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The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience.^[1] They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Performing arts include a range of disciplines which are performed in front of a live audience, including theatre, music, and dance.

Theatre, music, gymnastics, object manipulation, and other kinds of performances are present in all human cultures. The history of music and dance date to pre-historic times whereas circus skills date to at least Ancient Egypt. Many performing arts are performed professionally. Performance can be in purpose-built buildings, such as theatres and opera houses; on open air stages at festivals; on stages in tents, as in circuses; or on the street.

Live performances before an audience are a form of entertainment. The development of audio and video recording has allowed for private consumption of the performing arts. The performing arts often aim to express emotions or feelings.^[2]

Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers. Examples of these include actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, circus artists, musicians, and singers.^[3] Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting, choreography and stagecraft. Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup, stage lighting, and sound.

Theatre is the branch of performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience,^[4] using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle.^[5] Any one or more of these elements is considered performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style of plays, theater takes such forms as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, illusion, mime, classical Indian dance, kabuki, mummers’ plays, improvisational theatre, comedy, pantomime, and non-conventional or contemporary forms like postmodern theatre, postdramatic theatre, or performance art.

The relationship between performers and audience has varied from formal and distant proscenium productions to more intimate formats.^[6]

In the context of performing arts, dance generally refers to human movement, typically rhythmic and to music, used as a form of audience entertainment in a performance setting. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic, and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet.^[7]

Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who practices this art is called a choreographer.^[8] The concepts of dance as a powerful impulse and dance as a professionally choreographed art are important connecting ideas.^[9] Modern dance emerged as a 20th century response to ballet strictures,^[10] emphasizing freer bodily movement and self-expression.^[11]

Dance serves both social and artistic functions.^[12] It features in ceremonies, rituals, customs, and celebrations.^[13] In Black and Indigenous communities, dance is often inseparable from music and communal ritual.^[14]

Music is an art form which combines timbre, pitch, rhythm, and dynamics to create sound.^[15] It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and is divided into genres such as folk, jazz, hip hop, pop, and rock, etc. As an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats, and can be planned or improvised.

As music is a protean art, it easily coordinates with words for songs as physical movements do in dance. Moreover, it has a capability of shaping human behaviors as it impacts our emotions.^[16] Jazz combines written arrangements with improvisation, while in classical Western concert music faithful interpretation of the written score is central.^[17]

Film is a dominant performance medium in Western culture.^[18] From Thomas Edison‘s kinetoscope in the 1890s, cinema developed into a mass media with the Hollywood studio system.^[19] Film acting differs from stage acting, projecting to a camera rather than to an audience, with elements visually developed on screen.^[20]

Circus arts include clowning, acrobatics, aerials, and object manipulation.^[21] Ancient Egyptian depictions survive that appear to show juggling and acrobatics.^[22] Contemporary forms range from traveling circuseses to Cirque du Soleil.^[23]

The broader field of performing arts include opera, musical theatre, magic, mime, spoken word, puppetry, performance art, improv, and stand-up comedy.^[24]

As early as the 19th century BCE, a large religious ceremony in Egypt may have had theatre-like elements.^[25] The earliest text of a play is the Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus. According to Theodor Gaster, the origins of theatre date to two thousand years before Greek theatre.^[26]

Greek playwrights including Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides developed tragedy in the fifth century BCE,^[27] while Aristophanes, Cratinus, and Menander developed comedy.^[28] Greek theatre was performed in outdoor auditoriums^[29] with actors performing in masks.^[30] Greek theatre spread over the Mediterranean and beyond.^[31]

India produced a performing arts tradition. Bharata wrote a treatise on dramaturgy in the 2nd century BCE that formulated Indian theatrical theory and practice.^[32] Dramatists such as Bhāsa, Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti produced a rich heritage of dramatic literature.^[33] The Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata remain dramatist favorites.^[34]

