Puppetry and Vertigo with Daniele Stolfi
6th-7th November 2025
Edinburgh Balance Clinic
This workshop, for people with an invested interest in vertigo, will introduce and explore ways in which you can use puppetry and puppet-craft to creatively explore and give expression to your experience of vertigo. It will draw on your experience, and that of other people who live with vertigo. We will draw on some of the complexities, difficult symptoms, and feelings that characterise the condition such as loss of balance, mobility, disorientation, dizziness, anxiety, impact on social relationships, etc.
The workshop incorporates arts-based and symbolic storytelling forms and will introduce you to the four basic types of puppets (hand or glove, rod, string, and shadow puppets).
You will be given the opportunity to discover and play with the different puppet genres using a range of simple manipulation exercises and techniques.
You will also be invited to construct your own basic puppets to tell your own stories!
We will follow a collaborative, interactive, and exploratory way of working with puppets and will include time for reflection and discussion on the creative and emotional processes, themes and output.
While there is a therapeutic dimension to the workshop, it is not intended to be a therapy session.
The workshop will also provide a foundation for a public performance planned for a later date. Funding is provided by the Impact and Innovation Fund of the University of St Andrews, and the workshop is free to attend.
For more questions, or to register, please email [email protected] or phone 07743878416.