Holding the Tail of the Wolf 2026
After a hugely successful course last year, I am delighted to be offering another year-long storytelling course in collaboration with Chris Salisbury of Wildwise down in Devon.
Please see below for further details and bookings.
A beautiful and immersive training programme for anyone who longs for deeper connection to the wild world and to the stories that are hungry to be told.
‘Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.’
Sue Monk Kidd, ‘The Secret Life of Bees’
“Holding the Tale of the Wolf offers a unique combination of developing as a storyteller at the same time as stepping closer into wholeness with the more-than-human-world. A deep AND deeply enjoyable journey, full of beauty, exploration and connection.”
Amanda, 2025 participant
Date: Apr-Nov 2026
Price: £2550*
Location: Dartmoor/South Devon
Event Type: Storytelling training
Age Range: Adults only
The Call
What is it to be a storyteller and carrier of stories at this time?
Our future is and has always been shaped by the stories we inhabit and tell, on both an individual and collective level. Ever since the first ‘Once upon a time’, humanity has been guided along the wisdom trail by making meaning through the invisible hand of story. All cultures share the languages of image, symbol and metaphor and the stories arrived around the fireside thousands of years ago with the capacity to guide, educate, entertain, challenge, heal and inspire.
However, most of us who are or would be contemporary storytellers are ‘orphaned to tradition’ – that is, we exist outside of a defined oral tradition and do not have a body of mythic story that weaves us into the web of creation. Stories, like people, have been uprooted, and the spaces in which we can connect to deep time through story have been colonised, diminished and pushed to the margins. This programme takes seriously the question of how we nurture a relationship with the deep stories from a place of authentic personal, contemporary experience.
The Navajo (Dine) people call the act of storytelling ‘making it holy’, and this underpins and informs our approach to storytelling as a practice and an artform. Using stories themselves as guides, and a range of nature connection and depth practices, we invite the cultivation of a storytelling practice grounded in dialogue between the personal and the mythic.
‘I recognized myself in the mirror of the stories– and only then did it become clear to me how to negotiate the quandary of my life. And so the stories– more than just food, more than just nourishment, are medicine. Not specifically to heal– because we have a fantasy of healing– which is that the wounds and the scars will be gone, and we’ll be just as we were before the affliction ever landed on us. But to heal, as I mean it, is to make the wound a source– a generous and generative source– of what you have to give and bring into the world.’
What is the course?
This programme offers an immersive and creative exploration of what it is to be a carrier and teller of stories in these extraordinary times. Our syllabus offers a wild and imaginal trail of breadcrumbs that invites us back to a sacred source – the wellspring of the natural world. A nature-connected storyteller – now there’s a thing! It is an invitation to deepen your apprenticeship to the role of storyteller and what that means for you and your wider community.
The journey is centred on five residential modules of 5-6 days, supplemented where possible, by a masterclass from a visiting practitioner. These five modules will be hosted in Devon and taught by Jo Blake and Chris Salisbury. The syllabus teaches the fundamentals of embodied storytelling through exploring a range of traditional stories, as well as foregrounding the process and practice of ‘threshold crossings’ in wild nature. This not only informs the stories we tell and the way we tell them but allows us to inhabit ourselves and the world we live in in a more engaged and animated way. How do we till the earth of our own being to be a carrier of story? How might story take root in us?
Course Structure
THE FIVE MODULES – An Overview
MODULE 1 — The Clearing: Animal Kin & Orientation
Awaken your senses to the other-than-human world through embodied practices, ways of greeting, and working with stories of animal and plant kin. Become familiar with the shape and rhythm of oral stories, and meet story as a living being. Tune into your human-animal body. Arrive at the fireside.
MODULE 2 — The Forest Path: Shapeshifting Stories & Bodies
Strengthen your storytelling skills through greater expressivity, rhythm, physicality, and imaginative fluency as we explore stories of shapeshifting. Learn to follow the tracks of story, taking them into nature and telling them to and in different sites. Pay attention to the stories that hail you and the way the living world responds.
MODULE 3 — The Mountain: Threshold & Vision Fast
A two-night solo immersion in wild nature marks the midpoint of the journey. This ceremony invites a deep encounter between teller and the living stories of the other-than-human world… the place from which the stories come.
MODULE 4 — The Village: Returning with Embers & Story-Shaping
Return from the threshold with “changed eyes.” Integrate your experience into story and give it voice. Explore compositional practices, and the intersection of autobiography and myth.
MODULE 5 — The Hearth: Service & Cultural Offering
Working artistically with all you’ve learnt and experienced, craft a story offering for an invited audience. Creative engagement in the storytelling event – setting the space, working with audience, critical reflection. Articulate your story-medicine, share your gifts, and learn to offer story in service to culture, community, and the Earth.