In China, the dramatic tradition goes back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE) involving music and theatre.^[35] Shadow puppetry emerged during the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE).^[36] During the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), Emperor Xuanzong established the Pear Garden to train musicians and performers.^[37] In the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), the Zaju variety play reached its peak, having Beijing opera as a descendant.^[38]

In medieval Europe, theatre was entwined with the Christian Church, with mystery plays adapting Biblical stories and dramatizing sermons.^[39] Secular entertainment included itinerant performers like jongleurs who combined singing, telling jokes, clowning, juggling, tumbling, or magic tricks.^[40]

In West Africa, griots shared oral history with music and storytelling, reciting genealogy and specializing in musical instruments. They also had social roles like political advisers.^[41]

In the medieval Islamic world, the ta’ziyeh were shadow puppet theatre telling religious epic dramas, with Shi’a ta’ziyeh focused on the death of Husayn ibn Ali.^[42] The ta’ziyeh was a living tradition through the 1930s when it was banned in Iran.^[43]

In the 15th century performing arts, along with the arts in general, saw a revival as the Renaissance began in Italy and spread throughout Europe plays, some of which incorporated dance, which were performed and Domenico da Piacenza credited with the first use of the term ballo (in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas Ducendi)^[44] instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli. The term eventually became Ballet.^[45] The first Ballet per se is thought to be Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx‘s Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581).^[46]

By the mid-16th century the Commedia Dell’arte, which used improvisation, became popular in Europe.^[47] In this period, a professional theatre industry emerged in England.^[48] William Shakespeare‘s plays in the late 16th century developed from this new class of professional performance.

In 1597, the first opera, Dafne was performed^[49] and throughout the 17th century, opera would rapidly become the entertainment of choice for the aristocracy in most of Europe, and eventually for large numbers of people living in cities and towns throughout Europe.^[50]

A proscenium arch and curtain used in Italy during the 17th century established the traditional theatre form that persists to this day.^[51] In England, the Puritans banned theatrical performance until 1660, after which women began to appear in plays.^[52] The French introduced formal dance instruction in the late 17th century.^[53]

The introduction of the popular opera buffa brought opera to the masses as an accessible form of performance.^[54] Mozart‘s The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni are 18th century landmarks.^[55]

In the early 19th century, the Romantic movement emphasized individual self-expression, emotional directness, and nationalist energies.^[56] In opera, this led to the spectacular grand operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer^[57] and then to the musical dramas of Giuseppe Verdi.^[58] The Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork) of Richard Wagner united dance, music, and poetry into one expression.^[59] Influential ballet repertoire included Giselle (1841) and Swan Lake (1877). Romantic ballet provided more prominence to the female dancing body and pointe work.^[60]

The 19th century also saw the expansion of popular performing arts, driven by urbanization and the growth of commercial entertainment.^[61] Variety shows, vaudeville, and burlesque offered working class entertainment.^[62] Gaslight and later electric lighting transformed the visual perception of theatre.^[63]

Modern dance began in the late 19th century and early 20th century in response to the restrictions of traditional ballet. Pioneers Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller focused on natural, expressive movements over conventional technique.^[64] The arrival of Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes (1909–1929) revolutionized ballet.^[65] Diaghilev’s collaboration brought together choreographers, dancers, composers, authors, visual artists, and fashion designers.^[66] New ballet companies with strong national identities were founded across Europe starting in the 1930s.^[67]

Konstantin Stanislavski‘s “System” revolutionized acting in the early 20th century, introducing psychological realism.^[68] His methods were adapted into method acting which continues to have a major influence on actors.^[69]

The motion picture was invented in the 1890s^[70] and developed into a global mass market after World War I.^[71] Hollywood’s studio system created film actors and shaped star image.^[72] The subsequent development radio and television affected the diversity of performance.^[73]

Following World War II, opera and ballet were built up, supported by state subsidies.^[74] Postmodernism in the performing arts was largely a phenomenon of 1970s and 1980s,^[75] challenging the boundaries between art forms.^[76] In contemporary performing arts, digital technology is being integrated with live performance.^[77]

