Storytelling HQ - Stories and Music - Dawn Ellis and friends

16/04/2026

When I was an actor I always loved the rehearsals at least as much as the performances - all that possibility, all those experiments, all that fun ... For a couple of years now my partnership with Maspindzeli singers has brought my wildest creative dreams into being. Such beauty, such mastery of the crunchy harmony, such willingness to adapt to the moment!

On Saturday there will be singing and storytelling AND an audience and I will be in Heaven. Happy spring 🌳
PS Do come! Link in first comment.

12/04/2026

Well - this song was wild before, but then Tom came!
I LOVE rehearsing when it's like this.
Spring Fervour next Saturday, wild singing and saucy storytelling.
Come and join the sheer joy and exhilaration
Link to tickets in first comment.

02/04/2026

"Dave, you're sounding too beautiful - can you make it a bit - erm - a bit more raunchy? Think Benny Hill..."
Benny Hill might be going a tad far and we now all have the image of that leer, those fat fingers grasping at ladies' un**es, nicking them from the washing line. We're huddled outside a church in Highgate on a chilly March Saturday, giggling like naughty school children, aware that we're about to disturb the force in this peaceful street. Normally we rehearse inside the church, but the singers who will be embellishing my story have arrived early to run through the cues. There is a trickle of mothers and toddlers leaving the church and we wait before letting rip - we don't want to create a public nuisance.
The concert is 18th April and I would love to see you there. Come and discover how and why this lyrical Georgian story suddenly turns Benny Hill-like - and what exactly was going on with the shepherd's crook as he watched the lady bathing?
Ticket link in 1st comment

07/03/2026

Are you in Marrakech this afternoon? Open mic and general shenanigans at Storytelling Cafe - 3pm - all welcome. No experience of any sort necessary!

06/03/2026

SPRING! It will almost definitely be here by April 18th, won't it? I am devising and rehearsing in an unseasonably chilly and rainy Marrakesh, while being Storyteller in Residence at the wonderful Storytelling Cafe there. Once again I'll be telling juicy stories in musical partnership with the talented and acclaimed Maspindzeli Choir.
Tickets are unbelievably good value, obviously, but selling like hot cakes.
There will be wine... And possibly hot cakes.

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/maspindzelichoir/2024242?fbclid=IwY2xjawQXqQJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe5CKdB2JWlcJ9t0gwddWssL0BhoCudiFeE6QC8HigMh0kQX5HImiH3k7s1dc_aem_ZGtxSQrddTBQeErMab2KHg

Maspindzeli Spring Fervour Songs and Stories from Georgia – St Mary's Church Primrose Hill, Sat 18 Apr 2026 - Maspindzeli Choir and International Storyteller - Dawn Ellis bring you songs and stories from the Caucasus.

06/03/2026

Yesterday evening I popped back to the Storytelling Cafe on impulse - it was rainy and cold and people were huddled in their djellaba and hurrying home. At the Cafe I found a bewildered looking couple sheltering in the doorway and looking disconsolately out on to the wet street.
‘We’re Lost!’ - they were Nan and Ken from Seattle and lovely Oualid had already called somebody to come and pick them up. I asked them if they’d like a story to lighten their hearts and pass the time. 'A story??’ ‘Yes - this is the storytelling cafe’.
I told them a story from Marrakesh and ,as I was finishing, their guide appeared. Before they left Nan gave me a huge hug and said that this memory would stay with them as a high point of their stay. This is what we do in a world going noisily mad around us - moment by moment we make a difference to people’s experience and help them reconnect with their joy.
Anyone of us would have done this, it wasn’t just me - it was us. And such a privilege to be here for however short a time as the presiding storyteller. 💚

05/03/2026

SPRING! It will definitely be here by April 18th - come and help us celebrate all things joyful and springy. Once again I'll be telling juicy stories in musical partnership with the wonderfully talented and acclaimed Maspindzeli Choir.
Tickets are unbelievably good value, obviously, but selling like hot cakes xx
There will be wine... And possibly hot cakes.

Maspindzeli Spring Fervour Songs and Stories from Georgia – St Mary's Church Primrose Hill, Sat 18 Apr 2026 - Maspindzeli Choir and International Storyteller - Dawn Ellis bring you songs and stories from the Caucasus.

04/03/2025

https://soundcloud.com/thisisriverside/riverside-breakfast-world-record-breaking-storyteller-dawn-ellis-from-richmond

Guinness World Record-Breaking Storyteller
Up at 5am for this lovely little interview with the delightful Jason and Ali at Radio Riverside 98.2 FM I really am a river ratty. Well, this river anyway. I love its vast brown muddiness, its herons and swans and willows, its no-nonsense I'm-a-working-river stare, its tumbling, hurtling, flooding unpredictability, its tides, its flotsam. Its you'll-never-know-what-to-expect-from-me razzle dazzle. Just like a lover. The Thames. There - I've said it.

31/10/2024

Flyers for the same show! 'Shameless' 24th November in North London - but which is best? I love both of them...

Storyteller Dawn Ellis and friends - often accompanied by musicians Tom Morley and other raggle-taggle geniuses perform wild tales for adults and children. They give workshops too. Email for info.

25/08/2024

The Lady Tree and her errant blacksmith had a wonderful warm audience - a full house, braving the torrential rain - some of it INSIDE the tipi and the 10am start ...