There will also be assignments in between the modules to develop the practice
Module Dates
April 22-26 / June 29-July 3 / Sept 11-17 / October 16-20 / Nov 18-22
What will I learn?
Storytelling Skills
You will learn to work with:
- Repertoire: a range of traditional stories, including folktale, fairytale and myth
- Voice: tone, rhythm, texture, pace
- Body: physical expressivity, gesture, presence
- Imagination: image, symbol, metaphor
- Composition: structure, pacing, narrative design
- Process: the journey from page to performance
- The storytelling event: creating space and atmosphere
These skills are taught through practical exploration, play, embodied exercises and experiential learning in a range of environments, including round the fire, in nature and in the village hall.
Storycarrying Capacities
You will cultivate:
- Deep listening to land, weather, and more-than-human beings
- Relationship with your own mythos, dreams, and imaginal life
- Ecological attention and sensory presence
- Threshold-crossing skills, including a guided vision fast
- Ethical awareness and responsibility in holding story as ‘medicine’
- The ability to offer stories in service to community and the Earth
This strand is developed through time in nature, ceremony, guided reflection, and the transformative practice of solitude.
Who is the course for?
- Storytellers and performers of all disciplines who want to rewild their practice.
- Educators, activists and change-makers who wish to influence the agenda with the power of story.
- Anyone who loves story and sees their own potential as a storyteller.
- Anyone who loves the Earth and wishes to be in creative service to a more promising future.
“I came as someone who told stories and left a storyteller” Jen, 2025
“This was an utterly transformative course. I felt the tendrils of story and nature grow with each module: I’ve grown as a storyteller, a human, and a wild beast. A unique and special blend of practical storytelling skills with a mythic personal journey, surrounded by lush scenery in one of Britain’s last wild places” James, 2025
“It’s a beautiful, challenging course, that helps develop one’s skills in emergent storytelling, in relationship to the Earth & all of her sentient beings” Bo, 2025
“If you want to build your skill set and understanding of storytelling, and see the process for story selection, refinement and performance to a live audience, while learning from some of the best, this course is for you!” Sophie, 2025
How much does it cost?
- Regular price @ £2,550
- Low waged @ £2,050
- Supporter rate @ £2,950
Bursaries potentially available – depending on Supporter donations and the overall economy of the programme.
Location
Venues across South Devon, including Dartmoor. Details to follow.
There is further information about what to bring, getting to the course locations, meals, etc. on the Wild Wise webpage.
If you have any questions about the programme please contact them directly as they are the host of the course.
How do I book my place?
Click the link below to go to the WildWise booking form page. complete the form registering your interest in the course, and someone will be in touch with further information and booking details.
Course Carriers
Chris Salisbury
Chris founded WildWise in 1999 after many years working as an education officer for Devon Wildlife Trust. With a background in the theatre, a training in therapy and a career in environmental education he uses every creative means at his disposal to encourage people to enjoy and value the natural world. He has worked with Ray Mears, John Rhyder, Joseph Cornell and Steve van Metre, amongst many others. He is also a professional storyteller aka ‘Spindle Wayfarer’, and is the founder and Artistic Director for the Westcountry Storytelling Festival. Chris is also trained as a Be the Change facilitator and offers symposiums for interested groups.
Jo Blake
Jo is a storyteller and interdisciplinary performance maker working at the intersection of storytelling, dance and theatre. She has worked as a storyteller since 2001 and has a PhD in Contemporary Storytelling Practices from the University of Chichester, and an MA in Dance Theatre from Trinity Laban. She is co-founder of the Anima Mundi School of Storytelling, and founder of contemporary storytelling training course, Body, Breath and Story. Her most recent project, HERESY, is a multi-stranded art project inspired by the Gospel of Mary Magdalene: “Blake is a phenomenal storyteller”, A Younger Theatre; “Blake is remarkably in tune to the shifting of the world… a paradigm of natural storytelling” The Wee Review. www.jo-blake.co.uk
How much will it cost?
Course Fee
£2000
Early Bird Fee
£1800
(if booked and paid by February 28th 2022)
Fee to be paid in full before the start date. However, please get in touch with me personally if you feel called to attend the course but cannot afford the fees all in one go.
Where is it?
Location
We are in the recently renovated Old School in the beautiful village of Abthorpe, Northamptonshire.
Accommodation
Participants will be responsible for booking their own accommodation. A number of residents in Abthorpe are happy to offer rooms on a private arrangement at a reasonable cost. There is also a good village pub, and cooking facilities are available in the Old School if needed.
‘Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.’
Sue Monk Kidd, ‘The Secret Life of Bees’
Ready to book?
To book this course, click the link below to visit the Wild Wise website who are hosting the course.