By JAKE JOHNSON
Storytellers from across the nation gathered in Tennessee recently to share their own unique styles and art forms at the National Storytelling Festival — and Amherst’s own Motoko Dworkin was among them.
Dworkin, who performs under the mononym “Motoko,” traveled to Jonesborough, Tennessee, where for one weekend, she performed in tents and theaters to crowds that she estimates stretched into the hundreds.
“Storytelling crowds, they are unlike any other… I was buoyed by [them]. I felt like I was walking on clouds,” Dworkin told the Gazette Tuesday.
The festival, which began in 1973, highlights oral tradition from around the world, and featured nearly two dozen storytellers, with material ranging from music performances to “tall tales.”
That first festival used a stage made of hay bales and wagons, with an audience of about 60; now, in its 43rd year, thousands of tourists passed through massive tents set up as performance sites in historic Jonesborough.
Dworkin tells both humorous and serious, sometimes grim, stories. Her latest CD, “In Ghostly Japan,” offers renditions of several medieval folktales, which are often scary in nature. She premiered a new piece at the festival, a tale about the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, which she said was received well.
“The tent was filled up, and they were turning people away,” she said.
“I like both big and small performances, but here [at the festival] are the best of the best,” said Dworkin, who accepted an invitation to perform there for the fourth time since 2007. Before she left for the event, she had anticipated a fatiguing “death by storytelling,” based on her scheduled 4½ hours of performance time.
The 52-year-old Japanese native came to the United States from Osaka, Japan, as an exchange student. While studying political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dworkin discovered the art of miming from Jody Scalise, a premier physical comic and resident of western Massachusetts for decades, now living in Charlemont. Today, she says, the pantomime technique she learned from Scalise is a staple of her storytelling, along with spoken word and songs.
“A story can be told in three sentences, but I want to do something that makes an audience point and say, ‘That’s about me,’ ” she said. “I want people to identify with the stories, and there is something there in physical performance that isn’t in words.”
Dworkin says most people’s idea of pantomime is the simple routines of illusion, like the classic “man trapped in the box,” in which the performer uses her hands to offer the illusion of being stuck in a confined space with invisible walls. But Dworkin sees much more potential for the art form: Abstract and evocative, dance-like performances, she says, have the power to move people beyond traditional storytelling.
“Our job is not to build an invisible wall, but to break it down,” she said. “Performing is about being in the moment, always be in the moment onstage. The true art is the circulation of energy between me and the audience.”
The most important development in her performing career came during time spent learning from her mentor, Tony Montanaro, a world-renowned mime artist who founded Celebration Barn, a school for miming, improvisation and storytelling in South Paris, Maine. She studied these performing techniques with Montanaro from 1992 to 2002, during the last decade of his life, and credits him with giving her the tools to help her succeed.
In her essay “My Teacher Tony,” written in 2003 after Montanaro died, Dworkin describes the nature of their relationship as student and teacher: “Although I always benefited immensely from his wonderful exercises and critiques, it took me many years to begin to grasp the essence of his teaching. … What he ultimately taught me was to be truly fearless and free on stage.”
More than a decade later, she says, she only appreciates Montanaro more.
“He was not just a teacher in this art form; he was a teacher for my life,” she said. “You don’t find that often.
Dworkin began performing professionally in 1993, and since then has traveled around the country, performing in schools and at festivals.
“I go to many schools, so I’m always performing for kids. But even with adults, my stories try to appeal to the children in all of us,” she said. “I want my narratives to entertain, engage, but above all, to always be relevant.”
Her work as a storyteller even landed her a role on the iconic TV show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” in 1993. “It was a very laid-back and charming production,” she said, noting that the show’s star spoke the same way in real life as he did on TV — to adults and children alike. “I was nervous,” she said, “but I had a good experience.”
Motoko Dworkin performed as a featured storyteller each day at the National Storytelling Festival, held Oct. 7-9. For information about Dworkin, visit motoko.folktales.net/index.html.