Susan Strauss

Susan Strauss

About the Artist
Susan is an internationally recognized storyteller and author of four books (three children’s books) and six award-winning audio recordings. For over 25 years, she has presented performances and workshops at multiple international congresses, leading museums, aquariums  and national parks throughout the world, including Australian Botanical gardens, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, National Geographic Society, Royal Botanic Garden Edinbough, National Gallery of Art and Oregon Symphony.  Website: www.straussstoryteller.com 

Credentials:

 Susan holds a B.A. in English and  Masters in Education from the University of Virginia.  She has taught Eurythmy movement at the Waldorf School of Bend for the last thirteen years. Susan is also affiliate faculty at the University of Idaho and Stephen F. Austin State University, teaching storytelling in masters programs on Natural History and Cultural interpretation. Susan has also worked for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, developing curriculum and teaching elementary TAG science programs.

Residencies:

Story Architecture: Storytelling, Language Arts & Movement
Prior to print, language was a full body experience. Poets and storytellers delighted audiences with sounds, rhythmic textures and compositional structures. The power of language to make moving pictures, dramatic emphasis and surprising stillness can belong to your students as it did to ancient storytellers.

Students learn a traditional story by setting the sounds of words into gestures and the plot structure into choreography. The result is a kind of speech dance. Word gestures, developed from vowels and consonants, lead students to understand the use of alliteration and syntax rhythms for building meaning and plot.