An Analysis of 'Pied Piper'

 Throughout Unit 4 Combined Arts I have maintained a reflective and analytical review of my progress in developing and applying skills for a Combined Arts Performance. 

The final assessed performance of our reimagined version of 'Pied Piper' took place Monday 24th January 2022 in the performance space at Suffolk One. 

I will now complete a SWOT analysis of my final performance. 

Strengths  

Anecdotal evidence

Following the performance I received feedback from the audience members. The following comments are evidence of the strengths of the performance; They told us that we clearly communicated the themes and it was obvious by linking social media and the Piped Piper to social issues such as how social media influences people on a daily basis and manipulates them,  'An old tale can relate to modern day technology and issues.',  'Really combined everything to a really good level', 'lighting and sound was really well chosen and supported the mood', 'portrayed that sense of childlike activity as well as fitting in with the rest of your ensemble'. 

These comments made me feel really happy about my performance and how it was performed. It also helped me understand it from the audience perspective and how they see it without knowing what its about before they watch it.  

The teacher and director gave me personal feedback on my performance. The following comments are evidence of strengths of my performance. Tanya told me I 'showed an effective application of skills' she also told me that she liked my 'narration' in the opening of the performance. Tanya also said that I really engaged with the audience with my delivery of what I was saying. 

Hearing these comments helped me realise that I did understand the performance more than I thought I did.  

Responsibilities 

I had the responsibility of making sure I had the correct costume and making sure I had it on time for the rehearsals. My costume was different types of beige, I feel this was very Earthy tones which correlated with the 'dirty' style of the performance. By successfully having the correct costume I made the performance come together as we all helped each other to Earthy with all our different neutral tones. 

In the children section I had the responsibility of making sure everyone had a skipping rope when I threw them out of the box which they were in. I had to make sure I was throwing them into the right direction so that they would be able to get them. I also had to make sure that I wasn't hitting the others with the skipping ropes as they were behind me and I couldn't see them. By successfully distributing the skipping ropes I was able to make sure that everyone had one and there was one left for me. If I did not hand out the skipping ropes properly the skipping rope dance would not have gone right and our section would have been messed up. 

In the rats duet I had the responsibility of making sure I had over the top and exaggerative expressions to really portray a rat and their 'dirty' ways. I had to make sure that I never came out of character through the whole rat section and made sure my movements were very abrupt and not soft and flowy to help me create a rat. By successfully creating a rat character, this help my performance develop as it made my movements looks as if they were mad for the rat. 

In the children section a responsibility I had was the dance section with the skipping ropes. I needed to make sure I knew the timing and the movements very well to help develop the section. By successfully knowing the dance, I helped the section look well rehearsed and put together. If I didn't know the dance or messed up during, this would of made the section look bad if one person just suddenly stopped or was doing the completely wrong movements. 

In the performance I had the responsibility of making sure my chair was in the correct place after moving it to a new position I also had to make sure that when I was moving the chair, I was moving it in silent and placing it down on the floor gently rather then scraping across the floor and banging it on the ground. By doing this successfully, I made sure that the chair was in the correct place for the next person who was going to sit on it and that it didn't disturb the person talking at the time or the music which was playing at the time. 

Weakness

Following the performance I received feedback from the audience members. The following comments are evidence of areas that could be developed or improved in the performance; they told us that our expressions weren't as exaggerated as they could have been. They also mentioned how we came out of character in sections and we didn't maintain our characters. Another weakness they mentioned was how our body language didn't always correspond with what was going on in the performance at that time. I feel this feedback help me understand what to improve on in future performances. 

The teacher and director gave me personal feedback on my performance. The following comments are evidence of areas that could be developed. Tanya said that I needed to think about my extension and my movement skills in the final dance piece, Tanya also said that I needed to check my timing in the final dance too. I agree with what Tanya said and hearing this also helped me know what to develop in future performances. 

