1 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

Introducing this book, this field,

and me
The book ~ou hold in rour hand i~ "an" introduLtion to Because performance studies is so hroacl-ranging and
performance l>tudics. There \\ill he others, and that suits open tone\\ possihilities, no one can actually grasp its totalit)
me just fmc . The one o\'erriding and underlying assumption or pre~s all its 'a~tncss and ,ariel) into a single hook. My
of performam.e studies is that the llcld is open. There i~ points of departure arc my 0\\ n teaching, research, arti~tk
no llnality to pt:rlurmance studies, either theoretically practice, amllife expcrictll'l'S. But I am not limited h) thlse.
or operationally. There arc many \oiccs, themes, opinion~. I \\ill oiTcr idea~ far from my center, some e\'en contrary to
methods, and ~ubjccts. As I "ill shm\ in Chapter 2, anything my \alue~ and opinions.
ami C\Cr)thing can he studied "as" performance. But thi~
docs not mean performance stUtlies as an academic discipline
lack' specific subjects and questions that it fm.uscs on.
Theoretically, performance studies is" ide Opt-'ll; practicall),
The boxes
it has cb duped in a certain way, \\ hich I\\ ill clistu~s in thi~
Bcf(,re going on, I \\ant to point out a ftature of thb hook.
chapter.
My text includes no quotatiom, citations, or notcs.ldta!'. arc
Nor docs openness mean there arc no ,alucs. People
drawn from many sources, hut the written mice is my mm.
\\ant, need, and usc ~tandards by which tu lhc, write, think,
I hope this gi,cs the reader a smoother ride than many
and act. As indi\ idual~ and a~ parts of communities and
scholarly tlxts. At the !>arne time, I want my readers to hear
nations people participate and interact with other people,
many mices. The hoxes olfer altcrnati\'c and supplcmcntar}
other species, the planet, and whatc\'cr else is out there. But
opinions and interruptions. The boxe~ open the con\'cr~ation
the 'alucs that guide people arc not "natural," transccnclcnt,
in ways I cannot do alone. The boxes arc hyperlinks enacting
timeless, God-gi\ en, or inalienable. Values bdong to i1leology,
some of the di' crsity of performance studies.l want the cfl'ect
science, the arts, religion, politics, and other areas of human
to be of a seminar\\ ith many hand~ raised or of a computer
endca\Or and inquiry. Values arc hard-won and contingent,
desktop \\ ith many open "indows.
changing mer time according to social and historical
circumstances. Values arc a function of cultures, groups, and
indh iduals. Values can be used to protect and liheratc or to
control and oppress. In lact, the dill'crence between what is What makes performance studies
"Iibert) "and\\ hat is"opprcssion" depends a lot on where )OU special
arc coming from.
This book embodies the \'alucs, theories, and practices of Performances arc actions. A~ a discipline, performance
a certain field of scholarship as understood by one particular studies takes actions \'er) seriously in four ways. First,
person in the eighth decade of his life. This person i~ a jc\\ ish beha\'ior is the "object of stud)" of performance studies.
Hindu Buddhist atheist li\'ing in New York City, married, and Although performance studies scholars usc the "archhc"
the father ol' two children. He is a uni\'crsity professor in th~ extcnsi\'cly "hat's in books, photographs, the archae
Performance Studies Department of New York Uni\'ersit) ological record, historical remains, etc. - their d~dicated
and the Editor ol TDR : The Journal cf P!!iformancc SwJics. He foc..us is on the "repe rtory", namely, what people do in the
directs plays, "rites essays and books, lectures, and leads acti\'ity of their doing it. Second, artistic practice is a big
workshops. Ht: has tra,ded and worked in many parts of the part of the performance studies project. A number ofperfor
world. Who I am is not irrcJc,ant. I will he leading you on a mancc studies scholars arc also practicing artist~ working in
journe). You ought to know a little about your guide. the a\ant-ganle, in communit) -based performance, and
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

elsew here ; othcn have maste red a \ ariel) of non-\

\'e stern Perfo rmance stud1es dra\\ s on and synthesi:tes appro
and \Vcste rn traditional forms . The rdation.;hip aches
betwe en from a\\ ide 'ariel ) of disciplines including perfor ming
study ing perfo rmanc e and doing perlo rmanc e is arts,
integr al. social sciences, femin ist studie s, gende r studie s,
Third , fieldwork as "participant ohsen ation" is a much histor ),
-pri1ed psychoanalysis, queer theory, semiotics, ctholo g).
metho d adapt ed from anthro polog ) and put to new C) bcr-
USl'S. netics, area studic-;, media and popular cultur e theor)
In anthro polog ical fieldwork, partic ipant obser \'ation , and
is a culturall>tudie~. But "perfo rmanc e studie
"a) o f learning about cultures other than that of the s is more than the
licld- sum of it.s inclu~ions" (sec Kirsh cnbla tt-Gi mhlc
''orkc r. In anthro polog) . for the most part, the tt box
"hom e 1). Perfo rmance studies starts \\here most limite
cultur e" is \Vc~tcrn, the "othe r" non -\\'est ern. d-domain
But in discipline-; end . A perfo rmanc e studie s schola r exam
perfo rmanc e studiLs, the "othe r" ma) be a part of one's ines
own texts, archit ecture , 'isual arts, or any other itl'm or
cultur e (non- \\'este rn or \\'este rn), ore\ en an aspect artifact
of one's of art or cultur e not in themse h-es, hut as players in
m\ n hehad or. That positions the perfo rmanc e ongoi ng
studies relationships, that is, "as" pcrl'ormances. I \\'ill .Je,clo
hcldw orkcr at a Brecht ian distance, allm\ ing for critici p this
sm, notion of "as" perfo rmance in Chapt er 2. Briefly put,
iron), and pe r!>onal comm entar) as "ell as symp what
atheti c c\'Cr i-; being studied is regard ed as practi ces,
partic ipatio n. In this acth e \\ il), one perfo rms llcl<h C\ ent~,
\Ork. and heha' ior~, not a' "objects" or "things." This qualit
Taking a critical distance fr01n the ohjeLL<; of study ) of
and self "lh en<.ss" e \ en "hen dealing "ilh media or an:hh al
im ill'S re,i~ion, the recognition that sodal circm mtanc
es mater ial, is at the heart o f pcrli.mnance studie
including know ledgl' itself arc not fixl'll, but subjec s. Thus,
t to performam.T studie s docs not "read" an action or ask
the "rehearsal proceo;<;" of testin g ami re\'i.;inJ Fourt "hat
h, it "text" is being l'nact cd. Hathlr, one inquires about
follows that perlor manc e studils is acthc l) inmhe1l the
in social "heha\ ior" of, lor e xample, a painting: ho\\, "hen
practi ces ami adwJCacics. Man) '' ho practice perfo , and h)
rmanc e whom "a-; it made , ho\\ it interacts "ith those \\
studie.<; do not aspire to illlological neutrality. In fact, ho 'ic\\
a basic it, and lui\\ the p.1inting <.hanges over time. The artifac
theoretical claim i<; that no approach or position i' "neutr t ma)
al." lw rclati\'cl) ~table , hut the perli>rmanns it ueates
Then is no such thing as unhiasl'{l. The challenge is to or take.;
bLcome part in tan chang e radil'all). The perfo rmanc e studies
as a\\ arc a<; possible of one's 0\\ n stances in relatio sdmla r
n to the examines the circum-;tances in \\ hich the painti ng\\ as
positions of others and then take .;teps to maintain or created
change and cxhib itcll; she looks at how the galler) or
positions. building
displa) ing the painting shapes its reception. TI1esc and
Pcrformam.c~ as I ''ill slum in some detail similar
in Chap tl' r kinds of perfor mance studies <JU<.~stions can be asked
2 occur in man) dillcrent in~tam:l's ami kinds. Plrfur of any
rnancc hcha' ior, e\ ent, or material objec t. Of cours e,
must be const rued as a "broa d spectr um" or"co ntinu \\hen
um" of pc rform am:c .;tudics deals \\ ith bcha, ior artistic, e'
huma n aLtions ranging from ritual , pia), sports , c ryda) ,
popul ar ritual , pia) lui, and so on - the questi ons asked arc
cnt<'rtainmcnts, the perfor ming art~ (theat re, dance closer
, music), to ho\\ pc rlorm ance tlu~orists ha,c traditionally appro
and C\cryda) life pcrlor mancc s to the enact ment of ached
social, theatr e and the other perfor ming arts. I discuss and appl)
professional, gende r, race, and class roles, and on to this
healing kind of anal) sis more full) in c,ery chapte r of this book.
(l'rom shamanism to surgc r) ), the media, and the intern
et.
Before perfo rmanc e ~tudies, Weste rn thinkers belicn
~d they
kne\\ exactl) "hat " a~ and" hat" as not "perfo rmanc Barba ra Kirsh cnbla tt-Gim blclt (birth datc not disclo
e." Hut sed):
in fact, there is no histor icall) or cultur ally fixabl Amcrkan J>l'rformalll't' theorist sptdalizing in the acsthc
e limit tils uf
to "hat is or i.; not "perfo rmance." Along the contin cHry1lay life, jc\\ish ptrfonna.nce, and li>lklon. Sht
uum was the
li>Unding thair uf ~YU 's Department of Pcrfnnnamt Studk
new genre s arc added , others arc dropp ed. The under s from
l) ing 191!1 to 1993. Author of Dcstin<~rion Cu/rurc ( 19911).
notion is that any action that i'i frame d , prese nted,
high-
lighted, or displa)ed is a perfor manc e. Many perfor
manc es
belon g to more than one catego ry along the contin
uum . In perfo rmance studies, <JUestions of embo dimen t,
For exam ple, an American football playe r spiking action ,
the ball beha' ior, and agency arc dealt with intercultura
and pointi ng a finger in the air after scorin g a touch lly. This
down appro ach recognizes two things . First, in today's
is pe rform ing a dance and enacti ng a ritual as part world ,
of his cultures arc always interacting there arc no totally
professional role as athlete and popular entert ainer. isolated
group s. Secon d, the dilfcr cnces amon g cultures
As a method of studying performances, the rchtth ely arc so
new profound that no theory of perfor mance is univer sal:
discipline ol perfor mance studies is still in its forma ti,c one size
stage. canno t lit all. Nor arc the playin g fields "here
cultur es
 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

Barbara l< irshenb latt-Gimb lett

Performance studies is more than a sum of its inclusions
Performance studies starts from the premise that its objects of study are not to be divided up and parceled out, medium by
medium, to various other disciplines- music, dance, dramatic literature, art history. The prevailing division of the arts by
medium is arbitrary, as is the creation of fields and departments devoted to each.
To study performance, as an artform that lacks a distinctive medium <and hence uses any and all medial, requires attending
to all the modalities in play. This distinguishes performance studies from those that focus on a single modality- dance, music,
art, theatre, literature, and cinema. For this and other reasons, performance studies is better equipped to deal with most of
the world's artistic expression, which has always synthesized or otherwise integrated movement, sound, speech, narrative,
and objects.
A provisional coalescence on the move, performance studies is more than the sum of its inclusions. While it might be argued
that "as an artform, performance lacks a distinctive medium" <Carrolll 966: 76), embodied practice and event is a recurring
point of reference within performance studies. What this means, among other things, is that presence, liveness, agency,
embodiment, and event are not so much the defining features of our objects of study as issues at the heart of our disciplinary
subject. While some may address these issues in relation to plays performed on a stage, others may address them in relation
to artifacts in a museum vitrine.
We take our lead from the historical avant-garde and contemporary art, which have long questioned the boundaries
between modalities and gone about blurring them, whether those boundaries mark off media, genres, or cultural traditions.
What they found interesting- Chinese opera, Balinese barong, circus - we find interesting.
Such confounding of categories has not only widened the range of what can count as an art making practice, but also gives
rise to performance art that is expressly not theatre; and art performance that dematerializes the art object and approaches
the condition of performance.

1C)C)C), adapted by Kirshenblatt-G imblett from "Performance Studies," a report written for the
Rockefeller Foundat"on, www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/ps.htm

interact lcn!l. The curr~.nt means ol Lultural interaction goes hand in hand'' ith the llow of controllcd media. Whethtr
globalization enacts extreme imbalances of power, money, or not the internet "ill he, finally, an arena of resistance or
access to media, and Lontrol over n:sourcc~. Although this compliance remains an open <lucstion. Those resi~ting the
i~ reminiscent of colonialism, globali1ation is also dilfercnt "new \\orld order" arc stigmatized as "terrorists," "rogue
from colonialism in key \\ays. Proponents of globali.~:ation states," and / or "fundamentalists." I further discuss the!oe
promise that "l'ree trade," the internet, and athance~ in rhetorical and performathe strategies in Chapter 8.
!tciencc and tcchnolog) arc leading to a better lire for the Performance studies adherents explore a ''ide array
world's peoples. Globali1ation also induces sameness at the ol subjects ami usc many methodologies to deal '' ith this
lc\cl ol popular culture "world beat" and the proliferation contradictory and turbulent wo_rld. But unlike more tra
of American-style fast J'oods and 111m~ arc examples. The ditiO'nal academic disciplines, performance studies is not
two ideas arc related. Cultural !tameness and seamless organized into a unitary sptcm. These days, man} artbts
communication~ make it easier for transnational entities to and intellectuals kno\\ that knowledge cannot he casil).
get their messages across.This i!. crucial bccau~c governments if at all, reduced to a singular cohcrcnte. In fact, a hall-
and businesses alike increasingly lind it more ellicicnt to rule mark or performance studies is the exposition of the
and manage '' ith the collaboration rather than the opposition tensions ami contradictions drh ing today's \\orld. No one in
of workers. In order to gain their collaboration, information performance Mudics is able to profess the whole field. This
must not onl) mme \\ ith ea~c globally hut also he skillfully is because performance studies has a huge appetite for
managed.The apparent' ictory of"democracy" and capitalism encountering, C\'Cn in renting, new kinds of pcrlorming and
 PERFORMAN
CE STUDIES
w a) s of analyzin
g pe rf or m an ce s
kn ow le dg e can "h i\ e insisting th
ne ,c r be co m pl at cu ltu ra l \\o rl d -famous fo
pe rf or m an ce st et e (s ec G cc rt r fifteen minutes
ud ie s w er e an ar z bo x) . If ou r ep oc h b insc ." T\ te ne et in g
t, it w ou ld be a\ ribed m or e in th ar ch hc of
As a field, pe rf an tg ar dc . e C D or DVD, music
or m an ce st ud ie or h) pe rl in ke d ' ideo,
a' an t-ga rd e, th e s is S) m pa th et ic email than it is
marginal, th e of to th e lit l'r at ur c. in a co ns id er ed
su b\ er sh c, th e fi1cat, th e m in or pi ec e of
tw is te d, the qu ita ria n, tb e
fo rm er ly co lo ni ee r, pe op le of co
ze d. Proj ects \\ lor, an d the
of te n ac t on or ith in pe rf or m an
ac t against se ttl ce st ud ie s Leo To ls to y (1
organizations, an ed hi er ar ch ie s 828-1910): Russi
d pe op le .T ite rc ol i(leas, m ys tk . :"llmcls in ;m author, so da
clude War an J Pc ! think~r. 01ncl
pe rf or m an ce stud fo re , it is ha rd au (1863 69) an
ies ge tti ng its ac to imagine {1875 77 ). d. lnna 1\arcnina
or ew n wanting t to ge th er or se ttl
to. in g do '' n,

