Jewish midrash speaks of Torah being black fire written on white fire. Black fire refers to the words that are printed. They can be debated, interpreted, analyzed, and influenced by context, but the words themselves are permanent and unalterable. White fire is the space on which the words rest. They are spaces between words and even between letters.
Storytelling takes image of black and white fire and brings it to life by embodying it. The words spoken are black fire. As much as possible, they are shared as directly as we have received them. The white fire is the pauses and the physical space we create to give context and meaning to the words. It is the white fire that separates storytelling from reading a story.
ASL storytelling uses space to give shape to the signs that are communicated. Expressions clarify whether a sign is a statement, a question, or an exclamation. That's not so different from the way biblical translators insert punctuation marks into the original Hebrew or Greek to differentiate between a command and a statement. Signing also creates spaces for characters to live and move. Stories live in face-to-face interaction, the white fire where the black fire can be received.