Denise Markhame
The Organic Storyteller

The Sacred Seven

This bilingual artist of Franco-Ontarian heritage draws from her Dramatic Arts education to breathe life into a traditional repertoire which draws its life from the ‘seven genres.’ From sacred myth and sacrilegious fairy tale to kooky comical folktales seasoned with generous helpings of French Canadian humour, her performances run from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Music please

Inspired by the rhythm in a story or a character this teller may seduce her listeners with any manner of small percussion instrument or give wings to a song whose melody is passionately supported by guitar accompaniment.

Cirque du soleil

Be sure to ask to hear from the Storyteller ‘Sage Dame,’ a role given to her in a first invitation by the ‘Cirque du soleil’ in their production of KABA in 2007. Here the sauvage meets the inner child with whisperings of archetypal consciousness, providing the artist with a new genre, of novel technique and style.

Resident Storyteller

Since 2005 Denise has enjoyed the role of Resident Storyteller at Claude Laplante’sSugar Bush/ l’Érablière Claude Laplante in the Gatineau Hills where she exercises one of her most precious skills – telling to the family group, (listeners of vastly different ages in one session.) This includes indoor and outdoor programs year-round, at the Sugar Shanty, in the Sugar Bush, in the orchards, the Pumpkin Patch, the island, the lake, around the pool and at the Frog Pond in the Witch’s Yard.

Her newest initiative, off site, she has dubbed ‘The Sugar Bush on Wheels’ or la ‘Cabane à sucre mobile’. This program, designed to celebrate the sugaring season with story and song followed by taffy on the snow sur place, tours educational institutions, retirement residences and the commercial sector throughout the Outaouais in spring.

SOLO

With her solo ‘Barefoot’ Denise invites you to share the personal story of her barefoot French Canadian childhood. This piece is a string of unpretentious, drôle personal anecdotes which paint a comic picture of the child meeting the outside world, and then weave their way through a life lived on the road less traveled finally coming to rest on the breath of a gentle and aging Storyteller who remains forever Barefoot in her heart.

Venues

The Organic Storyteller appears at festivals, libraries, museums, schools, daycares, retirement homes, women’s functions, community gatherings, art galleries, radio engagements, scout workshops, cafés, coffeehouses, church concerts, private parties, and her favourite setting - around the home fires, yours or hers. Denise has toured three times in Western Canada.

Education/

• 1984 : Bachelor of Performing Arts: Music & Theatre
  principal instrument voice with Canadian Base Baritone Steven Henrikson

• 1990 :  secondary instrument folk guitar
  
  
• 2007 : fiddle lessons with The Fiddlers Association of l’Outaouais
  Storytelling Workshops with various veteran Canadian & American Storytellers.
  Song Writing Workshop with the Outaouais’s song writers association.
  
  

Art Centre, Detroit Michigan 1981

Experience

1991 – 2001: Montreal Children’s Library – From 1991 – 1993 as Branch Head and Program Animator working with literate and illiterate school-age and preschool children in 3 branches.
From 1993 – 2001 as replacement and special events programmer. All programming, story and music, was done bilingually.
1996 - Guest lecturer on the subject of Storytelling in a variety of venues, including Marionnapolas College, Scouts Canada and several years for the McGill University’s Education Department.
2000 - 2006: Author of a regular feature on mythology and symbolism appearing in the former National Storytellers’ Journal, ‘Appleseed Quarterly’.

Associations

*Member of Storytellers of Canada
(former ‘francophone representative.’ for Canada)

*Member of leRegroupement du conte du Québec (Québec Storytellers)