Ja m es Jo yc e
(1882-1941): Iri
C li ff o rd Gee rtz finnc:yanf II a.l:c
"h ilc cd eh ra tm
( 19 39 ), nmcls
sh au tlm r of 1/~
th
pcs (1922) an
at cxp.rinll'nt "i ti
g thl ima!,fination th language
The pi tf al ls o f jnyl.e was a hi s ;uul per-grinati
g influtncc on uns of Duhlintr
cu ltu ra l analys his one tinw as s.
is Beckett. sistant, Samud
Cultural analysis
is intrinsicall y in
than that, the m complete. And, w
ore deeply it goes orse
is. It is a strange sc the less complete
ience whose most it
its most tremulou telling assertions A nd y W ar ho l
sly based, in wh ich ar e (1928?-87): t\m
with the matter at to get somewhere Ltadlr uf the lr ka n artist an
l'o p A rt moHm ti lil m m ahr .
hand is to Intensif tnt in the 1960<;
your own and that y the suspicion, bo W ar ho l ap pm pr anti 1970 ,.
of others, that you th ia ll' tl imagl'S fro
m :\n w rit 'an po
it right. But that, are not quite getti Camphtll's soup pu la r l."Uiturc
along with plagui ng tans, .\laril~n Mun
ng subtle people high ar t. roe .mt! n posit
obtuse questions, with iuntd them as
is what being an et
hnographer is lik
e.
19 7 3, The In te
rp re ta tio n of Cultures, 29 A no th er '' ay of
un de rs ta nd in g
re ga rd ou r tim "h at \ ha pp en in
e a<~ \\ itn es!>i ng g i~ to
lit cr ac ies. Pe op an ex plo:.io n of m ul
le arc inlrea.;in lip \c
\it er at e," ",i<;uall gl) "h od) \it er at
y lit er at e, " an d e, " "a ur al \)
\e ,c ls of so ph is so on . Film~ co
Multiple litera tic at io n, as do m e at all
cies and hu rg eo ni ng of n.tonk <l mu!> ic!
le tte r \\ riting. >. fm ai l b a
hypertexts co rr es po nd en ce N ot th e elegant
ha nd \\ ri ttc n
of ei gh te en th
Eu ro pe and Euro an d ni ne te en th
So m e pe op le co peanized Americ -c en tu ry
m pl ai n th at lit er pa rt -p ic tu res hy a, bu t a rapid pa
ac y is pe rte rt-word~
in te rm s of basic de cl in in g no t on xt ua l co m m un ic
reading skills, bu ly gab on th ei at io n. Peop le no
an d ho \\ th e) w t also in w ha t pe r cell phones, the} t on l)
ri te . Th e un i\c rs ople re ad an d com er se \ ia insta
a\ ity of televisi le ar n to re ad ea ch ot he r's nt m es sa ging,
gr o\ \ ing global on plu~ th e ac bo d) language s
a\ai\ahi\ity of th ro ss cu ltu an d m
,i~ua\ co m m e in te rn et gh es re s. Sometime!> oo ds
un ic at io n a st ro speech and pe pl a) fu l, so m et im
ng lift me r co m op le tr a\ cl ac es da ng er ou s,
This affects a\l st en tio na lli tc ra cy tu al \) or 'ir tu al l)
rata of cu ltu re fro . co m m un ic at to Iaraway plac
co m m un ic at e to m th e ways ordi in g an d ho ok in es -
th e ar t of w ri tin na ry pe op le lin gu g up across et
g. Few nmclists is tic , re lig ious, an d ge nd er hn ic , na tio na l,
car\) tw en t) -firs in th e ch at ro bo un da rie s. Web
t ce nt ur y w ri te om s flo ca m
T ol st oy 's liar ep ic"big" no,cls su urish . O pe ra tin s and
anJ Peace or e\ en ch as le o sim g at man) \e ,c \s
hy pe ultaneously de m and directions
as Ja m es joyc r- lit er at e w or ks su ch an ds multiple liter
e'~ (Uljsscs or lit er ac ie s ar c "p acies. These m ul
n :r} fast, "i th Finnceans llakc. er fo rm at hc s" - tip le
lo ts of last -f on Li fe is liv ed of do en co un te rs in th e re
,a rd an d st op-a ct io n. Ev in g, of pu rs ui ng a th ro ug al m
an d "stars" co m ent~ hl in e of at. tio n
e and go be fo re oc cu rr in g, . A sh
A sensational ac \\ e can really take tra ns fo rm in g\ \ ritin ift is
t is al m os t im m th em in. \hing g, speaki ng, and
e diately di spla ye in to pe rf or m an e\ en or di na f)
w or ld media st d on the be in g ce . Exac t\) ho\\ th
age. A nd y W ar ac co m pl is he d an is tr ansformat io
\\h en he pr ed ic ho l wa!. on th e d \\h at it m ig ht m n is
te d th at "in th ri gh t tra ck co nc er n of t.an b a princ.ip
e fu tu re ev er ) this book. A \\ or al
on e will be th \d of m ul tip le pc
e tu rf of pe rf or m rl or m at he s is
an ce studies. O
r to pu t it an ot he
r way, th e

4
 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

aCillllmic discipline of performance studies has emerged as to "translating" highb cl research into marketable applica
a nsponse to an increasingly performati\'e world. tions.At the same time, many academics do not feel the need
Traditional literacy is being forced to the extremes - a to address a broad public or to explain exactly \\hat the bases
hm -lew! pulp and-tabloid literacy and a highb d spccial- fur the new knowlcdgcs arc. Unfortunately, this is true of
ilcd litcrac). What i~ being S<JUcczcd is midlc' cl, or ordinary, performan~:c studies too. For example, performance studies
literacy. The ability to read, write, and calculate abme a basic scholars who "read" pop culture may not write in ways that
standard is probably declining in so-called "ad,anced" ordinary people - those who practice pop culture - lind
~odl'lies. Whether literacy will C\er be achic,ed globally is accessible. A chasm has opened separating the scholars from
open to question. Computers arc taking o\'er basic ta~ks. For those they write about.
c:-..ampk, a clerk in a store simpl) s\\ ipcs a bar-cm!CL! item
past the scanner, enters the amount of money prolfcred, and
\\ait~ for the computeri7.cd cash register to read out how
Performance studies here, there,
much to gh e in d1ange. Ellicient \oicerecognition programs
transcribe speaking into "riling. Alrea<ly the ~oft ware
and everywhere
l'Xi~ts so that a person sptaks in one language and her words
Performance studies is gaining in importance and acceptance.
arc spoken or typed in another. Man: web pages offer to
The name itself is tre ndy leading some departments to
tr,lmlatc the contcnt into SC\ eral language!>. At lca.~t at the
call thc mschcs "performance studies" "ith little or no
ilHl of basic comprehensible communil:ation, the curse of
re\ am ping of the curriculum. Thill is to be expected hct ause
the 'fi:mcr of Babel i!. history.
perlormancc studies i~ noncanonical which means it is
\\'hat is gaining in importance b hypertext, in the
broadest meaning of that word. H) pcrtext combines words, c;,::tremcly diiHcult to define or pin down. The tlisd plinc
images, sound!>, and ,arious shorthands. People with cell is concc hed, taught, and institutionalized in a number of
phones talk, of course. But they also take photos and usc the dillcrcnt wa)!>. Broadl) speaking, there arc two main hrands,
keypad~ to pum.h out messages that combine letters,
New York UniH:rsit) ~ and Northwestern Unhersit) ~.
punctuation marks, and other graphics. A dill'crent kind of NYU's performance studies is root ed in theatre, the social
freedom of speech is e\'Oh ing, c\'cn more rapid I) in the so- sciences, feminist and queer studies, postcolonial studies,
called "dc,cloping world" than in Europe or North Amerka. poststructuralism, and experimental performance. Nll's
In China the world's largest market - more than 350 million is rooted in oral inttrprctation, communications, speech act
people own cell phones as of 2005. More than 100 million theory, and ethnography (sec Jackson box). But m-cr time,
Chinc!>c ha,c access to the internet. The Chinese gmernment these t\\O approaches ha\c mo\'cd toward each other sharing
wanb to control "hat's being disseminated, hut can't a common commitment to an expanded \'ision of"perfor-
e!Tccti\'cly do so because the origination points of messages mance" and "performathity" - two terms that I will unpack
cannot be monito red. The numhcr of people using hyper in this book. But there's a lot more to pe rformance studies
wxt communications is gro\\ ing exponentially not only in than a talc of two departments.
China, but C\ e r) where. Email, cell phones, blogs, instant Increasingly, nc\\ performance studies departments,
messaging, and "i-fi arc transforming "hat it means to be programs, and courses arc being created, some of them ambi -
literate. Book reading is supple mented and to some degree tious and far-reaching, others a renaming without rc' ising
supplanted by a range of ideas, feelings, rc<JUCsts, and desires the curriculum (sec Wcbsitcs, cmails, and adYcr-
that arc communicated in many different ways. People arc tiscmcnts box, Maxwell box, and Kennesaw box).
both reade rs .m d authors. Identities arc re\ calcd, masked, Sometim es performance studies is practiced under a different
fabricated, and stolen. This kind of communicating is highl) name, as in the Department of World Arts and Cultures of
pcrformatiYe. It encourages senders and rccciYcrs to usc their the Unhersity of California Los Angeles. There arc many
imaginations, nadgating and interpreting the d) namic cloud school5 where performance studies is a thin wedge - a single
of possibilities surrounding each message. course or two being "tried out." But the trend is clear. More
High-level literac y is fast becoming the specialty of performance stU<Iies departments , programs, and courses arc
academics who master o ne or more specialized know ledges. on the way. E\'en if many pro fessing performance studies
Some of these knowle dgcs - in cybe rnetics, biotechnology, work in non-pe rformance studies cn,ironments, they form
medicine, we apo ns research, and economics - arc ha,ing a strong and increasingly inllucntial cohort reshaping a broad
a huge impact on the world. Whole industries arc dc mted range of fields and disciplines.
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Shannon J ac kso n
The genealogy of performance studies at Northwestern

The development of Northwestern's Department of Performance Studies proceeds from a different direction [than NY U'sl.
To some, its narrative is less often recounted. To others, of course, it is the only one that matters. L . .] The Department of
(OraD Interpretation had a decades'long existence in a very different institutional mil ieu- that is, inside a School of Speech,
one that also housed distinct departments of Communication Studies, Radio/TV/ Film, and Theatre. Thus, unli ke t he
progenitors at NYU who broke from a prior institutional identity as Theatre, Northwestern's department had considered
itself something other than Theatre for its entire institutional existence. Oral Interpretation was most often positioned as
an aesthetic subfield within Speech, Communication, and/or Rhetoric. Its proponents drew from a classical tradition in oral
poetry to argue for the role of performance in the analysis and dissemination of cultural texts, specializing in the adaptation
of print media into an oral and embodied environment. Northwestern was unusual for devot ing an enti re department to this
area. Most of that faculty's colleagues and former graduate students would find themselves in the oral interpretat ion slot
of a larger Communication department - in the Midwest, the South, the Southwest, the West, and on the East Coast.
This made for a dispersed kind of institutional network. It also meant that the decision to shi ft nomination and orientation
to Performance Studies occurred within that network rather than exclusively within a department. The division within
the National Communication Association was renamed Performance Studies lin 1985], and field practit ioners around the
country followed suit. L . .J If these two stories [NYU's, Northwestern's] show that institutional contexts di fferent ly const itute
disciplinary identity, they also imply that the history of a discipline changes depending upon where one decides to begin.
One way to resituate this two-pronged story of a late twentieth -century formation is to cast Performance Studies as the
integration of theatrical and oral/rhetorical traditions.

2004, "Professing Performance," 9-10

Websites, emails, and advertisements

A performance studies panoply of places, programs, and possibilities

University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK Performance Studies focuses on the live arts - dance, theatre, performance art, ritual
and popular entertainment - and employs performance as an optic through which to examine a variety of representat ional
practices, thereby widening understanding of performance as both a vital artistic practice and as a means to understand
historical, social and cultural processes. Performance Studies provides an innovafve, integrat ing, interdisciplinary and
intercultural perspective on the continuum of human action, from theatre and dance to public ce remonies, virtual performance
and the performance of everyday life.

www .aber .ac.uk/ ~p sr.www/pf/general/introduction.htm

Brown University, Providence, Rl, USA We do not consider our program a "hybrid" as we do not consider theatre or
performance studies to be "pure," or at least we consider the best performance studies to lean at all times toward hybridity.
Here at Brown, we study theatre and a variety of performance genres, as well as "performat ivity" and "performance in
everyday life," in global, historical, practical and theoretical perspective. In many courses we employ a performance studies
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE 5TUDIE57

methodology. We are Theatre AND Performance Studies because we offer a variety of classes in Performance Studies and
teach Performance Studies as both a methode ogy of inquiry appl"cable to theatre studies and as a subject matter of
"performance" beyond the confines of " theatre proper." However, we consider the borders to at all times be extremely fluid,
and we are not interested in rigorously parsing theatre studies and performance studies, but in continuing to let them co
inform each other.

Email from Rebecca Schneider and John Emigh

performancestudles.org lists 42 colleges and u niver~t i es with performance studies programs. Most of these are in the UK
or the USA, with several n Australia, Canada, Germany, and South Africa.

www.psl-web.org (Performance Studies International> l"sts members in the above countries plus Israel, Venezuela,
Switzerland, Serbia, France, Italy, Finland, Slovenia, and Japan.

Queen Mary College, University of London, UK We are effectively a Drama Department within a School of English and
Drama. We don't offer an explicit PS program pathway, but I would say that PS is integrated across our undergraduate
and MA curricula. PSIs also integrated in the work of many of our PhD students, so it is hard to specify how many are "doing"
PS in particular. We have about 150 students in our BA program, about 10 in our MA, and about 10 (and growing) doing
PhDs.

Email from Jen Harvie

National University of Singapore, Singapore To have my course, "Cultural Performance in Asia: Ritual and Theatricality/'
accepted, I had to make the argument that the field of performance studies was a growing one, and that the critical
perspectives it offered intersected particularly fruitfully with a range of cultural and performative practices in the region.
My course description: "What is the form and function of theatricality in contemporary Asian society? The module seeks
to answer this question by investigating a range of live events, including religious rituals, firework displays, tourist
performances, and parades. In recent years, these collective practices of symbolic action and meaning making that prioritize
the live over the mediated have become known as 'cultural performance.' The methodological perspectives of Performance
Studies- anthropology, ethnography, critical theory, aesthetics- will be deployed to contextualize ritual and theatricality
as integral to the practices of spectacle and display that contribute so arrestingly to social reality in urban Asia."

Email from Paul Rae supplemented by

http://ap3 .fas.nus.edu. sg: 8000/appl/web9/mod_offered/sem l/TS4217 .htm

De Montfort University, Leicester, UK For over two decades the subjects within Performance Studies have worked with a
number of professional practitioners[... J. Performance Studies researchers are engaged in projects as diverse as the multi
cultural performance of Tara Arts, Brecht in Berlin and postmodern dance in New York. These provide links with major
artists and scholars nationally and internationally. Many of the faculty are practising performers themselves L . .J all are
scholars and researchers. We are an exciting community - forward looking, original and welcoming.

www .dmu.ac.uk/faculties/humanities/pa/ patext.jsp?Componentl D=6695&SourcePagel 0=6 704

Arizona State University West, Phoenix, Arizona, USA At AS UW, my department, Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance,
offers 6-8 PS courses (most of which I teach on a rotating basis, although others have taught some). Students are required
to take 2 PS courses and generally take 3-4. Since it is only me, only a few students focus in PS as a major, that gives me
maybe 3 students a year.
Email from Arthur Sabattini

...
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE 5TUD'f5?

Is performance studies an studies cle,clopcd at NYU conu.:rns interactions among

Western and Asian philosophies, anthropology, gende r
independent field?
studies, feminism, the aesthetics of e' cryday life, race thcor),
area studies, popular entl.'rtainments, queer theory, ami
h ~n \\ ith the updated nomenclature, is performance postcolonial studies. These intcraction3 ha\ c he en he a' ily
studies trul) an independent field? Can it he distinguished inllcctc:cl by an ongoing contact " ith the a\ ant garde both
from theatre studies, <.ultural studies, and other closely the EuroAmerican "historical a\ ant~gardc" (from~) mbolism
allied f1dd~? One can construct sc,cral intellectual histories and surrealism through to Dada and llappenings) to the
explaining the \arious spetillc outlooks of performance more current a\ant-gardes hcing practic.cd in man) parts
studies as practiced hy dilf~rent school~ of thought. In this of the world. Many student~. and some profcs,ors, ol per
book, I am cbcloping my own ,crsion of the "NYU School formancc studies at NYU arc also practicing artist~ in
of Performance Studies." But C\cn In) prc~ent and former performance art, dance, theatre, and mu~ic:. Preponckrantl).
colleagues at NYU ha\c different \Crsions of this story their approach has hccn experimental to stretch the limits
(sec Kirshcnblatt-Gimb lctt box 2, Taylor box, and of their arts in ways analogous to ho" per!(,rmanc:c studic!t
Phelan box). The narrathc outlining how performance stretches the limits of academic disc.our~c.