Indigenous African performance traditions are rooted in ritual, storytelling, movement, and music.^[78] Performances were communal with the storytellers and audience interacting and participating in call and response, which is characterized by a vocalist singing a phrase that is then echoed or responded to with a new phrase by the other performers and/or audience. This ancient tradition is rooted in many African cultures.^[79]

The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with the ceremonial plays of Ancient Egypt. The story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the known beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion. The Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus, the oldest surviving illustrated papyrus details the performance during the Sed Festival and has been used as evidence of the birth of theatrical tradition, which western scholars often attribute to ancient Greece.^[80]

A Griot is a West African oral historian who uses storytelling, poetry, and music to express the genealogies and historical narratives of the tribes they represent, often playing instruments such as the kora.^[81] This ancient profession is upheld in a position of community leadership.

The most popular forms of theater in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta’ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali‘s sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. It commonly refers to passion plays about the battle of Karbala and its prior and subsequent events. Sir Lewis Pelly begins the preface of his book about ta’ziyeh maintaining that “If the success of a drama is to be measured by the effects which it produces upon the people for whom it is composed, or upon the audiences before whom it is represented, no play has ever surpassed the tragedy known in the Mussulman world as that of Hasan and Husain.” ^[82] Years later Peter Chelkowski, professor of Iranian and Islamic studies at NYU, chooses the same words for the beginning of his book ‘Ta`ziyeh, ritual and drama in Iran’.^[83] Live secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta’ziya theater.^[84]

In Iran there are other forms of theatrical events such as naqqali (story telling), ta’ziyeh, ru-howzi, siyah-bazi, parde-khani, and ma’rekeh-giri. Prior to the twentieth century, storytelling was the most recognized form of entertainment, although today, some forms still remain. One form, Naghali, was traditionally performed in coffeehouses where the storytellers, or Naghals (Naqqāls), only recited sections of a story at a time, thus retaining regular cliental. These stories were based on events of historical or religious importance and many referenced poetries from the Shahnameh. These stories were often altered to bond with the atmosphere or mood of the audience.^[85]

Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd millennium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. The last element made it the origin of the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals, and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters.^{[citation needed]}

Bharata Muni (fl. 5th–2nd century BC) was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle‘s Poetics. Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term rupaka, which means portrayal.^[86]

The Ramayana and Mahabharata can be considered the first recognized plays that originated in India. These epics provided the inspiration to the earliest Indian dramatists and they do it even today. Indian dramatists such as Bhāsa in the 2nd century BC wrote plays that were heavily inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata.^{[citation needed]}

Kālidāsa in the 1st century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India‘s greatest dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram (Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramōrvaśīyam (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. In comparison to Bhāsa, who drew heavily from the epics, Kālidāsa can be considered an original playwright.^{[citation needed]}

The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda. Many other dramatists followed during the Middle Ages.^{[citation needed]}

There were many performing art forms in the southern part of India, Kerala is such a state with different such art forms like Koodiyattam, Nangyarkoothu, Kathakali, Chakyar koothu, Thirayattam and there were many prominent artists like Painkulam Raman Chakyar and others.^{[citation needed]}

There are references to theatrical entertainments in China as early as 1500 BC during the Shang dynasty; they often involved music, clowning and acrobatic displays.^[87]

The Tang dynasty is sometimes known as “The Age of 1000 Entertainments”. During this era, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that was primarily musical.^[87]

During the Han dynasty, shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. The plays depicted adventure and fantasy. Symbolic color was prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The heads were removed at night, in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life. Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the 11th century, before becoming a tool of the government.^{[citation needed]}

In the Song dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form with a four- or five-act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, the best known of which is Beijing Opera, which is still popular today.^[88]

In Thailand, it has been a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots drawn from Indian epics. In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand’s national epic Ramakien, a version of the Indian Ramayana, remains popular in Thailand even today.

