Home | Speakers: | Illinois | Storytellers and Performers | Dennis Paige

listed in Illinois Storytellers and Performers

Dennis Paige

With close ties to the earth, Native North American cultures are a crucial link to understanding a living balance between human society and nature. Dennis Paige's dramatic 45 minute Native American program to fit the season will captivate the audience's hearts with stories, songs, drumming, circle dancing and sharing with an authentic layout of colorfully drawn indigenous items of interest. The highly entertaining animal character vocal impressions used in the program are voices through which the wisdom of Native Americans can speak in today's language. Tailored to meet the needs of the individual group, young or old, this storytelling program is available September to June.




Dennis has extensive professional background as a naturalist, ecology minded storyteller, green thinking lecturer, natural landscaper and environmental journalist. He has trained under the Second City School of Comedy in Chicago, served for two years on a United Nations Earth Charter Planning Committee for the City of Chicago, and runs his own earth caring enterprise called Swiftdeer-Paige.

As a naturalist-education specialist for over 15 years at a nature sanctuary in Schaumburg, Illinois, Dennis has continued to educate people young and old to the daily detailed awes and wonders of nature through interpretive walks, day camps, night hikes and campfire programs. He also leads outdoor ecology focused adventure camps in Wisconsin for youth with an emphasis on challenging low impact recreational experiences.

For four years Dennis wrote an award winning column for the Daily Herald called "Green Light: Living with Nature" circulated throughout the northwest Chicago suburbs, covering local, regional, and global environmental issues.

For ten years he served on a committee to help plan and coordinate an annual Earth Day Celebration sponsored by School District 54 and played as a percussionist-singer in an contemporary folk band called Prairie Smoke for over 12 years.

He holds Masters Degrees in both Environmental Education from the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute through Lesley University (Cambridge, MA) and in Social Studies from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL).

He presents a thought provoking workshop-lecture program titled "Living As If The Earth Mattered" to colleges and other interested organizations.

Serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa, living in his own rotunda style self made adobe home without electricity for 6 years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, canoeing, camping and backpacking throughout many wilderness North American national parks have instilled a rich spectrum of engaging worldly experiences.

Dennis tries to live as he preaches, conserving energy by riding to and from work on a bicycle, composting regularly, and eating a mostly vegan diet at home. A dedicated advocate of wetlands, he has successfully campaigned to protect them from development. Over the past few years, he has designed and applied environmentally friendly natural landscaping to individual homeowners and a condominium association and received media attention in the Chicago Tribune for his unique conscientious approach.

His captivating ecology-Native American storytelling "Journey From The Heart" has been performed to thousands of people, young and old, in hope of inspiring action toward a caring kinship relationship with nature. Receiving the ceremonial blessings of Sitting Bull's pipe by Lakota pipekeeper Tatonka Ska (father of the Spotted Red Bead People), Dennis honors "the Red Road" with a deep conviction and love for the Native American ways. Having recently been adopted into the Northern Branch of the Spotted Red Bead People, Swiftdeer-Paige prides himself with an Earth-centered consciousness in his daily life. This program is recommended for people over 6 years of age. A one month advance notice for bookings is required.

"You've Got To Be Kidding Me!"

(45 minute storytelling program intended for adults)
Belonging is the most important function a community serves. Indeed, that is the message that lies at the heart of longtime storyteller Dennis Paige's program. Growing up in the 1950s in a small industrial suburb of Chicago solidified a sense of belonging to a world larger than himself and prepared him with his parents' guidance to participate in the larger community, human and otherwise. Just like every generation, the Fifties carried a unique cultural bag of absurdities and creative challenges to belong into the "real world." Listen to delightfully rich tales of a not so distant time and see if your generation outmatches Dennis' memorable relationships in his community when sandlot baseball ruled, TV westerns thrived and the feeling of terror related to the possibility of being invaded by Martians.


Where can you find the nearest storyteller? The answer may be
closer than you think. Dennis Paige believes we are all born with the ability to tell stories, and that each of our lives is filled with a rich treasure of life experiences though we live in a fast paced electronic age that doesn't nurture those gifts. A naturalist, writer, and professional storyteller, Dennis guides children in creating, telling, and listening to tales with the wild world in mind and stories of personal connections with nature. Activities over a two hour period will help provide the necessary tools for kids to enjoy the art of storytelling to their schools, family, friends, or even their pet animals.