Barbara l<irshenblatt-G imblett

NYU's Department of Performance Studies
When I was recruited in 1980 the then Graduate Drama Department at NYU's School of the Arts was adrift. At first, I thought
I was an unlikely candidate for chair. I had a PhD in folklore, not theatre. I studied performance in everyday life, not on the
stage. Soon I realized there was no mistake. A mark of NYU's seriousness in making the transformation to performance
studies was hiring a chair who did not come from drama or theatre. I brought a performance perspective to the study of
culture that was remarkably aligned with what was emerging as performance theory and in a broad range of experimental
and popular performance. By having someone who was not a theatre scholar chair, the faculty was ensuring a more radical
break between the former Graduate Department of Drama and emerging Department of Performance Studies.
At the time that I was being recruited, the department consisted of four men- Richard Schechner, Brooks McNamara,
Michael Kirby, and Theodore Hoffman. The department had never had a woman on the faculty. There were more than 400
MA and PhD students on the books, some of them deceased.
The idea for performance studies that I encountered had been developing in the context of contemporary experimental
performance, with links to the historical avantgarde. Schechner, Kirby, and McNamara were themselves active in the off
off Broadway movement. Performance studies would let them align their artistic practice with their pedagogy. This meant
abandoning a traditional curriculum in European and American drama and theatre. EuroAmerican theatre would thenceforth
find its place within an intercultural, inlergeneric, and interdisciplinary intellectual project as one of many objects of study.
Taking their lead from the historical avant-garde and contemporary experimental performance, they determined that Western
theatre and the dramatic text would not be at the center of the new Performance Studies curriculum, though it continues to
play an important role.[. . .]
Over the 12 years of my chairing (1 980-92), we developed a rich Performance Studies curriculum that came to include
dance research, thanks to Marcia Siegel, and feminist theory, thanks to Peggy Phelan. We placed greater emphasis on
theory across the curriculum than had previously been the case. We raised academic and admission standards, reduced and
transformed our student body so that everyone was full-time, increased financial aid, restructured requirements, and increased
the pace and likelihood of completing the degree. We created a Performance Studies Archive. And, on our tenth anniversary,
we organized the first Performance Studies international conference.

2001, personal correspondence

.. ..
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Diana Taylor
Performance studies: a hemispheric focus
My particular investment in performance studies derives less from what it is than what it allows us to do. What I want
performance studies to do is provide a theoretical lens for the sustained historical analysis of performance practices - the
Americas being my special area of interest. The many definitions of the word "performance," as everyone has noted more
or less generously, result in a complex, and at times contradictory, mix. For some it is a process, for others the "result" of
a process. For some it is that which disappears, while others see it as that which remains as embodied memory. As the
different uses of the term rarely engage each other, "performance" has a history of untranslatability. Ironically, the word
is stuck in the disciplinary boxes it defies, denied the universality and transparency that some claim it promises its objects
of analysis. These many points of "untranslatability," of course, are what make the term and the practices so culturally
revealing. While performances may not give us access and insight into another culture, they certainly tell us a great deal
about our desire for access and the politics of our interpretations.
"Performance" has no equivalent in Latin America. Translated simply but nonetheless ambiguously as masculine ("el
performance") or feminine ("Ia performance"), it usually refers to performance art. Nonetheless, scholars and artists have
started to use the term to refer more broadly to social dramas and embodied practices. What this "performance studies''
approach allows us to do is crucial: rethink cultural production and expression from a place other than the written word
which has dominated Latin American thought since the conquest. While writing was used before the conquest - either in
pictogram form, hieroglyphs or knotting systems- it never replaced the performed utterance. Writing was a prompt to
performance, a mnemonic aid, not a separate form of knowing. With the conquest, the legitimation of writing over other
epistemic and mnemonic systems assured that colonial power could be developed and enforced without the input of the great
majority of the population- the indigenous and marginal populations without access to systematic wri ting. While some
scholars engage in "indigenismo" by focusing on oral traditions, the schism does not lie between the written and spoken word
but rather between d'scursive and performative systems.
Western culture, wedded to the word, whether written or spoken, enables language to usurp epistemic and explanatory
power. Performance studies allows us to take seriously other forms of cultural expression as both praxis and episteme.
Performance traditions also serve to store and transmit knowledge. Performance studies, additionally, functions as a wedge
in the institutional understanding and organization of knowledge. In the Uni ted States, departments of Spanish and
Portuguese limit themselves to "language and literature" to the exclusion of much else. In Latin American insti tutions,
" departamentos de letras" assure a similar schism between literary and embodied cultural practice. The resulting exclusions
of many forms of embodied knowledge from ana ysis effect their own performance of erasure.
Performance is as much about forgetting as about remembering, about disappearing as about re-appearing. A
" hemispheric" focus indicates just how much "America," as the U.S. likes to think of itself, has forgotten about America,
whose name, territory, and resources it has fought so hard to dominate. Domination by culture, by "definition," by claims
to "originality" and "authenticity," functions In tandem with military and economic sup remacy. Though a-historica l in
much of its pract'ce, performance studies can al low us to engage in a sustained historical analysis of performance practices.
That's what I'm asking it to do.

2001, personal communication

Diana Taylor ( 1950- ): lc~rling th~orist uf Latin American pcrform~nrc and founding direttor of the Hemispheric Institute
of Pcrl(mnanCl' ;mrl Politics. Ta~ lor chJ.ind NYU's l'erformam:e Studies Dlpartmcnt from 1996 to 2002. Her bonks indudc Theatre
or (
!ifCrisis: Drama and Poli11cs in latin .lmeriw ( 1991), Disappearing Acts: Spccraclc.s ofGender and Sationo~lism in .1raentma's 'Dirt)' II' 1997),
ami The Archire anJ the Rct>ertoirc (2003).
 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

Peggy Phe I an
Another history, another future of performance studies 1
One potent version of the history of performance studies is that the field was born out of the fecund collaborations between
Richard Schechner and Victor Turner. In bringing theatre and anthropology together, both men saw the extraordinarily deep
questions these perspectives on cultural expression raised. If the diversity of human culture continually showed a persistent
theatricality, could performance be a universal expression of human signification, akin to language? L . .J Was "theatre" an
adequate term for the wide range of "theatrical acts" that intercultural observation was everywhere revealing? Perhaps
" performance" better captured and conveyed the activity that was provoking these questions. Since only a tiny portion of the
world's cultures equated theatre with written scripts, performance studies would begin with an intercultural under standing of
its fundamental term, rather than enlisting intercultural case studies as additives, rhetorically or ideologically based postures
of inclusion and relevance.
This is the story that surrounded me when I first began teaching in the Department of Performance Studies L .. J in 1985.
I was immediately fascinated by the idea that two men gave birth.[. . .J
When l first began reading Turner's and Schechner's work I was struck by its generosity and porousness, i ts undisguised
desire to be "taken up."(. . .) But I was also a little suspicious of their ease, their sense that all could be understood if we could
only see widely and deeply enough. L . .J As the institutionalizatio n of performance studies spread throughout the eighties
(sometimes under other names) in the United States and internationally, the openness of the central paradigm sometimes made
it seem that performance studies was (endlessly?) capable of absorbing ideas and methods from a wide variety of disciplines.
[. . .]
But institutionalizatio n is hardly ever benign, and one could easily tell the story of the consolidation of the discipline of
performance studies in a much less flattering manner. Many people (including some of my own inner voices>, did tell me such
stories, but I'll use the conditional here to muffle echoes and because I love the guilty. To wit: one could accuse the discipline
of practicing some of the very colonialist and empire-extending arts it had critiqued so aggressively. One could argue that
performance studies was a narrow, even small-minded, version of cultural studies. One could say that performance studies had
so broad a focus precisely because it had nothing original to say. One could suggest that the famous "parasitism" of J. L. Austin's
linguistic performative was actually a terrific description of performance studies itself. One could even argue that the whole
discipline was created as a reactionary response to the simulations and virtualities of postmodernism; a discipline devoted to
live artistic human exchange could easily be taken up by the universities in the eighties precisely because its power as a vital
form of culture exchange had been dissipated. A new discipline just in time to commemorate a dead art would be in keeping
with the necrophilia of much academic practice.
But each of these (conditional) claims misses what I believe are the most compelling possibilities realized by performance
studies. While theatre and anthropology certainly played a central role in the generative disciplines of performance studies,
other "points of contact" have also had exceptional force in the field.(. . Wle must begin to imagi ne a post-theatrical, post-
anthropological age. L . .J
Thinking of performance in the expanded field of the electronic paradigm requires that we reconsider the terms that have
been at the contested center of performance studies for the past decade [since 1988}: simu lation, representation, virtuality,
presence, and above all, the slippery indicative "as if." The electronic paradigm places the "as if" at the foundation of a much-
hyped "global communication," even while it asks us to act "as if" such a network would render phantasmatic race, class, gender,
literacy, and other access differentials. L . .J
The electronic paradigm as an epistemic event represents something more than a new way to transmit information; it
redefines knowledge itself into that which can be sent and that which can be stored. Performance studies(. . .J is alert to the
Net's potential to flatten and screen that which we might want most to remember, to love, to learn. We have created and
studied a discipline based on that which disappears, art that cannot be preserved or posted. And we know pe rfo rmance knows
things worth knowing. As the electronic paradigm moves into the center of universities, corporations, and other systems of power-
knowledge, the "knowing" that cannot be preserved or posted may well generate a mourning that transcends the current lite
Luddite resistance to technology.
1998, "Introduction " to The Ends of Performance, 3-5,8
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Indian philosophers had a difl'ercnt idea altogether.

Peggy Phelan (hirthdatc not disdoscd): :\mLrkan rL~minist scholar,
chair of N't U's DLpartmLnt of i'Lrforman~e Studies from 1993 lu 'Writing at rough!) thl same time as the Greeks, they felt that
1996, and,, founder oi'I'Lrformancc ~tudics intLmational. Author of the\\ hole unin:rse, rrom ordinar) n:ality to the rtalm of the
llnmurkcd (1993), .llournins .)ex (1997), and Art unJ Fcmmism (2001, gods, \\as ma)a ami lilu illusion, pia~. and thtatre on a grand
with lil'ILna Httl..itt). S(.ale. The tht.or) of maya lila asserts that the reall) real
is pla)ful, e\er changing, and illushe. What is "behind"
The philosophical antecedents to performance studies include ma) a - lila? On this, Indian philosophers had sen:ral opinions.
question~ adclrcsscd in ancient times, in the Renaissance, and Some said that nothing "as he) ond ma) a lila. Others
in the 1950s to 1970s, the period immediatd) before proposed realities too a\\'e~omc lor humans to cxprriencc.
perrormance studies lame into its O\\ n. Earl) philosophers When Arjuna, the hero-\\ arrinr or the ,1/ahahharuta, asks
hath in the West and in India pondered the rdation~hip Krishna in the Bhaaa,aJ Gita section or the cpk to slum his
hct\\ecn daily life, theatre, and the "reall) real." In the true form, the experience i~ terri f) ing in the extreme. Still
\Vest, the relationship het\\'een the arl~ ancl philnmph) has otlwr philosopher.~ propmed the existence of brahman, an
been market!, an:urding to the Greek philosopher Plato, h) absolute unit) -of-all whidt a person ran enter through
"a long ~tanding quarrd bet ween poclr) and philosoph)." meditation, yoga, or lhing a perrectcd lire. At the athic\e-
The andent GrcLk lclt that the really real, the ideal, exi~tcd ment of mokslw, or rdea~c !'rom tht cycle of birth death
onl) as pure forms. In his Rcpuh/u; (c. 370 I!Cl ), Plato argued rebirth, a person's indh idual ,uman (the absolute '' ithin)
that orclinar) realities arc but shadu\\ s last on the \\all of the becomes one \\ ith hmhman (tlw uniwr~al absolute). Hut li.>r
dark ca\'e of ignorance. (One \\ondcrs if shadm\ puppctn, ~o mo~t people most of the time, rcaht~ b ma)a lila. The gods
popular in A~ia from ancitnt times, was knm' n to Plato.) The also enter the \\orld of ma)a lila.n1e god-; take human form,
art~ including the pLrfurming arts imitate tlll:se shatl<)\\ s as Krishna docs in the ptrformatKe of Ha~lila (Krishna\ dann:
and arc thudore douhl) rcmoHd !'rom the n~all) real. A~ if '' ith adoring femak em\ herders allll with his fa, oritL !mer,
this \\enn't Lnough, Plato di~trU!>tcd theatre helause it Hadha) or as Ram a does in tlw tll'rlormancc of Ram lila(\\ hl.'n
aptwalcd to the emotions rather than to reason,"\\ atering the Vishnu inlarnatcs himself a~ Rama to rid the \\orld of the
grm\ th or pa~~iom \\'hkh should he allm\ ed to \\ ither a\\ ay." demon Ra\ ana). Raslila and Ram lila art perrormed toda).
Plato banned poetry, including theatre, from his ideal llundrcd' nl' millions of Indian Hindus bdic\C in these
repul,lic. It was left to Plato's student Aristotle to recltcm enacted inlarnation~ ''here young hoy'i tl' ntporaril)
tlw arts. ;\ri~totle argul'll that the reall) real "a~ "ind'' elling" become gmh. Notion'i of maya lila an discus'icd more full)
as a plan or pottntial, somewhat like a genetic co(k. In the in Chapter+.
PocCJCs, Aristotle rea~oned that by imitating actions, and hy In Renaissance [uropc the '' idcl) ac(.epted notion that
enacting the logical chain of const.>quence~ flO\\ ing rrom the world \\as a great theatre called the tht atrum mund1 \\as
actions, one might ltarn about these indwelling form~. far well put in William Shakespeare\ :Is liw Lrkc It ''hen
from \\ anting to amid the emotions, Aristotle "anted to Jaqu'-'s 'ia~s, "All the world'~ a stage I And all tlw men and
arouse, understand, and purge their deleterious eO'ects. women mercl) pla)t'rs; I They haH' their exit~ and thl'ir
entrance!>; I And one man in his time pia) s man) part!>" ( 2, 7:
Plato (c. 427- c. 34-7 UCli): Grctk philnsophtT, the ad\'olatL' of I 39-42). Hamlet, in his in~tructions to the pla)cr!>, had a
nJson, rL'Straint, amllugk mcr t Xl'Css and p.15~ion. Plato dc,clopt.d some\\ hat< liOerent opinion, more in keeping'' ith Aristotle's
the dialogical or dialcc:til'al st~lc of discoune reasoning hy means thcor) of miml'sis: "( ... [the purpose of pia) ing, ''hose end,
of dialogue and the lllnfrontation of oppositl's. Ironically, Plato's both at the first and nm\, ''as and is, to holt!, as 't ''ere, the
dialogues arc cxtnmcly thcatrkal ancl he \\as n~ry passionate about mirror up to nature; to show \'irtue herO\\ n feature, scorn
tlw life of tJw mind. her O\\ n image, and the \'cry age and hod) of the time his
l'orm and pressure" (3, 2: 21-25). To people lhing in the
theatrum mundi C\ cryday lire was theatrical and, com ersdy,
theatre offered a working model or ho\\ life \\as lh eel.
Aristotle (384--Jll BCJ:): Greek philosopher, stucknt of Plato.
The most recent 'ariation on the theatrum mumli theme
:\ristotlc puhlislwcl nunwrou~ philosophic:al tnatiscs, induding the
Poetics (c. 315 lit. E), where he outlines the prindples of Greek tragic emerged shortly after World War II and (.'ontinues to the pre-
drama. Aristotle'~ ideas ha,c prof'ouncll~ intluenc:ecl European anrl sent. In 19+9, Jacques Lacan ddhcrcd his paper "The
[urnpeandtri\'ed ptrformanc:c theory. Mirror Stage," an inlluential psychoanal) tic stud) proposing
that infants as young as six months recognize themscl\'c~ in the
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE 5TUDIE57

William Shakespeare ( 1564-1616): playwright, pm t, and artor

gtntrall) rl'ganlttl a~ the gnattst writtr in the English language. is precipitated from insufficiency to anticipation- and
\mung his 38 pla~s arc lfaml~t, Kino l.ear, Othello, The llcl'fhant of which manufactures for the subject, caught up in the lure
I ~nice, llucbcth, Jlcusurc for :llcusurc, :Is l'ou /.ike It, lien~' I , 1 of spatial identification, the succession of fantasies that
lliJwmmu \'iaht's Dream, Romeo unJ Juliet, ami "f"hc Tcmf't11. e xtends from a frag mented body-image to a form of its
tota li ty that I shall call orthopaedic - and, lastly, to
the assumption of the armor of an alienating identity,
mirror as "another" (sec L1can box). In I955, Gregory which wi II mark with its rigid structure the subject's
Bateson \\Toll' "A Tlll'or\' ol' Plav and Fantas,." Bateson
.; .I .. entire mental deve lopment. [. .. Later in life while free
cmphasi:.rcd the importance of'' hat lw terme d "metacom- associating in psychoanalysis] he ends up by recognizing
munication,"the ml'ssagc that tells the receiver that a m tssagc that this being has never been anything more than his
ol a certain kind is being stnt social communications cxi~t construct in the imaginary and that this construct dis-
\\ ithin a complex ol frames. Battson's ideas \\ Cre elabo- appoints a ll his ce rtainties. For in this labor wh ich he
rated on by Erving GotTman in a series of \\orks about undertakes to reconstruct for another, he rediscovers
pe rforming in C\'eryday life , tile most inllucntial of'\\ hich b the fu ndamental alienation that made him construct lt
I! is 1959, 1hc l'rcsr:nratron '?f'Scfj'in hcryJa) I.![c. At rouglll) the like another, and which has always destined it to be taken
same timl\ philosopher J. L. Austin dc,clopcd his notion of from him by another.
"ptrformathity." Austin's kctures on the performathc \H'rt'
1977, Ecrits, 1, 4, 42
publishe d po~thumously in I 962 as //on to De~ Thmss nul!
llorJ1. According to Auo;tin, pcrformati\'cs arc.. utttramc$
such as lwts, promise!>, namings, ami so un that actual!) do
~ometlling, that ptrform . A little later, in !-ranee, jcan- Jat:t(UCS L1t:an ( 1901-81 ): FnrKh strutturalist psyrhoanJI~st who
han~ois Lyotard, Gilles Dcleuzc, Michel Foucault, tlll'orizld tlu~ dcwlnpnll'nt of an alknatt~d Sllfin ttnm ufinttraction~
Jean Baudrillard , Pierre Bourdieu, jacc1ucs Dcrrida, among tlw lmaginar), the !I~ mholk, anti thl~ lhal. !lis \1 urks im ludc
Guy Debord, and felix Guattari proposed what were !~criu ( 1977) and The h~r !unctions ~,f'PSJ clwunaljsis ( 197!1 ).
thtn radical new ways to understand history, sod.lllifc, and
language. Man)' of these ideas retain thl'ir currency ewn
today. I discuss perfurmathity, postmo<lernism, simulations,
Gregory Bateson (1904-80): British-horn ~nthropologist,
and poststructuralism in Chapter 5.
lylwrnl'lidst, and communications thtorist. ,\lajor \\ urks indud1
Xa1cn ( 1916), Srcrs to ar1 En>lo11,1 aj 1/ind ( 1972) ~ncl Ilind .mJ \atuTL
(1979).

