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Arts & Communication Using multiple languages within an improvised fairytale

understanding alongside an acceptance of an alternative (a) A leader and/or possible co-leader/s who have
and novel metaphorical world of surprise. This change was experience with arts-based improvisation and
similar to developments mentioned in the section about imaginative storytelling.
the initial emergence of using different languages within (b) The leader(s) need to facilitate an open group climate
the fairytale. that encourages playful expression using some

Elements emerged during the session that encouraged improvisational structures at the beginning of any group.
creativity. As suggested by Sanchez and Athanases, a safe, (c) The groups should have some common life experiences
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collective, and playful group culture, as well as multimodal together from which to develop arts-based expression
creative forms, were helpful in making this positive and fairytales that can extend introductory verbal
emotional setting. The group that engaged in this session presentations.
all had the common experience of COVID-19 – at least a (d) Groups could incorporate several arts-based
shared core experience – had been improvising together for expressions such as spontaneous art, music, poetry,
a long time and had developed a good creative climate. In dance, and story-making into integrated collaborations.
this climate, various creative moments facilitated the story (e) Fairytales can be based on these arts-based expressions
to come together, especially when the Mandarin storyteller and common experiences to help focus the storytelling
switched to English. The tale had nowhere to go, and then, that has both originality and relevance.
there was a transformation when the stories were integrated (f) Storytellers can use nonverbal aspects of the art, as
using the group’s improvised storytelling. The theme of well as the physical aspects that come with the musical
the coming together of East/West, Mandarin/English, the communication and dance interaction to guide their
whale/the little boy, the water environment/the kingdom story-making when using different languages.
on land took place during the integration. The boy’s (g) Groups can be encouraged to use the differences in
understanding of the whale and subsequent acceptance as languages within fairytales as creative challenges to
special within the story was an important turning point. It story development, particularly in small steps that
was a transformation when the group could also understand include planning for new steps in story development.
each other in the metaphor of the story. (h) Verbal reflections after improvisation can address
social/emotional and cultural issues using the fairytale
The positive outcome of the fairytale, where the boy examples.
was laughing in all languages, was suggested in the earlier
trio, where the dances transitioned from closing oneself When groups are beginning to experiment with
off/turning away to opening and connecting. The verbal improvisation to create metaphors and the symbolism
reflective comments by group members that followed the of fairytale making, the arts-based improvisational tasks
fairytale point to a sense of hope and community that can be presented in more semi-structured steps that are
emerged from these creative communications. In this sense, introduced by the leader rather than being completely open.
the fairytale was a culmination of previous tendencies and Examples can include having spontaneous art structured
a resolution of separate perspectives that were introduced to express social and emotional aspects of the beginning,
by the participants at the beginning of the session. middle, and end of a story using color and design of the
art making. The dance episodes could be organized using
4. Limitations and Future Applications rhythmic instruments as accompaniment and specific
body shapes that suggest interaction in which multiple
In this article, we reviewed a single session. We offer only language story parts are added. Poetry could be created by
preliminary thoughts about how this success might be observers as alternative verbal statements for the dancers
applied by others, such as educators and/or counselors and while they are within such shapes. Group reflections after
researchers in other settings. While the participants did the performance of these shorter scenes could be used to
have personal experiences with the health crisis that is likely inform the group when more free improvisation can be
similar to others throughout the world, they also shared a attempted. As fairytales are made using different languages,
unique interest and experience with playful improvisation these reflections could be used to begin discussions around
that limits the potential for directly using this form of open
improvisation with groups that do not have this background. cultural issues.
It is likely that a presentation and teaching of basic arts- Another limitation that needs to be considered in future
based playful expression and ensemble collaboration will applications is based on the themes that are generated in
be necessary for the design of future groups. However, the the arts-based expressions. The reviewed fairytale ended
observations do suggest guidelines for such future projects. with a group-created communication of positive emotion.
These elements could include: While other emotional responses are suggested within the

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 12 doi: 10.36922/ac.2079