Ann Wall: Developing my Minpin character for Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs with Ballet Cymru

For the ballet Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs which I am currently performing with Ballet Cymru, I am dancing a Minpin which is a forest sprite. The ballet is based on Roald Dahl's version of the tale from his book Revolting Rhymes. He also wrote a book called The Minpins. Minpins are little people who live in the forest and these have been incorporated into the company's production of the ballet. We are the characters which back up the story. Over the next few weeks we are performing at the Sadler's Wells in London and the WMC in Cardiff. So to help me with the characterisation of my role I have created a reflection of my Minpin personality and movement quality. I have also created a collage to help me make sense of the role creatively.

My Minpin personality

I am inquisitive and thoughtful but I tend to get quite frantic and am easily shocked and excited.

My Minpin movement quality

Lyrical, stretchy, long, linear, mystical, exotic.

I find this role actually challenges me quite a lot, as although it is technically not too bad and there is a lot of my own choreography within it, I actually find it harder not to be a ballet dancer and to get into the rather comical personality! Also because I only had 5 days to learn to ballets when I joined the company in September, I had to perform the ballet before I was feeling confident in what I was doing. Then I have been refining as I have gone a long. However, this has been a challenge because there have also been a number of changes of cast, with new dancers popping in and out so our space is always changing. I think that this ballet has really helped me to develop my confidence on stage though just through having to perform even though I was not feeling overly confident in what I was doing to begin with. Naturally I have some perfectionist tendencies so I really feel that this has benefited me. It is also great fun to be apart of this ballet and to contribute to the comedy of it. Because we are also touring Romeo and Juliet at the same time it is nice to have the contrast.

Below is a collage I have created to help with the development of my character