Jacques Lacan
The mirror stage Ening GoiTman ( 1922-82): Canadian horn anthropologist who
stud!<<I tlu~ ptrl'urmallCl'S and rituals ol l"\l'r~da~ lili. . I lis hunks
The child [. . . from the age of six months can] already indudt Tile l'rcscnrarion I!J'Scffin l:rct)d<.l) l1jt { 1959), lkharior In Puhlic
recognize as such his own image in a mirror. [. . .J This PIO<rs ( 1963 ), /nrcmcrion Rilual ( 1967), ami Frame .lna[rsis ( 1974).
act L . .J immediately rebounds [. . .J in a series of
gestures in which he experiences in play the relation
between the movements assumed in the image and the
J. L. Austin ( 1911-60): fngli~h philo~oph1r ami lingui~t. His
reflected environment, and between this virtual complex
inJlUl'OtiaJ 1-JananJJl'ClUrl'S till tht WllC'l'J>l of thl' wpafurmati\ C~
and the reality it reduplicates- the child's own body, and were po~thumou.~l~ puhlishcd a ~ lion ret Da Thingt nrth llorJ1( 1962J.
the persons a nd things, around him. L . .J We understand
the mirror stage as an identification, in the full sense
that analysis gives to this term: the transformation that
takes place in the subject when he assumes an image. Jcan-Franfois Lyotard (1924-98): french philu~ophl r . ~lajor
[. . .J The mirror stage is a drama whose internal thrust \\ ork~ include The Posrmodcrn Cornlition (1984), The D!JlcTcnJ ( 1988),
and Pcrc,qrinations: /.all', Form, F1~n1 ( 1988).
 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

Rites, ceremonies

The fan

Eruption and
resolution of crisis

Performance in
e~eryday life, sports, r----------.::::-
entertainments

Play

process

Ritualizalion Ethological studies of ritual

flg 1.1. Performance can be graphically conngured as either a fan or a web. This open fan depicts an o rderly panorama rang1ng from
"rltuaUzatlon" on one end through the "performances of everyday life" In the center to "rites and ceremonies" at the other end.
RltualizatJon Is an ethological term. ntes and ceremonies are uniquely human.
The web depicts the same system more dynamically - and therefore more experientially Each node Interacts with all the others. It's no
accident that I place my "contemporary environmental theatre"ln the center. This arbitrary and subjective positioning expresses my life practJce
Others m:ght place something else at the center. In actual fact, there Is no center- one ought to Imagine the system as In continuous motJon
and realignment. Furthermore I place historical events alongside speculations and artistic performances. This method Is similar to that of
Indigenous Australians who credit dreams with a reality maybe even stronger than awake-time events. My method Is also similar to the classic
theatre exercise wherein "as If" = "Is".
Drawing. "Fan and "Web" from p II of Performance Theory, 1977 and all subsequent editions

Victor and Edith Turner, Phillip Zarrilli, and I we re at

Phillip Zarrilli (1947- ): Amcrilanhnrn rlin:ctor, \Hiler, and
all three mee tings. Turner exulted in the meetings as utopian
actor trainer. A Professor ol Performance l'ractke at ExclL'T
gatherings (sec Turner box). By .llcun; cfPciformancc ( 1990) Unh crsit~, Zarrilli has ell'\ dn1wl a ps~c:hophyskal al'ling pmn ~s
"as edited from the proceedings of the three episodes of the drawing on Asian martial, mcdkal, and meditation practkcs. I lis
\Vorld Conference. honk.~ include ll'h~n chc Bo.1' Becomes :Ill Eyes ( 19':18 ), 1\athakali Dance
Drama (2000), ancl lctina (Rc) Considmd (editor, 2ml edition, 2002).

Victor Turner (1917-83): Scottish-burn anthrupologi~t \dlO

t1u~ orizccl notions of liminality and social elrama. Major worb
include Forest <j'Spnho/s (1967), The Rirua/ Process {\969), Dramas, \\'hat made Turner's conferences so special was that they
Fld~. and .lkraph<m ( 1974), ancl f rom Rirualto Thcatrc(\98 2). Turner were extended get-togctl1ers of rclath ely few people, lasting
collalmratcd with his \\ifc Edith Turner (1921-) on projc<.'ts, from fi,c days to two weeks. Participants had plenty of time
Among Edith Turner's writings arc ExpcrlencinB Rrrual ( 1992) and 'fhc to trade ideas, ,iew performances, tell stories, and socialize.
flanJs Fcc/ It ( 1996). These conferences \'cry much shaped my ideas about what
performance studies could become. In my courses at NYU,
I im itcd many of those \\ ho were at one or another of the
conferences to lecture or guest teach. Friends reached out to
Suzuki Tadashi ( 1919- ): Japanese founding artistic director of
friends. Tilting pe rformance studies t o\\ard anthropology
the Suzuki Company of Toga, "ith whom he has clirc<.'ted a numhcr
- which was particularly strong in the 1970s and 1980s - is
of inllucntial works induding The Trojan ll'o mcn and Dionp u1.
He aclmcatcs an intensely physical approach to actor training which linked to working" ith Turner and the people he introducccl
he outlines in The Il'ay iflctino ( 1986). me to ; other possibilities for pl'rformance studies have since
come strongly into play.
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

"Performance and the Social Sciences," I outlined se\'cn

Gilles De leuze ( 1925-95): lrench poststructuralist philosopher
"areas where performance theory and the social sciences
who collalmrated "ith F~lix Guattari (1930-92). Together they
coincide":
wroll~ Anti-Oedipus ( 1977) ami A Thousuml P/uuaus ( 1987).

Performance in ever)day li\'e, including gatherings of

e\'ery kind.
Michel Fout:ault (1926-84): french philosopher-historian \\ho 2 The structure of sports, ritual, pla), and public political
anal Fed ami critici;red prison S)Sicms, ps~lhiatr), and melidnc. bcha\iors.
Foucault l'xplnrcd the rdationships connct:ting power and
3 Anal pis of Hrious modes of communication (other than
know ledge. Among his works are ,1/,,Jnas and Cil ili.-ation (I 965), The
the\\ rittcn \\otd); semiotics.
Order '!{Thin.qs (1970 l, The .lrch<Icolony '?{/\non ledf]e (1972 ), Discipline
<1nd Punish ( 1977), ami The Jlistur_r o{Sexualtt; ( 1978).
4 Connections between human and animal bcha\ ior
patterns\\ ith an emphasis on play and ritualized beha\ ior.
5 Aspects of psyd10therap) that emphasi1c person-to
person interaction, acting out, and body awareness.
Jean Baudrillard ( 1929- ): fre1wh cultural thmri~t knm\ n for his 6 Ethnography ami prl'i1istory - both of exotic and familiar
work on simulations. II is hooks include Simulations ( 1981 ), The cultures (\'rom the Western perspccti \'c).
JIJmion ~!f'thc l:nJ ( 199-1-), ;md .\dcacJ ll'min.'{f (2001 ). 7 Constitution of unified theories of pcrlixmance, \\ hich
are, in fa~.:t, theories ofbeha\ ior.

ticrrc Bourdieu (1930-2002): 1-rl'llrh sociologist \\ho worktd I sa\\ these nodes connected to each other citlll'r as a "fan"
l'XIInsinly in :\lgeri.t he fore lwwming a proll ~sor attlu Collige dl' or a "\\eb" (sec figure 1.1 ). In 1977, the first edition of
Frann in Paris. Among his man~ hooks arc Chu/inc '?[ 11 fllcor-_, !/ Pc!formancc Thco~l' appeared, rc\ ised and expanded in 1988
Pmcricc ( 1972, l:ng. 1977), Prcu:!iml Reason On tile !1Jcor)' '!f 1lc-tion and again in 2000. I puhlishcd Bcrnccn Theater anJ .- lnrhropolosJ'
( \99-1-, Eng. 1998), .-lctS<!f'R~sistt.Jnfc I 1988), ami.l/t.~sru/inc Domination in 1985 and Th' Future ~- Rirut.JI in 1993. I also co edited
(1001 ). sc,eral books a~ \\ell as sen ing twice as l'<litor of TDR
( 1962 69, 1986 present).\ rclatLcl Ill) theorie~ tom) artistic
work ami research acti\ ities in \'ariou~ parts of the world, and
Jacques Derrida ( 1930-200-1-): Algerian-lmm Fnnch philosnplwr or
to m) growing sense the broad sptctrum of performance
\\ hn pimlCl'rcd till~ lillrary and cuhuralthlory of dtconstruetion. (sec figures 1.2 and 1.3).
:\mong his m.1ny books: C!f <;r<Immm,,Jo,qr (1976), Writina unJ
D!JJcrcnrc (I 'J7ll ), l.imircJ lm ( 19SS}, ll'ho'J .-!fmiJ 4 Phi/os,,phy?
(2002), an<l On Touchin.'J (with Peter Dre)l'r, 2005).
The Victor Turner connection
This network of ideas and practice wa~ nourished h; my
Guy Debord ( 1931-94): Frmd1 writer and tilmmaklr, lC>undl'r of relationship\\ ith anthropologi~t Victor Turner. Though
the Situationists ( 1957 72), a rnolutionary group of artists ami we knew each other's work earlicr,Turner and I met in 1977
\\ riters who laml~ to promincnn during the Paris riots nf~tay 1968. ''hen he invited me to participate in a ronfl!rencc be was
:\uthnr of 7hc Socicc_r '!{the S~--ct..Jclc (199-1-). organizing on "Ritual, Drama, and Spectacle." The conference
was so succL's~ful, and the chemistry between Turner and
me so positi\e, that we joined to plan a "World Conference
on Ritual and Performance," \\ hich deH~Iopecl into three
.My own role in the form.1tion of performance studies goes
related conferences held during 1981 - 82. The first focused
back to the mid-1960s. My 1966 essay "Approaches
on the performances of the Yaquis of northern Mexico and
to Theory /Criticism" was a formulation of an area of study
I called "the performance acthities of man" (src}: play, games, the US Soutlmest; the second on the ''ork of Suzuki
sports, theatre, and ritual. "Actuals,'' publi~hcd in 1970, Tadashi. The culminating meeting took place in New York
related rituals in non- \Vl'stern cultures to a\ant-garde from 23 August to I September 1982. Attending were artists
performances. Both of these essays arc in Pciformancc Theory and scholars from the Americas,Asia, Europe, ancl Africa. All
(2003). In 1973, as guest editor of a special TDR issue on in all, 74- participated, 4-9 at the New York conlcrcnce - only

16
 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

Rites, ceremon es

The fan

Eruptlon and
resolution of crisis

Performance In
everyday life, sports, ,__ _ _ _ _ _ __..,:;::
entertainments

Ploly

pr01:ess

Ritualizat cr Ethological studies of ritual

fig 1. 1. Performance can be graphically conHgured as either a fan or a web Th s open fan depicts an orderly panorama ranging from
" rauallzatJon" on one end through the "performances of everyday life" In the center to "rites and ceremonies" at the other end.
Rltuallzatlon Is an ethological term rites and ceremonies are uniquely human
The web depiCts the same system more dynamically - and therefore more experlentJally Each node Interacts with all the others. It's no
accident that I place my "contemporary envlronmental theatre" In the center Th s arbitrary and suqjecuve posiUonlng expresses my life pracuce
Others might place something else at the center In actual fact, there Is no center- one ought to Imagine the system asln continuous mouon
and realignment furthermore I place historical events alongside speculations and artistic performances. This method Is similar to that or
Indigenous Australians who cred1t dreams with a reality maybe even stronger than awake-ume events My method Is also similar to the clasSIC
theatre exercise wherein as If" = "Is .
Drawing "Fan" and "Web" from p II of Performance Theory, 1977 and all subsequent edt.ons

Victor and Edith Turner, Phillip Zarrilli, ami I were at

Phillip Zurilli (1947- ): o\mcri<anburn clirn-tor, \\Titer, and
all tlm~c meetings. Turner exulte d in the meeting!> as utopian
actor trainer. :\ l'rofe~sc>r ol l'crlurmann~ l'raLtke at Exc\lr
gatht:'rings (sec Turner box). By Means ojl'c!formanu ( 1990)
Uniwrsity, Zarrilli has de\ clntJld a psychnph~skal acting pro<.es~
wa~ edited from the proceedings of the three episodes of the
drawing on Asian martial, medilal, anti mcclitaticm practkcs. His
\\'oriel Confe rence. hooks indude linen rhc BoJy BcCtlmc~ .Jll F; t~ ( 1998 ), 1\arh.zkali Dan.c
Drama (2000), and Actina (P..c) Considered (editor, 2m I edition, 2002).
Victor Turner (1917-83): Sco lt i~h-horn anthropologist who
thloril<'ll notions of liminality ami ~ol'ial drama. Major works
include Form ifS.yml>ols (1967), The Ritual l'roccss (1 969), Dramas, \Vhat madeTurner's conferences so special was that tht>)'
Fields, anJ .1/ctaphors (1974), anti from Ritual to Thcatrc(1982). Turner \\ere extended get-togethers of rclathe\} few people, lasting
wllahorated '' ith his '' ifc Edith Turner ( 192 t- ) on projcrts. from he dayc; to two weeks . Participants had plent) of time
:\mung Edith T umcr' s writings arc rpericncin9 Ritual ( 1992) 01nd The to trade ideas, ,icw performances, te ll stories, and socialize.
Hands Fcc! It ( 1996). These conferences very much shaped my icleas about "hat
performance studies could become. In my courses at NYU,
I in\'ited many o f those who were at one or ano ther of the
conferences to lecture or guest teach . Friends reached out to
Suzuki Tndashi ( 1919- ): japanese lountling artistic director of
the Su1.uki Company of Toga, with whom he has directed a numher friends. Tilting performance studies toward anthropology
of influential \\ orks including The Trojan Women ami Dionp m. - which was particularly strong in the 1970s and 19 80s is
He ad\'ocates an intensely physkal approach to actor training which linked to working with Turner and the people he introduced
he outlinl'S in The IJ~)' ofActing ( 1986). me to ; other possibilities for performance studies han~ sinct'
com e strong ly into play.
 ftg 1.2. A select on of performances directe d by RIChard
Schech ner

YokastaS Redux, Sav,ana Stanes cu and Richard

Schech ner The Cherry Ka Bagtcha (The Cherry Orchar d), Anton
Yokastas strike a pose From the left Phy hs Johnse Chekhov Act 2,
n, Jenmrer Um, Ounyasha fltrtlng with Yeplkho dov Wtth the Repenory
Daphne Gaines. Rachel Bowd tch Ea!>t Coast ArtiSts, Company of the
New York 2005 NatiOnal School of Drama, New De'hi, 1982 Phot ograph
Photograph by Ryan Jensen by R.c:hard
Schechner.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , August W lson Act 2, Ma

Rainey (seated,
played by Sophie Mcma). her girl Dussle Mae, played
by Baby Cele,
and her nephevJ, Sylvester Grahamstown Festival.
Republic of South
Africa. 1992 Photograph by Richard Schechner

Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov Act 2, Vershinin, played

by frank Wood. The Oresteia, Aeschylus (tn Ch nese) Agame mnon,
orating abOut the future With East Coast Artists, p ayed by Wu
New York 1997 Hs ng kuo, steps on the purple carpet. With the Contem
Photograph by Richard Schechner porary Legend
Theatre. Taipei, 1995 Photograph by Richard Schech
ner

1 ..
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

victor T urner
By tl!eir performances shall ye know them

Cultures are most fully expressed in and made consc ious of themselves 111 their ritual and theatrica performances. L . .J A
performance is a dialectic of "flow," that s, spontaneous movement in which action and awareness are one, and "reflexivity,"
in which the central meanings, values and goals of a culture are seen "in action," as they shape and explain behavior. A
performance s declarative of our shared humanity, yet it utters the uniqueness of particular cultures. We will know one
another better by entering one another's performances and learning their grammars and vocabularies.