In Cambodia, inscriptions dating back to the 6th century AD indicates evidence of dancers at a local temple and using puppetry for religious plays. At the ancient capital Angkor Wat, stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have been carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar reliefs are found at Borobudur in Indonesia.

During the 14th century, there were small companies of actors in Japan who performed short, sometimes vulgar comedies. A director of one of these companies, Kan’ami (1333–1384), had a son, Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1443), who was considered one of the finest child actors in Japan. When Kan’ami’s company performed for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), the shōgun of Japan, he implored Zeami to have a court education for his arts.^[89] After Zeami succeeded his father, he continued to perform and adapt his style into what is today Noh. A mixture of pantomime and vocal acrobatics, the Noh style of theatre has become one of Japan’s most refined forms of theatrical performance.^[90]

Japan, after a long period of civil wars and political disarray, was unified and at peace primarily due to shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1600–1668). However, alarmed at the increasing numbers of Christians within the country due to the proselytizing efforts of Christian missionaries, he cut off contact from Japan to Europe and China and outlawed Christianity. When peace did come, a flourish of cultural influence and growing merchant class demanded its own entertainment. The first form of theatre to flourish was Ningyō jōruri (commonly referred to as Bunraku). The founder of and main contributor to Ningyō jōruri, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725), turned his form of theatre into a true art form. Ningyō jōruri is a highly stylized form of theatre using puppets, today about 1⁄3rd the size of a human. The men who control the puppets train to become master puppeteers, when they can then operate the puppet’s head and right arm and choose to show their faces during the performance. The other puppeteers, controlling the less important limbs of the puppet, cover themselves and their faces in a black suit, to imply their invisibility. The dialogue is handled by a single person, who uses varied tones of voice and speaking manners to simulate different characters. Chikamatsu wrote thousands of plays during his lifetime, most of which are still used today.^{[citation needed]}

Kabuki began shortly after Bunraku, legend has it by an actress named Okuni, who lived around the end of the 16th century. Most of kabuki’s material came from Noh and Bunraku, and its erratic dance-type movements are also an effect of Bunraku. However, kabuki is less formal and more distant than Noh, yet very popular among the Japanese public. Actors are trained in many varied things including dancing, singing, pantomime, and even acrobatics. Kabuki was first performed by young girls, then by young boys, and by the end of the 16th century, kabuki companies consisted of all men. The men who portrayed women on stage were specifically trained to elicit the essence of a woman in their subtle movements and gestures.^{[citation needed]}

In the Pre-Columbian era, indigenous civilizations of the Americas had established performing arts traditions, before the arrival of Europeans. These included Aztec and Maya rituals and ceremonies, which often involved elaborate dances, music, and theatrical performances.^[91] The Incan rituals and festivals also featured music, dances, and theatrical representations of myths and legends.^[92] Northwest Coast cultures, such as the Haida, Tlingit, and Kwakwaka’wakw, had traditions of storytelling, mask carving, and ceremonial dances.^[93]

The colonial period brought a fusion of European and indigenous cultural influences. Spanish, French, and British colonizers introduced European theatrical traditions, including plays, operas, and ballets. Indigenous peoples incorporated elements of their traditional performing arts into colonial-era productions.^[94]

Melanesians are the indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, an area stretching from New Guinea to Fiji.^[95] Melanesian dance often exhibits a cultural theme of masculinity where leadership and a unique skill set are important for sharing with the community.^[96] These dances demonstrate the soldiery of a man; however they can also represent profitability such as encouraging conflict resolutions or healing.^[97] The costumes of impersonating dancers incorporate large masks and unhuman-like characteristics that act to imitate mythical figures. The music can also act as a voice for these magical personas.^[96]

• Entertainment
• Mixed martial arts
• Outline of performing arts
• Performing arts education
• Performing arts presenters
• United States copyright law in the performing arts
• Persian theatre
• Theatre of Japan
• Western culture

• Media related to Performing arts at Wikimedia Commons

• Bibliography of Performing Arts in the East
• European Collected Library on Performing Arts