Sound Circle Speech
Working with one’s own speaking can be a powerful path of self development.
To a trained ear, the spoken word reveals the inner, wisdom-filled soul life of the speaker. Speech carries a spiritual potency that moves both the speaker and the listener. When our speech becomes a blessing, we too are blessed.
This is reason enough for anyone to journey on the path of cultivating living speech, but there are other gifts too, particularly for those whose vocation it is to guide children. Speech training enables the speaker to consciously use ego forces to direct the flow of the etheric body and engage the astral body; As a word gives shape to thoughts and experiences, the ego structures and guides the process. It is through this activity that we become worthy of imitation. Furthermore, Speech is the main instrument of the teacher whose speech patterns are absorbed by the children - every day, every hour, for years, no matter how penetrated their speech may be. A teacher’s speech may bless, bludgeon or rattle on like dry leaves. When mastered, speech can be a most powerful means for guiding children through daily activities, making classroom management invisible, and can provide generous spoonful's of soul-spiritual nourishment, not only through enlivened images of story and poetry but through the very movement within living speech that washing through the children, supports their life forces and nurtures imagination.
Sound Circle Speech
Craig Giddens & Daniel Stokes have dedicated their lives to cultivating a living speech and to guiding others to enlivened speech. In this new training they will lead us on this path of speech for self and human development, especially suited for teachers. If you are so moved, please join us in a Sounding Circle for the good of speech.
Starting July 18, 2022 - Whidbey Island Waldorf School - Langley WA campus
Registration Deadline is June 30th.
Enrollment Options
Stand Alone Summer Session - $2,688.00 (with the option to continue in the academic year session)
Academic Year Session - $4,692.00
One Year Speech Program - $7,380.00 (with the option to continue to complete a full Speech Training)
The tuition for this course is payable with different payment plans, please reach out to information@soundcirclecenter.org for more information.
Program Structure and Calendar
2 weeks (12 days) July 18-30 2022 - In-person on Whidbey Island, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest
3 days February 17-19 2023, 3 days April 28-30 2023 - In-person once on the East Coast and once on the West Coast (Details TBD)
27 Online Weekly Group Sessions
27 Online Weekly (1:2) Coaching Sessions
Resources
Sound Circle Speech Schedule
In person days emphasize the activity of moving, artistic speech.
Daily in person schedule template:
8-8:30 Opening Sound Circle
8:30-10 Speech
10:10:30 Break
10:30-11 Guided Practice
11-12 Eurythmy
12-1:30 lunch break
1:30-3:00 Speech
3:00 break
3:30-4:00 Guided Practice
4-5 spatial dynamics
5-6 guided practice
6-7:30 dinner break
In person dates:
July 18-30 2022
February 17-19 2023
April 28-30 2023
Distance learning dates:
Weekly distance learning days will deepen anthroposophical studies in relation to speech.
27 Sundays of online lecture and discussion with the entire class for 2.5 hours 12:00-2:30- Pacific time
9/25,
10/2,9,16, 23, 30
11/6,13, 20, 27
12/4,11,18
1/8,15, 22, 29
2/5,12, 26
3/5,12,19, 26
4/2,16, 23
5/7, 14, 21
One hour sessions of 1:2 instruction each week for 27 weeks to be scheduled with instructors.
Faculty
Craig Giddens - A Goetheanum recognized speech artist since 1978, Craig has been a Waldorf class teacher, speech teacher and a mentor in Waldorf schools in both the U.S. and in Europe for more than fifty years. He was a founding member of the Center for Anthroposophy in New Hampshire, a founding member of the Speech School of North America, and has been a part of the faculty at the Antioch New England Waldorf Teacher Training since it began in 1982. He is currently teaching speech at Sound Circle Waldorf Teacher Training in Seattle and at the Waldorf High School Teacher Training in New Hampshire. He lives in Freeport Maine where he is mentoring Waldorf teachers and teaching speech at the Maine Coast Waldorf School.
Daniel Stokes has worked within the Waldorf Education movement since 1975. He received his teacher training at Emerson College, England and a diploma for Speech and Drama in Sydney, Australia. He co-founded Mythos Storytellers and Looking Glass Theater which performed and led workshops in schools across Australia. Over the past 24 years Daniel has been a class teacher and has brought a love for the spoken word, specifically its use in the classroom, through courses in poetry, storytelling and drama in Waldorf training centers throughout the U.S. He currently lives with his wife in Portland and spends some of the year abroad training teachers and mentoring in Waldorf Schools.