1980, from a Planning Meeting for the World Conference on Ritual and Performance, quoted in "Introduction''

L -- to Richard Schechner and Wil la Appe l (edsl, By Means of Performance (1990 ), 1.

:Hter Turner's death in 1983, I come ned anotlllr con- memhcrs ofATIIE (American Theatre in Higher Fducation)
ll'nncc in his style a 1990 meeting on "intercultural formed a performance studies "focus group" spomoring
pt114>rmann" attended by about 20 artists and sdmlars at ptrli>rmancc studies panels and, more reccntl:, a t\\o -
tht Rocklli.ller Foundation's \'ilia in Bdlagio, Italy. ivtany day "prc-conferenn" as lh11't of ATHE's annual meeting. In
of till' participants were closely associated with what was 1995, the first annual PSi mnfcrence "The Future of the
h~ tlll'n being called the "emerging field of performance Ficl1l" brought 550 people to NYU. The Ends <j P.:rjormancc
studits." The three conferences -stretching OH'r 1S year!> (1998, Peggy Phelan and Jill Lane, editors) is based on the
\H'rt' important as lidd-ddining en~nts, as nwans of dis - 1995 conli.rence. In 1996, PSi met at Nll. After that, and
Sl'mination, ami as prototypes for the yet-to-he-comened continuing in the twenty-first century, the mmablc feast
"Points of Contact" conferences of the Centre l{>r Perl{>rmanlc of PSi's annual meetings ha\e been scncd up in the UK,
RPstan:h in \\'a les and the annual conl'erenns of Perltlrmanlc Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, and the LISA. PSi became
Studies international (PSi). an ollicial organi1.ation in 1997 with Richard Gough its first
president and Adrian Hcathlicld sening as ol' 2005.

The Centre for Performance Richard Gough: ( 1956- ): l{mndcr ami din~ttor of tile Ctntnlc>r
Research and PSi Performann Rtstardt (CI'R) of :\hlr~~t\\yth, Walts and first
presidtnt of PSi. <.;nugh organind a stries of conli>renns, "Points
From \980, when the NYU Graduate Drama Department of Contact," in tlu 1990s whirh hl'lptd ddine perl(muann studies.
morplw<l into the Department of Performance Studils, the lie b a lcmmling editor of the joumal Performance Research.
11rst such in the world, performance studies dc\clopcd
r.lpidl~ I resumed editorship of TDR in 1986, suhtitling it
ulhc Journal ojPeiformancc Srudics." In Wales in 1988, Richard
Gough founded the Centre for PerformanCl~ Research Northwestern's brand of
(CPR). The CPR conwned a series of conferences entitled performance studies
"Points of Contact" (named after the introduction to my
Rc1nun 111catcr and Anthropolom') and in \996launchcd its own It was no accident that the second annual PSi conference took
journal, Pciformancc Research. In 1990, what was planned as a place in 1996 at Northwestern Uni\crsity in E\'anston,
modest, graduate-student-led conference celebrating the Illinois. NU's brand of performance studies, which took its
ll'nth annin~rsary oJ' NYU's performance studies depart- present shape during the 1980s, emerged from speech
nwnt attracted 110 people, +3 from outside the USA. The communications, oral interpretation (the performance of
mmeners of the conference playfully clubbed it PSi, literature other than dramas), rhetoric (debate and public
Perl{>rmancc Studies international, and the name stuck (sec speaking), and urban anthropology. Adherents of the NU
Performance Studies .international box). In 1993, approach take a ,e ry bro<Jd \icw of what constitutes "text"
flg 1.:5. A photograph c array or some examples or the "broad spectrum or performance."

Ritual:
Girl receiving Eucharist from a priest at
Grand Bay, Mauritius, F rst Holy
Ritual:
Communion Phot ograph by Perry
Masked performer during carnival In Guinea Joseph/ArkRellglon com Reproduced
Bissau, 1980s Photograph by Eve L Crowley w th permlss on.
Photograph courtesy or Richard Schechner.

Play; Sports:
c.a
Sam and Kate Taylor and their cousin Bridget rd playing New Zealand Crusaders' JustJn Marshall runs
"dress up" In New Zealand, 1979 Photograph by Me ra between South Africa Cats' Wikus van Heerden and
Tay or. Trevor Ha I during his 100th Super 12 rugby match
at Jade Stadium, Christchurch, New Zealand , ApNI
2005 AP/Phot opress, Ross Land. Copyright
EMPICS Reproduced with permission

Popular Entertainment:
Performing Arts: Theatre
Performing Arts: Dance
Peter Brook's 1970 productiOn of Shakespeare's A
Midsummer Night's Dream Royal Shakespeare Theatre Azuma Katsuko perform ing kabuki dance, Japan,
On the swings Alan Howard as Oberon and John Kane 1 980s Photograph by Torben Huss Photograph
courtesy or Eugenio Barba
as Puck. Below, Sara Kestelman a!. Titan a and David
Waller as Bottom Copyright 1970 David Farre'l
Courtesy or the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Performance In Everyday Ufe:

One city partnership meeting at Djangoly lnnovatJ.on
Centre Copyright John B rdsal Reproduced with
permisSion

Performance Art
Performance VIew Poetry Project at Sa nt Marks Church,
1985. Karen Finley perform.ng Don't Hang the Angel
Photograph by Dona Ann McAdams

Polltlcal Performance:
Students In a sltdown demonstration confronung the NatJona~ Guard at the
Un ver:slty of ca trornla, Berkeley, 1969. Copyrlght HultonDeutsch Collection/
 PERFORMANCE STUD
IES

Pe rf ormance Studies
international (P S i)
Ar tis ts an d scholars fro m
thr ou gh ou t the wo rld
PSi is a professional ass
ociation founded in 19 'H
working in the field of per to promote communicatio
formance. We seek to cre n and exchange among sch
ate opportunities for dia olars and practitioners
of disciplines whose con logue among artists and
cerns converge in the stil academics in a variety
l-evolving areas of live
PSi is actively committed art and performance.
to creating a membership
that while performance base of artists and schola
studies as a field encour rs from throughout the wo
age s con versations across discip rld. We recognize
parts of the world often linary boundaries, profes
wish for greater opportuni sio nals in various
who share their interes ties to exchange research
ts and expertise. PS i is and information about per
a net work of exchange for sch form anc e with others
locations, both disciplina olars and practitioners
ry and geographic. We act wo rking in diverse
tice, often testing the rela as a crucible for new ide
tion between the two. as and forms in performanc
As a professional organi e discou rse and prac-
development of both em zation, PSi is committed
erging and established art to encouraging the
ists and scholars.

2005, "P Si Mission," http

://psi-web.org/mission.htm
l

(se c St ern an d He nd
ers on bo x). In the 198
0s, h\o
historians of per for ma nce
o;tudies felt it was "to o The "i nt er " of perfor
lla im a paradigm shift fro ear ly" to mance
per for ma nce studies (se
m oral int erp ret ati on and
the atre to studies
c Pc lia s an d Ya nO os tin
But h) the sta rt of the g bo x).
nc\ \ millt:tmium the shi I'Lrformancc ... tudil'S res
established. ft ''a s \\e ll ists fixed definition. 1\
~tudies doe_., no t\ alu rfo rm anc e
c "pu rit) "It ba t its lll'st
hn pd us for the shift amid~t a den se \\c
\\h en op era tin g
lam e str on gl) from Dw h of con nec tio ns. Academ
Co nq ue rg oo d, the cha igh t ic.: clis dpline..
ir of Pe rfo rm anc e Studie arc most act iH' at the ir
from 199 3- 99 and a ma s at Nl l l'\e r dla ng ing interface
ol per for ma nce studies, s. In term~
jor the ori st, eth no gra ph this nwans the interaction~
lllmmakt'r. Co nq ucr go od er, and between
arg ued for a per lor ma ncc tlll'atrc and anthropology
-ba.,cd , folklore ancl sociolog~
rat her tha ntc xt-hascd app and per for ma nce the ory , his tor y
roach cumhining scholar!) , gen der studies ami ps) dm
"it h arti.,tic training and res earch ana l) sis,
practice (se c Co nq uc rg per for ma th it) and actual
I). In the mid 1990s Co oo d bo x per for ma nce C\'cnts - and
nq uer go od called lor pcr Nc l\ int erf ace s\\ ill app mo re.
l;m nan ce ear as tim e goes on , and
studico; adh ere nt" to "re "il l cli~appear. Acceptin old er oms
thi nk " lhe areas of stu g "in ter " me ans op po
Co nq uc rg oo d bo x 2). d) (sec sin g the
Conc1ucrgood's pro gra m est abl ish me nt of any sin
rem ain.~ at gle sy ...tem of knowledge
the core of the N U app roJ or suhject matter. Perfor , 'al uc s,
t h to per for ma nce studie mance l>tudics io; op en, mu
s. hh ocJ I,
and sel f-contradictory. Th
crd orc , any cJII for a "un
is, in my \"iC\\, a mi sun der ifie d Jid d"
Dw igh t Co m1 uc rgo od ( sta nd ing of the \"er) flu
194 9-2 004): Amcrkan pla~lulmss fundam idity and
ami pcrformam:c theorist. ethnographer ental to per for ma nce stu
Chair of ;\;orthw~stern dies.
Do:partnwnt of l'crformancc Unhersit) ~ At a mo re theoretical
-,lUlli~s during a dtt le\ cl, what b the relati
is in , formath t' perlorman<:c studies to on of
period, 1993 99. Through per for ma nce proper? Arc
hi~ teaching, ethnog the re any
ltcturing, Conqutrgood wa raphic \\ork, ami limits to pcr for ma ti\' ity
s instrunll'ntal in shapin ? Is the re anything out
g tlw i\U hraml pu n iew of per lor ma ncc ~ide the
of perfnnnancc studits. Co studies? I discuss these que
-di rec tor (\\ ith Taggart Sit stions in
\'idtn dOl 'UO ll'll laT ) The 1-fc gd ) of tht~ Ch apt ers 2 and 5. For now
un
Broken in li<JI[( 199 0). , let me say tha t the pcrfor
occ urs in places and situ math"e
ations no t traditionally
as "pe rfo rm ing art s," fro ma rked
m dre ss- up and dra g to
kinds of \\ riti ng and spe cer tai n
aking. Accepting the per
a$ J cat ego ry of the ory for ma til c
makes it increasingly dif
sustain a distinction bet ficult to
we en appearances and rca
and makc-bclic,c, surfac lit), facts
es and depth~. Appearan
ces arc
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

Carol Simpson Stern and Bruce Henderson

A wl1ole field of human activity
The term performance incorporates a whole fed of human activity. It embraces a verbal act in everyday life or a staged
play, a rite of invective played in urban streets, a performance in the Western traditions of high art, or a work of perfor mance
art. It includes cultural performances, such as the personal narrative or folk and fairy tales, or more communal forms of
ceremony- the National Democratic Convention, an evensong vigil march for people with AIDS, Mardi Gras, or a bullfight.
It also includes literary performance, the celebration of individual genius, and conformi ty to Western defi nitions of art. In
all cases a performance act, Interact Of"l alln nature and involving symbolic forms and live bodies, provides a way to constitute
meaning and to affirm individual and cultural val ues.

1993, Performance, 3

Ronald J. p e I i as and James Van 0 osti ng

A magical renaming tlrat opens doors
The term "performance studies" as a disciplinary title enjoys 1ncreasing currency, often used in place of the more familiar
label, "oral interpretation.'' I .. .J
Performance stud ie~ calls into question the privilege of academc authority by including all members of a speech community
as potential artists, all utterances as potentially aesthetic, all events as potentially theatrical, and all audiences as potentially
active partic"pants who can authorize artistic experience. By rejecting canonical security and exclusionary convenfons,
performance studies practitioners eschew artistic imperialism in favor of aesthetic communalism. These claJT>s, then, yield
an ideology that is racially democratic and counterelitist. L . J
[T]he move to performance stud ies nstitutionalizes what oral interpretation ~a n ctioned as experimentation.
l. . .] While positioned squarely within the field of speech communication, [the name] " perfo rmance studies" suggests clear
inks to theatre, ethnography and folklore, popular culture, and contemporary l iterary c r iticism. However, the new
r>omenclature s hardly arbitrary or mercenary; it is justified by the long evolutionary development of oral interpretation.
L . .J Performance studies, thus, s an act of magical renaming, a stage of evolutionary development, and a revisionist
reading. But does the name change point to a paradigm shift? It is too early to say.
1987, " A Paradigm for Performance Studies, "
219,221, 228-29

actualities - neither more nor less so than ''hat lies he hind or

Ethical questions
beneath appearances. Social reality b construct ed through
and through. ln modernit), "hat" as"dccp"and"hiddcn"\\as Many \\ ho practice perfo rmance studils resist o r oppose
thought to be "more real" than "hat \\as on the ~urfacc the global for1.cs of capital. Fewer " ill concede that these
(Platonism dies hard). But in postmodc rni t~. the rclation~hip forc-es knm\ \ cry well perhaps C\ en h cttcr than we do
hctwc~.n de pth) and surfaces is fluid; the relationsh ip is ho\\ t o pe rform, in all the meanings of that word.
dynamical!) con,cctivc. The interplay of d lkicnc), productivity, aLti\"ity, and
 PERFO RMAN CE STUDI ES

Dwight Conquergood
Perfo rman ce studie s at North weste rn
What is really radical about theatre, perform ance,
and media studies at N U is that we embrace both written
scholarship and
creativ e work, texts and perform ance. [ .. .] Printed
texts are too import ant and powerf ul for us to cede
that form of
scholarship. But it is not enough. We also engage
in creative work that stands alongside and in metony
conventional scholarship. We think of perform ance mic tension with
and practic al work as a supplement to - not substit
scholarship. L . .1 ute for - written

Speaking from my home depart ment, we sometimes

refer to the three A's of perform ance studies: artistry
activis m. Or to change the allitera tion, a comm itment , analysis,
to the three C's of performance studies: creativ ity,
commu nity. By commu nity, I mean citizen ship and critiqu e, and
civic struggles for social justice. Theatre, performance,
and media studies
at N U all struggle to forge a unique and unifyin g mission
around the triangu lation of these three perspectives
on performance
and creative work:

1. Accomplishment <the making of art and culture ;

creativ ity; embodiment; the work of imagin ation;
artistic process and
form; knowledge that comes from doing, partici patory
understanding, practic al consciousness, perform ing
knowin g). as a way of

2. Analysis (the interpr etation of art and culture ;

critiqu e; thinkin g about and with performance; perform
ance as an optic,
a metaph or or theoretical model for understanding
culture ; knowledge that comes from contem plation
and comparison -
concentrated attenti on and contex tualiza tion as a way
of knowin g).
3. Applic ation {activis m, the connection to commu
nity; social contex ts. and articul ations ; action researc
h; artistic and
research projects that reach outside the academy and
are rooted in an ethic of recipro city and exchange;
knowledge that
is tested by practic e within a commu nity - social commi
tment, collabo ration, and contrib ution/in terven tion
knowing: praxis) . as a way of

The ongoing challenge of our collaborative agenda is

to refuse and supersede the deeply entrenched division
of labor, apartheid
of knowledges, that plays out inside the academy
as the difference between thinkin g and doing, interpr
eting and making ,
concep tualiza tion and creativ ity. The division of
labor between theory and practice, abstra ction and
embodiment, is an
arbitra ry and rigged choice, and like all binaris ms
it is booby- trapped. It's a Faustian bargain. If we
go the one-way street
of abstraction, then we cut ourselves off from the nouris
hing ground of partici patory experience. If we go the
one-way street
of practice, then we drive ourselves into an isolated
cui de sac, a practit ioner's workshop or artist's colony
. Our radical move
is to turn, and return, insistently, to the crossroads.

1999, from a talk at the "Cultu ral lnterse cfons" confere

nce, Northwestern Univer sity.