Guiding the child through a series of playfully engaging exercises through the imagination, Dennis shows how to use our innate storytelling skills to recover lost connections with nature, escape the video age of passive entertainment in the quest for people to people time, and give parents a window into their children's lives.

Two hour storytelling workshop for adults also available under 'Awakening The Hidden Storyteller As If the Earth Mattered".

Sampling of previous performances since 1992 by Swiftdeer-Paige

Nature Centers, Schools, Clubs, Organizations, Village/Park District special events, and Businesses

Earth Day Fest Frank Whiteley School Hoffman Estates, IL	Hanover Countryside Elem. Park Streamwood, Il	Volo Bog State Park Volo, IL
Heller Nature Ctr. Highland Pk, Il	Lincolnwood School Evanston, IL	Lowrie Elementary Elgin, IL
Americana Health Care Center Arlington Heights, IL	Glenview Fall Fest Glenview, IL	Evanston Ecology Center Evanston, IL
Winston Churchill Elementary Glenview, IL	Solomon Schechter Day Schools Northbrook, IL.	Clybourne Shopping Mall Chicago, Il
John Mills Jr. High Elmwood Park, IL	Long Grove Apple Fest Long Grove Village, IL.	Chicago Waldorf School Chicago, IL
Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit Elk Grove Village, IL	Earth Day Fest Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, IL	Winetka Public Library Winetka, IL
Bruning Elementary Wilmington, IL	Upstart Crow Store Evanston, IL	Enders Salk Element. Schaumburg, IL
Blue-Gold Dinner for Cub Pack 164 Des Plaines, IL	Winter Fest Lake Catherine Nature Center Palos Heights, IL	Illinois Home Educators Conference, Arlington Heights, IL.
Roosevelt Elementary North Attleboro, MA	Sunrise Lake Outdoor Education Center Bartlett, IL	Edgewood School Woodridge, IL
Plainville Elementary Plainville, MA	NEDSRA Fall Fest Woodale Park Woodale, IL	Stevenson Elementary Elk Grove Village, IL
Henking Elementary Glenview, IL	Earth Day Fest Sauk Valley Community College Dixon, IL	Cub Pack 50 Park Ridge, IL
Cub Pack 148 Schaumburg, IL	Chicago Area Council Boy Scout Jamboree	Falls Elementary North Attleboro, MA
Family Fair Morton Arboretum Lisle, IL	Earth Day Fest North Park Nature Center Chicago, IL	Camp Grove Green Lake, WI
Quest Academy Palatine, IL	Montessori Academy St. Charles, IL	Chicago Earth Charter Summit Conference Chicago, IL
Border’s Books & Music Wheaton, IL	Kinder Care Aurora, Il	Kinder Care Elk Grove Village, IL
Maine Audubon Society Hog Island, ME	Cub Scout Pack 243 Lombard, IL	Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, IL
JFK Health World Barrington, IL	Hawthorne Elementary Elmhurst, IL	Cub Pack 396 Schaumburg, Il
Cub Pack 181 Park Ridge, IL	Montessori Academy Glen Ellyn, IL	Blue Gold Cub Scout Dinner Cub Pack 163 Glenview, IL
American Bank National Health Fair Union Station Chicago, Il	In Spirit Symposium on Sacred Spaces Soldier’s Field Chicago, IL	Ecoquest camp Lincolnwood, IL
Earth Day Fest Bollingbrook Pk. District Bollingbrook, IL	Rockford First Night Rockford, IL	Winter Fest Itasca Public Library, Itasca, IL.
Edison Summer Festival Park Ridge, IL	Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL.	TEAM Conference, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
Old Town School of Folk Music Theater for Performing Arts in Chicago
Reed Turner Woods Log Cabin The Long Grove Park District Long Grove, IL
Enchanted Valley Bed & Breakfast Cross Plains, WI
Frog Exhibit Opening Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, IL
Devil's Head Resort Devil's Head, WI	Eagle Ridge Resort Galena, IL

For information about this and other programs
offered through Swiftdeer-Paige, contact Dennis.

Swiftdeer-Paige is an earth caring enterprise established since 1989.

Ideal for festivals, school assemblies, library programs, scout gatherings, birthday parties, children¹s hospitals, detention homes, day care centers and special events such as Earth Day.

Home | Testimonials | | Resources for Storytellers

2006, Write On Speakers Bureau

Box 95
Dodsland, Sk.
S0L 0V0, Canada
(306) 356-4634
jenim@sasktel.net