In the performance in the section where Ella goes under the spotlight, when I watched it back I noticed that I was in the spotlight with her. This is a problem as this was supposed to be a section that stands out and starts off a whole new section. For this section to work effectively, I needed to move over more to be out of the spotlight and take a step back a bit . I feel I made this scene not look as effective as it could have been if I wasn't as close and let Ella just have the spotlight. I feel next I need to be more aware of my surrounding. 

In the section when we are leaning left and right whilst were on the chairs, I was out of time with everyone else as I was going a bit slower than everyone. I feel that if my timing wasn't off then it would have made that section more put together as everyone was going at at the same time except for me. Another section I needed to improve on with movement was the beginning section after I say the line 'deep pockets' I mess up the arm movements as Dolly and Chloe are doing it correct and I am doing something completely different. If I didn't mess up on that arm movement the section would look  much better then it does. 

In the opening, when I say my lines I feel like they were rushed and not spoken properly. This made me loose the pronunciation and the diction when I was speaking them. I feel that I needed to slow down with what I was saying and remember to take breaths in between the lines. By doing this, the audience would have been able to understand me more and know what is going on as my line is the first line of the performance so that was the line that needed to be heard. 

In the children scene I feel that I wasn't as exaggerative as I could have been. I feel my eyes could have been widened to show excitement with what's happening in front of me. I could have also been more larger with my movements to show that I was a child and really happy with everything around me. 

Opportunities 

Unit 4 Combined Arts and the creation and the performance of the reimagined version of 'Pied Piper' has provided me with many new opportunities to develop my range and versatility as a performer. 

In the skills workshop I watched and analysed the dance theatre approach of Matthew Bourne and developed understanding of the actor dancers who work in his company New Adventures. In the children's section I applied this dance theatre  combined arts approach in creating and performing the character of a child. My movements were gestural with over exaggerated facial expressions and mime. I have a lot of experience as a actor and a dancer through the CTEC course and my experiences outside of collage. This was the first opportunity I had of combining these art form. Watching Bourne's 'Nutcracker!' helped me realise how effective it can be when dance and movement are characterised through incorporating facial expressions and character intent.     

   

In the skills workshop I explore the idea of creating movement as a child to a piece of music, I had the responsibility of picking the piece of music, thinking about its mood, rhythm and how it could be linked to to being lured by the skipping ropes. I had to think about where in the music we used this and how we create this direct correlation between movement and music.  have a lot of experience as dancer through this CTEC course and my experiences outside collage. This therefore was an opportunity I had of exploring how a piece of music can be selected to effectively convey a mood and character. This is very similar to Pina Bausch's approach of the music she uses. 

I enjoyed how we had the opportunity to play a variation of characters and had different responsibilities to do, which is something I wouldn't normally do as usually its just one role that you play in a performance. This was a really interesting aspect of this performance and made it really engaging to me as a performer. By doing this, I always had something to do and keep me busy and developing my performance. From being as narrator, to being a rat and the finally a child. I feel that theses different characters all worked well in creating the performance.

We had the opportunity to be free and create our rat duets using a dance by Pina Bausch which is 'Rite of Spring' as inspiration . We had a list of words to go off when creating our duets and these help us think of multiple different ways we could create our duet. I feel by having the opportunity to create our duets like this really gave us inspiration without being taught a dance to be out duet. 

Threats

A threat we had was that a member of our group left in our children dance section. This left us with a problem as we had a gap missing and a section  that needed to be redone. We worked over this issue and redid the section that was messes up due to this. I think we worked well with this problem and over came it. 

Absence became an issue through the creation of the performance as when someone would be off, they would miss out critical information to help develop the performance and move on the another part. We had to keep going over the same section multiple times because of this problem. Eventually we got over this issue as people were going over the work and learning it whilst they were off ill. 

Memory was another threat I had as I kept forgetting lines and cues for certain sections. I got over this threat by making sure I knew the words off by heart and could put the moves to the words which I was saying.