Dwigh t Conqu ergo od

The Five areas of perfo rman ce studie s

1. Performance and Cultura l Process. What are the

conceptual consequences of thinkin g about culture
as a verb instead of
a noun, a process in!.tead of product? Culture as an
unfoldi ng perform ative invention instead of reified
system, structure,
or variable? What happens to our thinkin g about perform
ance when we move it outside of aesthetics and situate
it at the
center of lived experience?
 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

2. Performance and Ethnographic Praxis. What are the methodological implications of thin king about fieldwork as the
collaborative performance of an enabling fiction between observer and observed, knower and known? How does think ing
about fieldwork as performance differ from thinking about fieldwork as the collection of data? [. . J

3. Performance and Hermeneutics. What kinds of knowledge are privileged or displaced when performed experience becomes
a way of knowing, a method of critical inquiry, a mode of understanding? [. . .J

4. Performance and Scholarly Representation. What are the rhetorical problematics of performance as a complementary
o1 alternative form of "publishing" research? What are the differences between reading an analysis of fieldwo rk data,
and hearing the voices from the field interpretively filtered through the voice of the researcher?[. . . J What about enabling
people themselves to perform their own experience? [. .. J

5. The Politics of Performance. What is the relationship between performance and power? How does performance reproduce,
enable, sustain, challenge, subvert, critique, and naturalize ideology? How do performances simultaneously reproduce
and resist hegemony? How does performance accommodate and contest domination?

1991, "Rethink ing Ethnograp hy," 190

J on Mcl<enzie
Performance is a new subject of knowledge

L .. P]erformance will be to the 20th and 21st centuries what discipline was to the 18th and 19th, that is, an onto-historical
formation of power and knowledge [italics in orig inal]. L .. J Like discipline, performance produces a new subject of
knowledge, though one quite different from that produced under the regime of panopfc survei llance. Hyphenated identities,
transgendered bodies, digital avatars, the Human Genome Project- these ~ugg ~st that the performative subject is constructed
as fragmented rather than unif ed, decentered rather than centered, virtual as well as actual. Similarly, performative objects
are unstable rather than fixed, simulated rather than real. They do not occupy a sing e, "proper'' place in knowledge;
there is no such thing as the thing-in-itself. Instead, objects are produced and maintained through a variety of socio-
technical systems, overcoded by many discourses, and situated in numerous si tes of practice. While disciplinary institutions
and mechanisms forged Western Europe's industrial revolution and its system of colonial empires, those of performance are
programming the circuits of our postindustrial, postcolonial world. More profoundly than the alphabet, printed
book, and factory, such technologes as electronic media and the Internet allow discourses and practices f rom di fferent
geographical and historlca situations to be networked and patched together, their traditions to be electronically archived
and played back, their forms and processes to become raw materials for other productions. Similarly, research and teaching
machines once ruled strictly and linearly by the book are being retooled by a multimedia, hypertextual metatechnology,
that of the computer.

2001, Perform Or Else, 18

 PER FOR MAN CE STU DIE S

Jer e Longman

Genetically altered athletes

Genes serve as a scr pt that dire
cts the body to make prot eins
. It seems fant astic today to thin
resu lt in more fast -tw"tch mus k that injec ting a gene coul d
cle fibers, enabling a spri nter
to run 100 meters in si x seco
injec ting a gene that cou ld incre nds instead of just under 10.
ase oxygen carr ying cap acit y Or
so that a mar atho ner cou ld run
hours instead of just over two. 26.2 miles in one and a hal f
Some scientists and Olympic com
mittee members thin k genetic engi
away. Some believe it may appe neering in sports is a decade
ar in two years. Still others belie
ve crude form s mig ht already
to athl etes .[. . .J Instead of repe be in use, at grea t health risk
atedly ingesting pills or takin g
injections, an athlete may be able
genetic mat eria l, to sustain bulk , with a single insertion of
ed up muscle mass or heighten
ed oxygen -car ryin g capacity for
genetic man ipul atio n wou ld be months or even years. Such
extr eme ly diffi cult , if not virtu
ally impossible to dete ct[. ..1

200 1, " Someday Soon, Athl etic

Edge May Be from Al tered Gen
es.''

cOll' rtai nnw nt in a wor d, J>t>rli>rmance inli>rms

and drh es pmHrlul mean~ ol finding and
counties~ ope rati ons . In man) ke) arla~ of shar ing inliJrmation the
hum an iKlh it) intl'rJ\I.'t, cdl phones, sophi~til.'ated
"pe rfor man ce" i'> uuc ial to succ com puti ng people arc
es~. The wor d crop s up in
app an:ntly 'er) dilli:rent circumst iiH.rcasingl: finding the wor ld
ance~. Thc~e di vcrgcnt uses
not a hoo k to he read but
indi cate a hasic oH' rall sim ilar il a perl orm am:tto part idpa tc in.
~ at the tlwo reti cal le\l l.
Paradoxically, thi~ ttxthook
Perf orm anc e has hec ome a maj is a hook abo ut the wor ld lwc
or site of kno \\ ledg l' and oming le~~ of a hoo k.
pow er (sec Mc Ken zie box ). Perf orm anc e stud ie' is an acad emi
In relation to thi~ rda tin:l) c discipline 1ksigncd to
ne\\" situation, many ethical Cllll'Stio an~>wer the nee d to deal with
ns rem ain naked I) ope n. the changing drcum~lan<..<..'S
The mos t imp orta nt con cern "int olth e "glocal" - the po\\ erful wm
erw ntio n" hiologicall~, hina tion of the local and the
militarily, cuhurally. \Vh en, if ever global. Per form anc e stud ies is
, oug ht Ioree he u~ed to mor e inte ract he, hyp er-
"sa\l~" or"p rote ct"ploplc
text ual, \ irtu al, ami flu ill than
and \\ h) sa) )eS to Ko'i O\O ami no mos t scholarly disciplinl'S.
to tlw Sudan? Wh o ha~ the right At the sam e tim e, adh eren ts to
and / or the responsihilit) to perf orm anc e -;tudic~> fatl'
say yes or no? Wh at abo ut gen etic dau ntin g ethical and poli tkal que
in ten ention? Wh o can he stions. Wh at limits, if any,
against pn! \enting or curi ng dise oug ht ther e to he to tlw \\'ays
a~cs and im.reasing l.ro p
info rma tion is gath ered ,
~ iclds? But wha t aho ut clon
proc esse d, and dbt rihu ted ? Sho
ing? Or mmlil) ing human traits? uld thos e with the mea m
\Vhat comtitutt'~ a "disease" and inte rnn c in the inte rest of "hu
"ha t trai ts arc "had"? The man rights" or mus t the)
nine teen th and twe ntie th cen turi resp ect lota l cult ural auto nom y
es sa\\ som e n.r) nasty at wha tc\lr cmt ? Arti sts
things don e und er the aegis of and l>Cholar~ arc playing incr
a eug enk "im prm eme nt" easingly dcc ishe rolel> in
of the human ~re<-ies. Wh at aho addressing thel>e ethir:al and poli
ut genetically eng inee ring tical c1ucstions. One goal ol
"sup er athlete~" (sec Lon gm an thb text boo k b to help you thin
box )? In term s of art and k abo ut and act on thes e
scholarship, wha t, if any, oug ht to questions.
he the limits to crea th ity
;mel cultural borrowings? I take up
som e of thl'Se question.~ in
Cha pter 8.
TALK ABOUT

1. Clil lord Geert1. "ro tc, "Cultur

Conclusion al analysis is intrinsically
inco mpl ete. Am i, \\or sc than that
, the mor e dee ply it
Perf (,rm anc e stud ies cam e into goe s the less com plet e it is" (lnrc
exis tenc e \\ ithi n, and as rprctation '!.f Culwrcs,
a response to, the radically dun gin p. 29). b this true of you r own dep
g intellectual and arti stic artm ent in relation to
circumstance~> of the la~t perf orm anc e studics?What is the
thir d of the h\en tiet h cen tur) As "place" of perf orm anc e
the twc nt)- firs t cen tury unfo stud ies in )Our dep artm ent?
lds, man ) peo ple rem ain
dissatisfied with the stat us quo. 2. How mig ht perf orm anc e stud
Equipped with c\er mor e ies help lo dea l with
som e ol the problems facing the
wor ld, such as threats to
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE STUDIES?

tltt' tm ironment, the oppression and exploitation ol

JWople, on~rpopulation, and" ar? READ

Bdl, Julm "l'trfi>rmancc Stuth ~ s in an Agt ufTtrrur. "I [)fl ~1, 1 ( 2003)
PERFORM 6- 9
Co m1ucrguo.l. ()" ight. "l'crlimnantc StutliLs: lnll'rH nltolh atul Ha.lital
llt Sl".m:h." TDR: ThcDram11 Rnicn .J6.2 (2002): I.J) 57
1. Form a circle. Each person speaks her/his name.
Continue until e\ cr) cme in the class kno\\ s cHryone Jat-1-un, !>hannun. "l'rnf,ssing l'crfimnanu:. Oisdplinan l..cmalujp<s.
Th r l'riformunn Studtcs RcuJcr, I knr~ Bial, ttl. 32-42 . I om Inn and :'-lc\\
dst's name.
)ork: Huutltd gc, 2004.
2. Someone "alks across the room. Somtonc else dcscrihes
Ktr,hcnhlattl..imhlttt, lbrhara. "l'crli>rrnamc Studiu." Tile l'rrform<Jncc
that a1..tion. The person \\ alks across the room again, StuJt~~ 1\cuJcr, 1-knry Bial, 1.
-B 55. l.ondon anti i':t.\\ ) urk Routlclgc,
"sho'' ing" ''hal prt'\ iously the) were just "doing." What ] ()().J
wtn the dill'ercnccs hct\\ccn ""alking" and "sho\\ ing Mdwn1ic, Jun. "The Uminal ;\.orm. Tbcl'cyorm<~n<< .\ruJtcs llc<~Jcr, J-1, nn
\\ .tlking?" Hial, cd . 26-! I. lundon arul ;\lew York l{nutk<lgc, 200.J.

l'dia>, Hnnaltl J., ami Jam~ \'anOu,ting. "A l'aradtgm lnr l'crfnrmallll
Stu<lks. <l!.wrw~r journ,;/ '![Speech 7 i (I 'l87 ): 119 i I ,

Sd1cdmcr, 1\it:har.l ~l'crlimuann~ Studies: Till llroatl 'ipu trum

Apprnad1 " Tile Peiform<Jncc SwJrc<lleaJcr, Hutry llial, lll 7 9 I nn<lnn
ami N,w) ork: Hnutlcdgc, 10<H .

Wnrthl'll, \\' . 13. "Dtsdplinc of the T,xt 'iitl'> or I'Lrlormamc Ill:

l'r!fcmn<Jncr SwJics Rr<JJrr, 1-l~nr\' llial, t<l. 10-25. Lmu!nn ami :"/l" Yurk
Hnutktlgl', 100~.
 2 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE?

What is "to perform"? Heraclit us of Ephesus (c. 535-475 net): Grnk philosophlr
credited with the rrc.ltiun of till' <loctrinl' of "llux," the thl'Ol')' of
In husiness, sports, and sex, ~to perform " is to do something implrmalll'lll.:c and change. You L'an't s\L'P into the ~me rh er \\\ kc
up to a standard - to succeed, to excel. In the arts, "to because the llow of the rher insures that nc\\ water continuall~
perlorm " is to put on a show, a pia) , a dance, a concert. In replaces the old.
e\cryday life, "to perform " is to show oil, to go to extreme s,
to underlin e an at-lion for those who arc watching. In the
t \\ cnt y fir~t <.cntury, people as ne,er hefon: lh e hy mean~ of
Guillerm o Gomcz- Peiia ( 1955- ): ~\exilan horn hi national
plrform anle.
pLrli>nnann artist o1nd author, leadLr of La l'odl.l Nostra. His works
"Tc> perl"orm" can also he understo od in relation to: indudl~ hnth writings ll'urriorfor Grinso.<troik<J ( 199 3 ), 71u: .\'c11
II oriJ
BorJa ( 1996), D<Jn_qcrous BorJ~r Cmsscrs (2000), and f:tlmo Techno
Being lliitinnson Pcrform<Jncc, :lctirism, <Jnd PcJaao.'Lr (200;, '' ith rlaine Pcno1)
Doing and 1wrfnmla nns: Border llrujo (1990), [/ ,\ '!fi,u cru (199+), Border
Shm' ing doing St<Jsis ( \998), llroll'nout: BorJa Pulp Storks (2001 ), and 1/c.ncrminaror
Explaining "showing doing." 1s tl1c G/..,l>al PnJator ( 2005).

"Being" i~ existenc e itself. "Doing" is the acti\ it) of all

that cxbts, from quarks to -.entient hcings to SUJX'rgalaltk
Coco Fusco ( 1960- ): Cuhan hom intl'rdisdp linal') .trtist ho1sed
strings. "Showing doing" is performing: pointing to, under
in :-.lc\\ York Cit\. Collahora ll'd \\ith Guillermo Gllntl'ZI'Liia un
lining, and displaying d>ing. "Explaining 'shu\\ ing doing"' is the pcrli>mtamc T" o llnJiscos~r ~J Amerindians l'isit cbc ll'csr (1992).
plrforman~e studies. Other performanc~s include: DolorCJjrom !Oh to 21h (2002, \\ith
It 1\ 'cry importan t to lli~tingub h these categories from Rkardo DominguLz) and Tile Incredible Disappcorina ll'oman (2003,
each other. "Being" may be acthc or !ltatic, linear or circular, \\ ith Rkardo DnmingUFJ"). fusm is till.' o1utlmr of Enalisb is Broken
expanding or contract ing, material or spiritual. Being i'i 1/~rc ( 1995), <.orpus Dclccti: PcyormtJn rc.lrr ofrhc tlmcricar (1000),
The
a philosophical category pointing to'' hatcYer people theorize D"dia That llerc .\'or Ours(2001), ami On~ !!kin Deep (2003, with Urian
is the "ultimat e reality." "Doing" and "sho\\ ing doing" arc \Valli~) .

action~. Doing and sho\\ ing doing arc ah' il) s in flux, ah\ a) s
changing reality as the pre-Socrat ic Greek philosop her
Heracli tus experien ced it. Hcraditu s aphorizcd thb reflcxhe: referring hack tn unL~df or itself.
perpetual flux : "No one can step t\\ k c into the same rher,
nor touch mortal substance t\\ icc in the same conditio n"
(fragmm t 41 ).The fourth term, "explaining'sho" ing doing',"
is a reflexiYc effort to compreh end the \\orld of perfor-
Performances
mance and the world a~ performance.This comprehension is Perform ances mark identities, bend time, reshape and
usually the work of critics and scholars. But sometimes, in adorn the body, and tell stories. Perform ances- of art, rituals,
Brechtian theatre where the actor steps outside the role to or ordi11ary life - arc "restored bcha\ iors," "twice-bchared
commen t on " hat the chara<.ter is doing, and in critically beha' iors," perlorm ed actions that people train for and
aware perform ance art .'iuch as Guiller mo Gomcz- Pena's rehearse (sec GotTma n box). That making art inrol\'es
and Coco Fusco's Ji,o UnJiscorcrcJ Amcrmdrans l'isit the training and rehearsing is clear. But c\cryday life also
mm (1992 ), a performance is reflexiv e. I discus~ this sort inrohes )Cars of training and practice, of learning appro-
of perform ance in Chapters 5, 6, aml8 . priate culturall ) specific bits of hcha' ior, of adjusting and
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

performing one's life roles in rdation to social and personal specific circumstances. But it is also true that many e\ents
circumstances. The long infancy and childhood specific to the and bcha\ iors arc one-time C\ cnts. Thl'ir "oncencss" is a
human species is an extended period of training and rehearsal fun ction of conte xt, reception, and the countless ways bits of
for the su<:ccssful performance of adult lilc. "Graduation" heha, ior can he o rganized, performed, and displayed. The
into adulthood is marked in man) cultun:s by initiation o\'erall C\'ent may appear to be nc\\ or original, but its
rites. But e\cn hcforc adulthood so m e persons more com constituent par ts- ifbroken do'' n finely enough and analyzed
fortahly adapt to the life they li\e than others who resist or - arc rc ,ealed as restored behaviors. "Lifelike" art - as
rchcl. Most ptoplc lhe the tl'nsion be twee n acceptan<:e and Kapro\\ calls much of his work - is close to e\er)day life.
rebell ion . The acti\ itics of public life - sometimes calm , Kapro" 's ar t slightly underlines , highlights, or makes one
sometimes full of turmoil; sometimes \isihlc, sometimes aware of ordinary bcha\'ior J>il)'ing close attention to ho\\ a
masked - arc collecti\e performances. These acli\'itics meal is prepared, looking back at one's loot steps after walking
range from sanctioned politics through to street demon in the desert . Paying attention to simple acthities performed
strations and other forms of protest, and on to re \'olution . in the present mo ment is de, eloping a Zen consciousness in
'I he pcrli1rmers of these actions inte nd to thangc things, to relation to the daily, an honoring of the ordinary. Honoring
maintain the status quo, or, most commonly, to find or make the ordinary is noticing ho\\ ritual -like daily life is, how much
some common ground. A rc\'olution or ci\ il \\ ar Ol"Curs when daily I ilc con~i~t ~ of' repetitions.
the players do not desist and there is no common ground .
Any and all of the ac ti\ itie~ of human lili: tan he studic(l
Allan Kaprow (1927- 2006): American artist who coined the
"as" perfor mance (I will distuss "as" later in this chapter) .
term "Happening" to dcscrihc his 1959 installation/ performance
Enry altion from the smallest to the most encompassing
IS flappcnin9s in 6 Parts. Author of Asscmblaac. Enrironmcnts cmJ
is mad< oft \\ icc-bdla\ed bdla\'iors.
llappcninas (1966), Esrop on the 8lurrin9 f!f'tlrt anJ l.ifi: (2003, \\lth
\Vhat ahout action~ that arc appare ntly "oncc-hd1a' eel" JciTKdlcy), and ChiiJspluJ (2004, with JcfTKcllc) ).
the Happenings of Allan Kaprow, for exampl e, or an
e\cr~ da) Jill- occurHnce (cooking, dressing, taking a '' alk,
talking to a lri end)? E,en these arc constructed from
restored belta,ior: physical, n~rhal, or \irtual actions that arc
heh;n iors prc,iously heha\'cd. In lacl, the cn:rydayness of
not-fortlw first time; that arc prepared or rchearsl'tl. A person may
l'\'er)day life is prcdsdy its familiarity, its heing huilt from not be aware that she is perlorminga strip of restored heha\'ior. Also
knm\ n hits ofhdn' ior reJrrangcd and shaped in ordt-r to suit referred toast\\ icc-hcha\l:d hcha\ ior.

