Storytelling requires a skill and years to master the art. The oral tradition of storytelling, once an integral part of Indian cultural life, has been pushed to the fringes by the pervasive reach of films and televisions. Revival of the art form which encompasses stories we hear from childhood from grandparents to theatrical performances can be credited to the dedicated artists like Dr. Vayu Naidu.
London-based but Indian-born, Dr. Vayu Naidu is the first person to get a doctorate in performance in storytelling in Europe and India. She credits her parents and grandmother with instilling love of storytelling in her.
Her grandmother Allarmelu Mangathai Naidu was an unpublished Telugu poet and writer. She used to recite the Telugu version of the Ramayana to Dr.Vayu Naidu, which inspired the love of story telling in her. Her father too was a natural raconteur, which also played a role in instilling an interest in her in story telling.
Storytelling is a way of understanding culture, both your own and that of the others. Dr. Vayu believes that hearing stories stimulates our curiosity and increases our emotional literacy. ‘Unlike reading, hearing requires total attention and this is what helps the listener make an emotional journey along with the storyteller.
Dr. Vayu Naidu though based in London more than ten years, said she still had a passion for Telugu food and films.
Storytelling is a tough artform in the sense that nothing is written. It all comes from the memory of the storyteller and the performer has to remember everything and then enact and interact with the audience.
Born in New Delhi, Dr. Vayu got a doctorate in performance storytelling from the University of Leeds in 1994 after getting an M.Phil from the Central University in Hyderabad.She started off as a lecturer at Stella Maris College in Chennai.
‘Storytelling has the power to breakdown barriers, set up communication with and engage people, challenge conventions and help assemble the fragmentation in life and make it whole,’ says Dr.Vayu.
She has collaborated with artistic director Chris Banfield, who is also her husband, in many of the artistic presentations by her group, Vayu Naidu Company Limited, which she founded in 2001 and her main aim in setting up her own company was to basically push her boundaries as an artist. Dr.Vayu is the artistic director of the company.
Dr.Vayu, who last year took company’s latest performance Anne Besant in India to Allahabad, New Delhi and Chennai is keen to keep cultural ties with India evolving.