LISE MARIE SEIDELIN. FORTÆLLER - STORYTELLER
About
Lise Marie Seidelin Nedergaard.
Storyteller, songwriter, and paper artist. Has performed in community houses, museums, theatres, churches, folk high schools, schools, and at festivals since 1992.
My grandmother and mother were both professional storytellers. From 1944 to 1980 my grandmother traveled all over Denmark retelling novels, biblical stories, and folktales for adult audiences, and from the late 70'ties, my mother took part in the revival of storytelling and began teaching others. I owe my interest in the art of storytelling to them.
I have a love for folktales from the windy west of Denmark, where I grew up. And, after studying the Russian language as a grown-up, I have been drawn to the folktales and epics from Central Asia, Caucasus, Siberia, and Persia. But I also take on other kinds of stories for particular audiences, sites, and events. I have performed at festivals and storytelling events in New York, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Spain, Holland, Ireland, and Denmark.
I had the privilege of being the artistic director of the International Storytelling Festival from 2013 - 2019. The festival was supported by H. C. Andersen's Festivals and was created for Odense Museum. I worked for 12 years as a storyteller and scenographic designer at The Tinderbox; a culture house that invites children and grown-ups into the world of Hans Christian Andersen through storytelling, theater play, scenographic installations, and art. The Tinderbox, now Ville Vau, is part of the new museum: The H.C. Andersen House. For more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acyZu01vofg
Publications:
Shows
The Snow Queen
Storytelling performance with internationally renowned Danish jazz bass player Mads Vinding. In the story, we travel like the pieces of the devil's broken mirror through the world and all the way up to the faraway and freezing North. The Snow Queen is H.C. Andersen's poetic and dramatic fairytale of friendship, innocence, seduction, and the search for ways to melt a frozen heart.
The Stone Flower
A Russian tale of art, love, and madness, The Stone Flower is among the most beloved and famous stories from the book "The Malachite Casket", written by P. Bazhov, who based his stories on miners' tales from the Ural Mountains.
The Emperors Daughter.
A journey through the world of the folktale along the Silkroad and across the ocean from far away Kirgistan in Central Asia to the west of Denmark. Moving, satirical, humourous and dark tales.
The hidden treasures
Storytelling performance based on the remarkable life of folklore collector Evald Tang Kristensen woven together with some of his best tales from the once wild west of Denmark.
Coffee to go
11 blues and cabaret songs about the life of a single woman in Copenhagen. Music, lyrics, vocal and piano: Lise Marie Seidelin Nedergaard. Bas: Yasser Pino, Percussion: Ayi Solomon. Clarinet, sax, taragot: Morten Carlsen
The apricot tree
In 2005 I wrote lyrics and music to the album "Abrikostræet", featuring internationaly renowned Jazz artist Mads Vinding, and vocalist Sinne Eeg, now one of scandinavias leading jazz singers. Released by Cope Records in 2005.
A farmhand was my mother, a fish was my father.
In 1998 I contributed with recorded stories and illustrations to a book on Scandinavian folktales, written by Jung analyst Pia Skogemann.
Kameldrengen
"The Camel Boy", a book published in 2002. A retelling of 19 Near Orient and Middle East folktales, set in a frame story from Turkmenia and illustrated with paper cuttings.
Leyla and Madjnun - a love tragedy.
In November 2002 a retelling and adaption from German of the Arabian-Persian love tragedy, "Leyla og Madjnun", by the medieval master poet Nizami, was published. With support from The Ministry of Refugees, Emigrants and Integration and The Ministry of Education for the project, which was carried out together with the former Society for Promotion of Living Culture in the School.
The story of the lovely Farishtamokh.
In 1999, I began working with The Society for the Promotion of Living Culture in the School, Copenhagen. The society received money from the Danish Ministry of Internal Affairs to arrange a tour on a large number of public schools with folktales from the Middle East and Central Asia. The tour resulted in the publication of the book "Historien om den dejlige Farisjtamokh", with a retelling of three folktales from Tadsjikistan, Iran and Turkey, made in cooperation with the museum Davids Samling in Copenhagen and the Danish Refugee Aid.