Erving Goffm an
Defining performance
A "performance" may be defined a~ all the activity of a g'ven participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in
any way any of the other participants. Taking a particular participant and his performance as a basic point of reference, we
may refer to those who contribute to the other performances as the audience, observer51 or coparticipants. The preestablished
pattern of actiorl which is unfolded during a performance and which may be presented or played through on other occasions
may be called a "part" or a " routine." These situational terms can easily be related to conventional structural ones. When
an individual or performer plays the same part to the same audience on different occasions, a social relationship is likely to
arise. Defln'ng social role as the enactment of rights and duties attached to a given status, we can say that a social role will
involve on! or more parts and that each of these different parts may be presented by the performer on a series of occasions
to the same kinds of audiences or to an audience of the same persons.

1959, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 15-lb

J
 2 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE?

Wha t is "to perform"?

Herac litus of Ephesu s (c. SJS-475 IICil): Gn:ck philosopher
cn:dittd with the lTcatinn of the dottrin c of "flux," tht tlwury
In business, sports, and sex, "to perform " is to do someth ing of
implrmatwncc and change. You wn't su~p into tlw same rinr
up to a standa rd - to sun:~e cl, to excel. In th~ arts, "to twin
hcl'ilUSl' tlw lln\\ of the rinr in~un:~ that nc'' "att-r l'ontinu
perform " is to put on a show, a play, a danle, a concer t. In alh
nplatcs the old.
ewryda y life, "to perform " i'i to show otl', to go to extrem es,
to underl ine an action lor those who arc watching. In the
tm:nt) hrst century , people a~ ne,er before live hy means of
Guille rmo Gomcz -Pcila (1955- ): ~lcxk;m - horn hi -national
perform ance.
pl.'rli1rmame arti'it ami author, katlcr nfl.a l'od1a Nostr.1. His works
"To perlorm " can al.'io he unders tood in relation to:
indud, llllth writings ll'arrior fur Grinao5troika ( 199 3 ), The X en
II or/J
llorJcr (1996), Danyerom Border Cruss.:rs (2000, , antl/-chno- Techno
Being II ricin.'lsun l'crform<Jn.-c, .lrchism, and l'.:Jaao,oz.r (2005, "ith rlainl'
Pdia)
Doing ami pcrformam.ts: BurJcr Brujo ( 1990), 1!1 -:.,',!fra'-t:C<l ( 19'>+), Border
Showing tloing Stasis (1998), llrownouc - llurJcr Pulp Stories (2001 ), and 1/c.ttcrmi
n<Jtor
Fxplaining "showing doing." I'S the Gloi><Jll'rrJ<Jcor (2005).

"Being" is cxbten<.e itself. "Doing " is th~ acthity of all

that exists, from quarb to sentien t hdngs to supcrgalactic
Coco l;usco ( 1960- ): Cuban horn inttrdisdplinary artist hastcl
strings . "Siul\\ ing doing" h perform ing : pointing to, under-
in :"l~W York Cit). Collahurattd "ith Guiller mo Gilml'1 l'ciia
lining, and clispla) ing doing. "Explaining 'showi ng doing'" is on
the pcrlf.lmlancc 1'no UnJisco1ucJ Amuindi.ms llsic rhe II est ( 1992}.
perform ance studies. Otht~r pcrfurmancl'S induclt: Dt>lures from JVh co 2211
(2002 , "itl1
It b n~r) import ant to di~tinguL'ih these catego ries from Ricarclu Domingut~z) an1l The lntrcdil>lt DI>rtppcaring llonwn (2001,
each other. "Being" rna) he acti\'e or static, linear or circular, with Rkartlu llomingul."l.)- FUSt'O is the author ol cnalish is Droken
expand ing or contrac ting, materia l or spiritu al. Being is 1/erc ( 1995), Corpus Ddcrcl: Pciformanrc Arc ofchc .1mcrica.f (2000),
The
a philosophical <.atcgor) pointing to whatc\cr people theoriz e Dodics That Were Sor Ours (2001 ), ami On{dkin D.:ep (2003, \\ ith Brian
is the "ultim ate real it}." "Doing " and "showi ng doing" arc Wallis).
actions . Doing and shu\\ ing doing arc always in Ilux, always
changi ng - reality a~ the pre-So cratic Greek philoso pher
Herac litus experi enced it. Heracl itus aphorizecl this rcflc;o~:hc: n~fl'rring hatk tn oncsdf or itsdf.
perpetu al flux : "No one can step twice into the same rher,
nor touch mortal substan ce twice in the same conditi on"
(fragment 41 ).The fourth term, "cxplaining'showing doing', "
is a rellcxh c effort to <.omprchend the ''orld of perfor-
Performances
mance and the \\orld as perform ancc.T his comprchen~ion is Perform ances mark identit ies, bend time, reshape and
usually the \\ork of critics and scholars. But mmeti mcs, in
adorn the hody, and tell stories. Performance~ of art, rituals,
Brcchtian theatre where the actor steps outside the role to or ordina ry life - arc "restor ed beha,iors," "twiCl -hclta\c d
comm ent on "hat the charac ter is doing, and in critical ly behavi ors," ptrfor med actions that people train lor and
aware perform ance art such as Guille rmo G6mc z-Pcii a 's
rehearse (sec GotTm an box) . That making art in\'ol\'cs
and Coco Fusco 's 1i1o Undi~eotcrcJ Amcrmdians l'isit the
trainin g and rch~ arsing is clear. But C\'er yda) life also
llest (\992) , a perform ance is reflex ive. I discuss this
sort imoi\'Cs years of trainin g and practic e, of learnin g appro-
of perform ance in Chapte rs 5, 6, an ciS.
priate cultura lly specific hits of beha' ior, of adjusti ng and
 PERFORMANCE
STUDIES
Th er e is a parado
x he re . Ho w can
th e th co r) of rcstor bo th Heraclitus an
Lll hchaxior be rig d pe rfo rm an ce
ht? Performances takts place be l\\ ec
made from hits of arc pc rlo rm an n the \ideotapt of
re sto re d bchaYior, ce an d th e th e hr st
is diiTlrcnt from c\ hu t e\ er y pe rfo rm an ce bo re ce pt io n of th at
er ) ot he r. First, II xe th the haby-nm' -m first pe rlo rm an n h,
he re co m bi ne d in d hits of hd ta\ io r othlr and herO\\ n
can watching bah) (o r anyone d~
en dk ss Yariations
. Se co nd , no cn th e 'id eo tape). W ha ~
la n exact!) copy an n t pe rfo rm an t is tru e of this "h om
ot he r eYcnt. l'\ ot on ce is tru e of all pcrfi e m m ic"
nuances of m oo d, ly th e behaYior its >rmanns. To trt'at
to ne of voice, hod) elf wo rk , or pr an} ob je tt,
language, anti so od uc t "a s" perli>rmanu:
hut also the sptdfic on , a shoe , or a painting, a no w
occasion and co nt an)t hi ng at all l,
unictue. W ha t ahou ex t m ak e ea ch instance oh means to in ' estig
t mechanically, dig jcct docs, hem it in ate "h at thl.'
rlprotluced replica itally, or hi ol og ka te ra ct s" ith ot he r
nts or clones? It lly how it relates ohjet.t~ or hcings
ma y to ot he r object~ or hl.'ings , and
a digitizl.'d perform hl th at a 111m or . Performances exi
ancL ar t piece wi only as actions, in ~t
ll he the same at terat.tions, an d rcl
slu m ing. But th e each ation~hips.
co nt ex t of every
instance dilli.rcnl. re ce pt io n makt.s
f\ en though e\Cr) each
same, each event in "thing" is l'Xactl)
the
"h ic h th e "thing" pa
rticipates is clilfercn Bill Parcells wan
Th e unictucness of
an L,ent do cs no t dt t. ts you
lity to perform
so ld ) hut also on pend on its matlria
its in te ra ct i\ ity -
ah ' a) s in llux. If th and th e in te ra ct i\i
is is so with rlga rd t) is
to 111m ami cligiti;rc A 19 99 lull-pagl' ac
media, hem m ut h cl h er tis em cn t in Th
m or e so for live pe the Cadillac Se\ illc e \c11 )ork T1mes ~el
pr od uc tio n anti re rfo rm an ce , where ca ling
ce pt io n ,ary l"rom ho th r leatures An wr k an
in sta nc e lo instance. co ac h Bi ll Pa rc el ls starin It gl nclar ) fo otb all
O r in tlail) lif e, " hc g ou t at the n atl er
rL co nt ex t cannot 2.1 ). (s ec fig
Th us , ironically, he twrli:ctly contro
lled.
O ne oi"Parcdls' e)
es is in slwl<m, the ur e
performanCl'S resis into the ha ck gr ou darkness blending
them. t th at wh ich produce.~ nd lo r th e stark lar
ge '' hitc-on black
\\' hi e h lcad'i to th te xt :
e c1uestion, "\ \'l wr
take place?'' A pain e clo plrli>rmances If YOU W AN
ting "takes place" T TO II' IP RE
a nmd takes plac in th e physical oh SS
e in thL words. Bu je ct ;
place as ac tio n, in t a pe rf or ma nn~ takes B IL L P A
te ra ct io n, an d re la
tio n. In this re ga rd RCELLS
painting or a nm cl , a
can he pc rfo rm at
"as" pe rfo rm an ce ire or can he analy
;red y 0 u H A
"b etw ee n. " Let me
. Ptrformancc isn
't "in" anything, V E T 0
explain. A perli>rm bu t
rit ua l, at play, nr
in the perli>rmin
er in or di na ry till-,
in a PERFORM
so m lt hi ng - pe rfo g ar ts do cs / show
rm s an action. For s
a ~poon to her ow n ex am pl e, a m ot hl r
m ou th and th en to lil ts
th e hal>) how to ca a hahy 's m ou th to
t cereal. Th e pe rfo sho\\ Bi ll Pa rc el ls ( 19
rm an ce is th e actio 41 - ): Am cr ka n lim
of lilting the spoo n an d 1991 of two Supc thall ma ch . Winntr
n, bringing it to m rlxml~ with the in 1987
to bah) 's m ou th . ot he r's m ou th , and then Nc \\ York Giants.
Th e hahy is at fir
m ot he r's perform st th e sp ec ta to r
ance. At so m e po of its
co -p er fo rm er as ~h in t, the baby hecomt
e takes th e ~poo s a Un de rn ea th
n ancl tri es th e sa a photograph of a
of te n at hr st missi me action sm al le Seville, th e te xt co
ng he r m ou th and r ty pe , "G re at pe ntinues in
and ch in " ith food m~ :s si ng up he r lips im pr rfo rm er s have ah ' a) s m ad
. Father videotapes es sio n on Bill e a big
maybe man) years the whole show. La Parcells. Th at ex
later, the bahy is a ter, appreciatio plains his str on g
gr ow n woman show n for Se , ille 1- . J."
to hl'r 0\ \ n hab) a ing
ho m e ,ideo of the Th e ad conllates pe
learn ho\\ to usc da y wh en she began rfo rm in g in sp or ts,
a sp oo n. Viewing to ar ts, and tec business, sex, the
thi ~ ,i de hnology. Parcells
pe rfo rm an ce exist o is an ot he r excels as a football
ing in th e co m pl ex m aking de m an ds up coach. By
original e\ent, the relation bctwlen on his players he
video of the c\ent, the th e) re sp on m ot ha te s th em an
th e m em or y of pa d on th e field wi d
no w ol d or ma) be rents Parcells' th "i nn in g pe rlo
dead, and the pr es ('X cellencc de rh cs fro rm an ce s.
as m ot he r po in ts en t m om en t of de m his dr he , his ab
to th e sc re en and light or ga ni ze , ility to
tells he r baby, "T an d his in sis tence on careful
\\a s m om m ) when ha t detail of th at te nt io n to each
I was yo ur ag c! "T e game. His stare ha
"takes place" in be he fir st pe rfo rm an ce ga s"sex appeal" his
tween the action of 1e is that of a po te pe ne tra tin g
usc the spoon and showing bahy how nt man ahlc to co
ba by \ reaction to to pia) football. He nt ro l the giants '' ho
this action. Th e se combines mastery,
cond At th e sam efficiency, ami heau
e tim e, Parcells dis ty.
plays an understate
d llash; he

30
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

3 in sports and other popular cntntainmcnts

4 in husiness
5 in technology
6 in sex
7 in ritual - sacred and :;ccular
8 in pia) .

EH~n this li~t doc~ not cxhau~t the po.~sibilitks (sec Carlson
box). If examined rigorously as theoretical catcgoril.'s, the
dght situation~ arc not commensuratl.', "En:ryday life..-'' can
encompass most of the other situations. The arts take as their
subjects materials from eH~rywhat and e\crywhcre. Ritual
and play arc not onl) "genre:." of p!!rlormancc hut pri.'SI.'nt in
all of the :.ituatlons a~ qualities, inflections, or moods. I list
these eight to indicate the large territory co\'crcd by
perfi,rmancc . Some items those occurring in husincs~.
technolog\ and :.ex - arl.' not usuallv anal)i'Cd with the
' ' J

others, '' hich ha\'e been the loci of arts-based performance

. .. ,. ..... _ ............. -a. ..... -r-- theories. Ami the operation of making catcgoril' S ~uch as thLsc
1 ..... ' ......... ~oolo~ 10 0 It~ loool t ,, "'f
eight is the result or
a particular cuhurc-spcdlk kind of
....... _ . \,.,...... __,._.....,_ ... -a.c- thinking.
-
....... ......... ,............ ......
\,

..............,....................... ...,. _
....~

Marvin Carlson
S~;V/U.E.
tr. WHolnl Hlt.Jt(1:.. --
..... - .....,
'l,\'1'1 due~t lr:asc ..,ning
What is performance?

