Fleur completed her Post Grad Diploma in Applied Storytelling (2023), under the tutelage of storyteller and tradition bearer Shonaleigh Cumbers. She is a director of Story Commons CIC and a member of The Storytelling Choir. She has completed Level 1 & 2 courses in Lithuanian Pirtis sauna tradition with Bath Master Birutė Masiliauskienė from the International Bath Academy, Lithuania. Supported by the excellent instruction and traditions passed on by Shonaleigh and Birutė, Fleur has brought sauna master practice and traditional oral storytelling together to create the unique art form of sauna storytelling; combining the simple elemental pleasures of wood, flame, stone, steam, leaf and word for beautiful, meaningful and fun, communal bathing experience. She is Artist in Residence at Wild Spa Wowo, Sussex and tells at Stanmer Sauna Garden on Saturdays. She includes natural scents, body treatments and pirtis leaf whisking techniques to enhance the storytelling to a multi-sensory experience. A phrase commonly heard from participants of her events is…

‘ Why don’t we always do this?’ 

She began her journey of sauna storytelling in 2018 after attending the first Beach Box Sauna Spa. Soon after she was collaborating with the team to create sauna story events and later told regularly at Wildspa Wowo where she became Artist in Residence; creating short philosophical story rituals and fairytale rituals for the Wednesday Community Sauna Sessions. Since Autumn 2023 she has told on Saturdays at Stanmer Sauna Garden, honing her craft and working with over 60 traditional stories to create immersive storytelling rituals for nature connection and well being. Stories are shared with herbs, leaves, fruits, salts and clays that combine to make beautiful body treats and treatments which echo and amplify the story.

I tell myths, legends, fairytales and folktales. It is a mistake to think traditional stories are just for kids. They are the shared heritage of peoples that help us understand ourselves in relation to other human and non-human beings. When a story is heard, we see images in the cinema of our mind. We feel nourished when we are told a good story, because it is a creative process for the listener as much as the teller. The teller says some words, the listener sees them in her imagination; this collaboration of communal image-making brings us close and feels good because we are in creative flow. The experience is a different kind of inwardness than sitting in silence in a sauna. It is a little more peaceful than chatting with friends and differently stimulating compared to other, less wordy, sauna ritual practices.

Fleur has been teaching philosophy (6th Form) and telling stories for over 30 years. She ran Lunarsea Storytelling Club in Brighton with Xanthe-Gresham Knight for many years. And has collaborated with music therapist Tina Warnock of Belltree Music Therapy, to create The Dusty Bluebells Project; taking nursery children to care homes for inter-generational story, song and music-making.

Email fleur for booking or bespoke commission requests.