Member News

Storytelling: An art from heart to heart
by Ilene Elkaim

Brenda Byers excels in an ancient and popular tradition.

Storytelling is an art form. It’s an ancient practice that is being rejuvenated by warm, expressive people like Brenda Byers. True storytelling is not read from a book. Instead, in the oral tradition, the story originates in the teller’s mind, expressed by word and gesture straight through to the listeners’ ears and, more importantly, eyes, mind and heart.

Who is Brenda Byers?

Before we engage further into the art form, let’s understand a little bit more about the artist herself, Brenda Byers, who has lived in Burlington for more than 14 years. When she first moved here, Brenda was at home with a young child and was ready to seek out something to do outside the home “and it wasn’t going to be exercise class!” In the Burlington Post-it section, she discovered a small paragraph from The Burlington Storytellers’ Guild. The ad intrigued her as well as resonated with her enjoyment telling stories with her own children. So with her favorite children’s book in tow, she entered the Guild. What she quickly realized was that no one was reading from a book. They were sharing stories by memory.

Often in oral tradition, an object is passed – typically a stone or rain stick made from the dried stem of a cactus. The spines are pushed in and seeds added. When it is upended, it sounds like rain. This object would start and finish each program. When the rain ends, the story begins. The teller then has the floor where no one can interrupt.

Brenda’s foray into actual storytelling began about a year after she joined the Guild. She attended workshops as well as monthly meetings to “learn how to relate to the audience through eye contact; how to really tell the story without the extraneous words; with well intentioned pauses.”

Stories go public

Her first public storytelling was at a Christmas Café at St. Philip’s Anglican Church. She was so nervous that her mouth went dry enough that it “clacked” in the microphone. She remembers wistfully how she blanked out a couple of times. The point to storytelling is that there is no memorizing. The story is told from the heart which means it can be different at each telling depending on audience’s response. What she learned early on is that a story must be true to itsorigins as well as suit the storyteller.

From there Brenda continued to hone her craft by working with Girl Guides and Brownies (yes, her first gigs were paid in cookies). She had the good fortune to partner with Marilyn Helmer for these tellings. They called themselves Tales from Two Tellers. They then took their stories into schools where they shared folk and fairy tales, as well as adaptations to contemporary themes, like bullying. “Despite all the instant gratification visuals today, storytelling requires the audience to participate by creating images in their mind. It taps into the power of their own imaginations,” she explains.

Female Heroes

Brenda also belongs to Uppity Women. This is a group which tells stories of real and fictional strong women heroes who led lives out of the ordinary. “Yes, there are female heroes,” she quips jovially. The group was founded by Carol Leigh Wehking. The other participants are Glenna Janzen, Marina Lloyd and Marilyn Helmer. They have shared their stories with Retired Women Teachers of Ontario as well as at festivals, most recently the Toronto Storytelling Festival held in April, and other venues where women gather. She is also a member of the Storytellers School of Toronto and Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada. Each year storytellers gather in different locations to share stories, culture and hospitality and respond to storytelling issues.

Although the original Guild Brenda attended has folded, she now attends The Hamilton Storytelling Circle. They meet at Temple Anshe Sholom the third Monday of every month. Barry Rosen, a talented teller in his own right, is the facilitator. Brenda has launched her own business called Storywyse Oral Tradition Storytelling. Please check out her website at www.storywyse.com.

The Rotary Burlington Music Festival:
A tale of two visionaries

In February 1998, two people met and discovered that they shared a dream: Robert Elstone and Sandra Brewer both wanted to make Burlington aware of the musical talent in the city and to acknowledge the high calibre of professional teaching here. Robert was a member of Rotary Central Club; Sandra was a member of The Ontario Registered Music Teachers’
Association (ORMTA/Hamilton/Halton Branch) - an auspicious combination!

Robert and Sandra presented their ideas to their colleagues later that month, and The Rotary Burlington Fall Music Festival was formed. Robert was tasked with finding representatives from the four Rotary clubs: Rotary Burlington, Rotary Central, Rotary North, and Rotary Lakeshore. Sandra had to organize a music committee from ORMTA members.

In May 1999, Mike Taylor became the festival’s inaugural benefactor with his donation of $5,000, making the first Rotary Burlington Fall Music Festival a reality. Mike continues to generously support the Festival to this day. Festival week was scheduled to start November 15, 1999, with the Grand Festival Concert on Friday, November 19. Under Joan Myers, the music committee mailed syllabi to music teachers within a 50-mile radius of Burlington. Registrations poured in during the last week of September — double the anticipated number, presenting the board with a new challenge: how to schedule 800 performances in just four days!

Success! The Grand Festival Concert was spectacular. Speeches were made by Robert and by Heather Laliberte, ORMTA President. The performers awed the audience. It was an exhilarating time for all involved and a sleepless 24 hours for the music committee.

The Festival grew to 1,200 entries the next year thanks to its friendly reputation, earned in large from the diligent work of the volunteer board, the music committee and the hundreds of volunteers. The Festival also has tremendous support from people such as inaugural board member Reg Irish and his family, who established the Mark Irish Memorial Fund that awards more than $1,500 in scholarships annually. We hope that the Burlington community will attend the 10th Rotary Burlington Music Festival in November 2008. Sadly, Robert Elstone passed away April 12, 2007, before this story could be told. But his name and commitment to the Festival will live on in the music that is shared.

Burlington Footnotes present a Cool Cabaret

Swing and tap, comedy and quartets—a full range of performing talent will be on display at the 3rd annual Come to the Cabaret. Burlington Footnotes artists over the age of 50 will be performing at the Dofasco Centre for the Arts in Hamilton on Wednesday, August 27 at 2 pm and 7 pm.

Talent from around the Golden Horseshoe will team up under the Artistic Direction of Rosemarie Maurice for two performances of cool fun. After each show, audience members are invited to dance their troubles away with the popular senior’s band Side by Side providing the sounds of classic pop music. Tickets are $20 ($17.50 for groups of 20 or more) and are on sale at boxoffice@theatreaaquarius.org or by calling 905-522-7815. Drinks and snacks will be available. Come help celebrate the talents of the 50+ generation.

Community Consultations

As part of the city's strategic planning process, Board President Debra Tymstra made a presentation to Burlington’s Strategic Planning Team. The Performing Arts Burlington presentation focused on -- The establishment of a coordinated leadership mechanism for the Burlington arts community; the focused implementation of the Cultural Strategy; the completion of the Performing Arts Centre to a high standard of technical excellence and utility - issues that we have heard about from our members.

PAB Presentation to City Strategic Planning Process 2007.05.17
PAB Presentation C&CS Parking 2007.04.17
PAB Presentation C&CS Governance Models for the Burlington Performing Arts Centre 2007.06.19
PAB Presentation C&CS Governance Models for the Burlington Performing Arts Centre 2007.09.17

City of Burlington's Cultural Strategy

In the spring of 2006, Burlington's City Council passed a 10-Year Cultural Strategy as a framework to guide future municipal cultural planning. To read Burlington's Cultural Strategy, click here.