelei that she sang in German was by Schumann.  It tells of the mystical powers of a river creature called Lorelei, who lures sailors to their death.  Brittany’s interpretive and otherworldly singing lifted us out of our seats and away and away to the sea and to mystical waters.

Nathaniel Chiang who is a jazz percussionist was ready to listen with an open heart to our stories and to let his fingers and feet move his array of instruments in response to the ebb and flow of the tales.  He and I had a few chances to practice.  I reminded him that my performance would alter a little with every telling and so he made ready to make his sounds fit the rise and fall of the performance.  Due to travel circumstances, Linda and Nate had to launch into their collaborative performance without a rehearsal.  I was awed by the way he was able to add to her story with his perceptive listening and intuitive use of drums and sticks, cymbals and sand blocks.

I found that my performance was altered by Nathaniel’s sounds as I used repetition for effect and gave myself pause to listen to Nate add to the picture with his sounds.  It was a time of play and partner work governed by the respect that builds when performers artfully listen to one another.  I can’t wait to do it again!