The following is an example of a story-in-motion for a child who needed courage and concentration. It was presented over a few months work, always beginning at the beginning and carrying through to the new verse or movement sequence to be learned. An illustration of a scene was also made by the child and one by the practitioner.
It is given as a service for understanding the story-in-motion, which was first conceived and demonstrated in 1992 in Wandin Springs, Victoria. Since that time, many ‘stories’ have been developed; each one is individually suited to the therapeutic situation.
Sequences and poetry for adults is linked together by dramatic gestures, song and movement.
– Katherine Rudolph
On the evening of the day before the dare, we were journeying to the northwest, the Canadian Rockies, mountains of rugged granite cliffs and the caves of the great brown bears.
Grandfather’s cabin was far from the village of Mineola, where the train was chugging in at last. There was Grandfather’s old jeep, and as the train whistled a last farewell, we two crossed the platform and hopped up to the front seat for the bumpy drive to Raven’s End; the old homestead was built out of timber in the fashion of days long gone by – a real log cabin.
Grandfather, in his red-checker neckerchief and faded overalls, nevertheless hobbled ahead of us and beckoned us in to a supper of soup and scones. The holiday was on!
That night, sitting around the hearth, the dare of adventure was voiced. It was an old tradition at each of our yearly meetings, that Grandfather would voice his dare. One year it had been ‘to climb to the eagle’s nest on the jagged cliff at High-Crossing’. Another time, we had ‘caught a Night-Peacock-Eye moth at Hawthorn Glen’. This time our holiday adventure was ‘to get photos of the great brown bears awakening from hibernation’. A brand new camera was already packed, before we said, “I dare!”.
The next morning we awoke to the sound of the old clocking chiming 8:00;
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Time is passing in motion
Morning, noon and midnight chimes
Wind the clock and tell the time
Hours and hours are left behind
On the Tick-tock
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Time is passing in motion”
No school today. “Let’s speak the verse of affirmation and be on with it”:
Grandfather was ready with porridge. Provisions were packed, and we were ready for the dare. My red leather boots were snake-proof and polished to a sheen.
“Red for courage,” said Grandfather. “Here is your magic staff, passed down from generation to generation. One of its properties is making whoever touches it immediately invisible. Take this with you to the cave of the bears and DO NOT FEAR. My experience has always been that the staff works and holds true, even amidst a den of mountain lions. If you meet the woodcutter, greet him for me. You are to climb the ‘Blackberry Crag’ above the cave to the right of the brook. There is a crack in the rock through which the sun shines today, at equinox time. From there you can see into the cavern of the bears which I discovered in my youth. If the photos turn out well we shall send them to the ‘Natural Science Journal’.”
So, off to the trial down the magic trail we left without ado. Everything is strange in Grandfather’s woods:
When we reached the babbling brook, we found that the stream welling up was much like a fountain!
‘Slinging, slanting and jingling
The wonder fountain sprinkles spray
The wonder fountain sprinkles
A slinging, jingling, slanting spray.’
Then, indeed, turning to the right, they spied the cliff of the bear cave, covered with blackberry brambles and practically impenetrable. Perhaps an axe would cut through to the top. It would take hours to return and get one…
But look at what happened: The woodcutter arrived. “Grandfather says hello.” With that, his axe began cutting blackberry brambles to clear away a track to the top of the crag, where finally, the cleft in the rock was revealed