- ~- - -'--.-- . --~'" The term "performance" has become extremely popular

in recent years in a wide range of activities in the
arts, in literature, and in the social sciences. As its popu-
ftg Z.l. FootbaJ coach Bill Parcells In an advertlsement ror Cadlt ac
automobiles that appeared In The New York nmes In 1999 Photograph larity and usage has grown, so has a complex body
courtesy of General Motors Corporation.
of writing about performance, attempting to analyze
and understand just what sort of human activity it
knows he is pia) ing to the camera and to the CW\\ ds. All of is. [ .. .] The recognition that our lives are structured
this informs the ad, whic h tries to comincc \'ie,,ers that according to repeated and socially sanctioned modes
the Cadillac, like Parcells, is at the top of its game, seX) of behavior raises the possibility that all human activity
and po\\erful, well made down to the last detail, dcplndahlc, could potentially be considered as "performance,"
the leader in its field, and something that will stand out in or at least all activity carried out with a conscious
a crowd. ness of itself. L . .J If we consider performance as
an essentially contested concept, this will help us to
understand the futility of seeking some overarching
Eight kinds of performance semantic field to cover such seemingly disparate usages
as the performance of an actor, of a schoolchild, of an
Performances occur in eight sometimes separate, :-.omctimcs automobile.
O\ crlapping situations:
1996, Performance: A Critical Introduction, 4-5
I in e\'cryday lil'c - cooking, socializing, "just lhing"
2 in the arts
 PERfORMANCE STUDIES

It is impossible to com e at a subj ect

exce pt from the othe r art. Figure skating and gym
one's own cultural positions. But once nastics exis t in both
I hegan writ ing this realms (sec figu re 2.2) . Deciding wha
book , the best I could do is to he aware of, t is art depends on
and share with the cont ext, historical circumstance, usc, and
reader, my biases and limitations. That local con,entions.
harin g hecn note d, Separating "art" from "ritual" is particular
designating music, dance, and thea tre ly difficult. I haYe
as the "per form ing note d that ritua l objects from many cultu
arts" may seem rcla ti'd) simple . But a~ res arc featured
categories e\en th1.se in art museums. But cons ider also relig
arc ambiguous. Wha t is designated "art, ious seni ces \\ ith
" if anything at all, mu'iic, singing, dancing, preaching, story
raries historicall) and culturall). Obje cts telling, speaking in
and perl otma nccs tongues, and healing. At a Christian
called "art" in som e cultures arc like wha c\angclica\ chur ch
t is made or done :.en icc, for exam ple, peop le go into
in othe r cultu res\\ ithout hcing so desig tranc e, dant e in the
nated . Man~ cultures aisles, gi\'c tcstimon), recei\ c anointme
do not ha\'c a word for, or category calle nt and hapti~m. The
tl, "art" cn:n though gospel music heard in Afri<.an American
they create performances and object~ dem churches i' close\)
onstrating a highly related to blues, jaZI, and rock and roll.
tle,d oped aesthetic sense reali:r.cd with Arc such sen kes art
consummate skill. or ritual? Compo~rs, 'isua l artisL~. and
Not only making lmt e\ aluating "art" o<.cu pcrformlrs ha,c long
rs e\'erywlll're. m;~de works of line art for usc in
People all around the worl d know ritua ls.l(l what realm docs
how to di,tinguish Joh ann Seb asti an Bac h's .llass m D
"good" from "had" dand ng, ~inging, orati Minor and hb many
ng, storytelling, cantatas or \\'ol fgan g Am adeu s Mo:l'.art
sculpting, fabric design, pott er). pain 's Mass in C Minor
ting, and so on. But belong? Chu rch auth oriti es in medicYa\
wha t makes something "good" or "had Europe such as
" raric s greatly from Am alar ius, the Bishop of Meti', ao;<;crtcd
place to place, time to time , and 1.~\'t'n occa that the Mass ''as
sion tn occasion . th~.atre cqui \alcn t to ancient Gree
The ritual ohjcLts of one <.ulturc or one k tragedy (sec Har diso n
historical perio d box ) . More than a fe\\ people atten d
beco me the art\\ orks of othe r cultures religious seniccs ils
or periods. t\luscum s much f(w aesthetic pleasure ancl socia
of art arc full of paintings and ohjcct~ that l intcractiYity as for
once were regarded rca'ions ofhd icf'. In man) ~ ultu ns, parti
as saLrcd (and still may he h) pillag~.~d cipatory performing
peop les eage r to j, tl\l~ core of ritua l prac tkcs
regain their ritual objects and sacred nma . In ancient Athcns, the grea t
ins). furth erm ore, theatre flsti\ al~ \\ere ritual, art, spor ts-lik
eYcn if a pcrfilrmancc has a strong ac~th e competition, ami
e tic dimcn~ion, it b popular ente rtain men t simultaneously. Toda
not neccs,aril) "art." The mme s of hask ), sports arc hoth
cthall player:. arc a~ li\'e and media ente rtain men t li.aturing
beautiful as those ofha llet dancer!>, hut wmp ctiti on, ritual,
one i~ term ed -;port, spectade , and hig husiness.

l"'g Z.Z. Ice 5kate r Denise Bte.lm enn

does a triple toelo op as seen In a tlm
Camera Press, Londo n elap se photograph, n d Photograph
by Alberto Venzago Copyright

. .,
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

Johann Sebastian Bach ( 1685-1750): German composer, choir qualitathcly on the basis of "form" and "difficulty." Their
director, and organist. His polyphonic compositio ns ofsacred music performa nces arc more like dancing than competiti ons ol
place him among Europe..' s most influential composers . speed or strength. But with the widesprea d usc of slow
motion photograp hy and replay, cnm "brute sports" like
football,' ' rcstling, and boxing yidd an aesthetic dimcn~ion
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) : Austrian composer that is more apparent in the re \ie'' ing than in the swift,
whose \'iJSt output and range of compositio ns including operas, tumultuou s action itsdf. An artful add -on is the taunting and
symphoml.'i, and liturgical music. \'ictory displays of athletes '' ho dance and prance their
superiorit y.
For all that, c\'cryone kno\\S the di!Tcrcm:c between going
Amalariu s of .Melz (780-850): Roman Catholic bishop and to church, watching a football game, or attending one
theologian, author of SC\'C:ral major tn:atiscs on the performan ce of of the performin g arts. The diOcrcncc is hased on function,
liturgical ritc..s, including Ecl(Jaac Jc orJ/nc romano (Pastoral Dialoaucs the drcumsta ncc of the l'\'cnt within society, the 'cnuc,
on the Ro~Mn Rirc) (8 14) and I ihcr '!l]lcialis (llook of tht.> Sen icc) and the beha\'ior expected of the players and speLtator s.
(821.). There is C\'Cn a hig dilfcrencc hct\\ccn \'ariou~ genres of the
performin g arts. Being tossed around a mo~h pit at a rock
contert i~ 'cry dill't.>rcnt from applaudin g a performa ntc
A~ noted, some sports arc close to fine arts. Gymnasti cs,
of the American Ballet Theatre's G1scl/c at Ne\\ York\
llgurc skating, and high dh ing arc rccogni;rl'd hy the Metropoli tan Opera House. Dance emphasizes mo\'cmcn t,
01) mpics. Hut there arc no (luantitati\'e ways to determin e theatre cmphasit.es narration and imperson ation, sports
"inncrs as thl'rc arc in racing, jaH~Iin thru\\ ing, or \\eight emphasize compttitiun, and ritual emphasi4'l'S partidpal ion
lifting. Instead, thc..sc "aes thetic athletes" arc judged and communi cation with transumd ent forces or hcings.

o. s. Hard ison
Tile medieval Mass was drama
That there is a close relationship between allegorical interpretation of the liturgy and the
history of drama becomes apparent
the moment we turn to the Amalarian interpretations. Without exception, they present the
Mass as an elaborate drama with
definite roles assigned to the participants and a plot whose ultimate significance is nothing
less than the "renewal of the
whole plan of redemption" through the re-creation of the "life, death, and resurrectio
n" of Christ. L . J The church is
regarded as a theatre. The drama enacted has a coherent plot based on conflict between
a champion and an antagonist.
The plot has a rising action, culminating in the passion and entombment. At its climax
there is a dramatic reversal,
the Resurrection, correlated with the emotional transition from the Canon of the Mass
to the Communion. Something like
dramatic catharsis is expressed in the gaudium [joy at the news of the Resurrection) of
the Postcommunion. [. .]
Should church vestments then, with their elaborate symbolic meanings, be considered costumes?
Should the paten, chalice,
sindon, sudarium, candles, and thurible be considered stage properties? Should the nave,
chancel, presbyterium, and altar
of the church be considered a stage, and its windows, statues, images, and ornaments a
"setting"? As long as there is clear
recognition that these elements are hallowed, that they are the sacred phase of parallel
elements turned to secular use on
the profane stage, it is possible to answer yes. Just as the Mass is a sacred drama encompass
ing all history and embodying
in its structure the central pattern of Christian life on which all Christian drama must
draw, the celebration of the Mass
contains all elements necessary to secular performances. The Mass as the general case-
for Christian culture, the archetype.
Individual dramas are shaped in its mold.

L_ 1905, Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages, 39-40, 79

--- ____ __,.

 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

In business, to perfo rm means doing a joh efficie

nt!) "ith routin es of life arc n store d beha,io rs. Resto red
maxi mum pro<lu c-thity. In the corpo rate ''orld hcha' ior
, peopl e, i'i lh ing bcha' ior treate d as a film direc tor treats
machines, system s, depar tmen ts, and organ a strip of
izations arc ll\m. Thes e strips of heha\ ior can he rearra nged
requi red to perfo rm. At least since the a(hcn t of or rccon
the !acto r) struc ted; the) arc indep enden t of the causa
in the nine teent h centu ry, there has been a l systems
merg ing of (personal, social, political, teclm ologk al, etc.) that
the huma n, the technical, and the organizational. hrought
This has them into existence.They ha\c a life oftlw ir own.1
led to an increase in mater ial wealth and also l1c original
the sense "truth " or"so urce" of the hcha\ ior may not he know
that im!J\"idual~ arc just "part of the machine" n, or may
(sec figure he lost, ignor ed, or contr adkt ed- c\"en while that
2.3). But also this melding of perso n and mach truth or
ine has sourc e is being hono red. Ho\\ the strips of heha\
an erotic quality. There is some thing sexual ior were
abou t high made, found, or dc,cloped ma} he unknown or
perfo rman ce in busin ess, just as there is a lot concealed;
that's bu~i claho ratcd ; disto rted h) myth and tradit ion
ncs.,Jikc in sexual perfo rman ce. Sexual perli.Jrman . Resto red
cc also beha\ ior can he of long durat ion as in ritual perfo
imoke'i meanings drawn from the arts and sport rmances or
s. Con'iider of short durat ion as in Oecting gestu res such
the range of meanings attached t o the phrases as "a\ ing
"perl ormin g good b)e
'il'X," ''How did s/he pcrlim11 in hed?" amllw ing
a "sexual Resto red bcha dor is the kc) procl-~s of ewry
perfo rmer." The first refe rs to the act in it!>elt"ami kind uf
the secon d perfo rming , in e\ cryday lile, in healing, in ritual
to how well one "docs it," while the third implies , in pia). and
an cleme nt in the arts. Rl'Stored heha\ ior is "out thlre ," separ
of either going to e xtremes or of pretl nding, of ate from
puttin g on a "me." To put it in personal term ,, resto red hcha,
show and thercliJre maybe not really doing it at ior is "me
all. hcha\ ing as if I were some one else," or"ao; I am told
to do," or
"as I ha\e lcarmd." E,en ill feel my~clf wholl y to
he Ill) self,
acting indep c nllcntly, on I) a little irwcstigati
ng re\ cals
Restoration of behavior that the unil'i of hc ha\io r that comp rise "me"
were not
inven ted by "me." Or, ()Uite the opposite, I may
Let us exam ine resto red hcha\"ior more closel npcr icm:c
y. \Ve all heing "hesid e m)Sclf," "not mpcl f," or "take n
perfo rm more than \\e realize. The habits, m e r" a' in
rituals, ami tranc e. The fact that there arc multi ple "me"s
in e \ c ry

flg 2.3. Charlie Chaplin turning, and be.ng turned

by, the wheels or ndustr y In Modern Times. 1936
The Kobal Collecuon

34
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

persnn is not a sign of derangem ent but the \\a) things arc. was also common - and erotic. But the naked art in museums
The wa:s one pcrf(,rrn~ one's scln~s arc connected to the \\a) s were representa tions presumed to he non-eroti c; and strip-
people perform others in dramas, dances, ancl rituals. In fact, tease""~ segregate d and gln<lcr spccific: li:malc strippers,

if plople did not ordinarily come into contact with their male \ie\\ rrs. The "full frontal nudity" in productio ns
multiple sci Yes, the art of acting and the experienc e of pos- such as Dionpus in 69 ( 1968) or Oh! Calcurra ( 1972) caused
session tram:e \\ould not he possible. Most performa nces, a stir hecause actors of both genders \\ere undres~ing in
in daily life and other\\ ise, do not ha\e a single author. Rituals, high art / li\cpcrfo rmancc \cnues and these displays were
gamls, and the performan ces of e\eryday life arc authored sometime s erotic. This kind of nakedness \\as diflercnt than
h) the collective "Anonymous" or the "Tradition." lndh idual.~ naked bodies at home or in gymnasiu m shower rooms.
gh l n credit for im enting rituals or game~ usually turn out to
he s:nthcsizers, recomhiners, compilers, or editors of alread:
practiced actions.
lhstored hcha\ ior includes a\ a~t range of actions. In fa<.t,
all hdta,ior i.~ restored heha\ ior all hdta\ ior consi~ts of
rl'lomhini ng hits ol'pre\iousl: hdta\cd hdta\ iors. Of course,
mmt of the time people aren't a'' arc that the) arc doing any
such thing. People just "lh e life." Performa nles arc markld,
fr.unl<l, or heightene tl hdta\ ior separated out from just
"living life" restored n stored bdta\ior, if ~ou \\ill. lim\ cn>r,
fill my purposl here, it is not nece~sar; to purSUl' this
doubling. It i~ enough to dcline n stured hdta\ inr as marhd,
framed, or heightene d. Rt:storetl behavior tan he "me" at
another time or p~ychologkal state- for example, telling the
~tory of or acting out a celebrato ry or traumatic event.
Restored behwior can bring into play non-ordin ary reality as
flg 2.4. The lion god Barong ready to do battle against Ute demon
in the Balinese trance dance enacting the struggle bet\\een Rangda In 6a11ne5e ritual dance theatre, 1980s Photograph Jim Hart
the demones~ Hangda and the liongod Barong (sec figure Director of nTAN Theatre School, Norway
2.4). Restored hclta\ior can be actions marked olrhy aesthetic
connntio n as in theatre, dance, and music. It can he actions At llrst, this art could not be comfortab ly categoriz ed or
reified into the "rules of the game,""etiquettc," or diplomati c "placed." But it didn't take lung before high-art naked
"protoco l"- or any other of the myriad, known-be forehand performe rs \\Cre accommo dated in many genres and
actions of lili:. These ,ary enormous ly from culture to cul- nnucs, from ballet to Broad\\ay, on campuses and in store
ture. Re~tored hcha\'ior can be a boy not shedding tears front theatres. Enn pornogra ph) has gone mainstrea m ,
when jagged le<wes slice the inside of his nostrils during a further blurring genre boundaries (sec Lanham box). Of
Papua New Guinea initiation; or the formality of a bride and course, in many cultures nakedness is the norm. In others,
groom during their wedding ceremony. Because it is marked, such as Japan, it has long been acceptable in certain public
framed, and separate, restored beha\ior can be worked on, circumsta nces and forbidden in others. Today, no one in
stored and recalled, played with, made into something else, most global metropoli tan cities can get a rise out of spectators
transmitte d, and transform ed. or critics by performin g naked. But don't try it in Kahul - ur
As I ha,c said, daily life, ceremonial life, and artistic life as part of kabuki.
consist largely of routines, habits, and rituals: the recom- Restored bcha\"ior isS) mbolic and rellcxivc (sec Gccrtz
bination of already behaved behaYiors. E,en the "latest," box).lts meanings need to be decoded by those in the know.
"original,""shocking," or"a\ant-garde" is mostly either a new This is not a question of"high"' ersus "low" culture. A sports
combinat ion of known behaviors or the displacem ent of fan knows the rules and strategies of the game, the statistics
a heha\ ior from a known to an unexpecte d context or occa- of key players, the standings, and milny other historical and
sion. Thus, for example, nakedness caused a stir in the technical details. Ditto for the fans of rock bands. Sometimes
performin g arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. But why the the knowledg e about restored bcha\ ior is esoteric, prh)
shuck? Nude paintings and sculptings were commonp lace. to only the initiated. Among Indigenous Australians,
At the other end of the "high art-low art" spectrum , striptease the outback itself is full of significant rocks, trails, \\iller
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Rob ert Lanham

BurningAngeJ.com
l
Known inform ally as aIt-porn, this genre attem
pts embellish pornography with a hip veneer by
next to interviews with members of appro priate offering soft- to hard-core erotica
ly cool and underground bands. The form first
West Coast web site SuicideGirls began to offer surfaced in 2001, when the
erotic photos of young women online. Later the
and celebrities (from Woody Allen to Natalie site added interviews of artists
Portm an to the curre nt hot band, Bloc Party
Imitat ors like fatalbeauty.com, brokendollz ) and then soft-core videos online.
.com and more than a dozen others soon follow
ed.
Joanna Angel, 24, started BurningAngel in 2002
as a hardcore alternative to such sites. L . .]
The Movie " was released for sale online on The first "BurningAngel.com:
April 1 [2005 ] and sells for $20. Shot on
a shoestring budget of $4,00 0, the
film, which stars Ms. Angel (her stage name>
, is a series of hard-core sex scenes strung togeth
burnishes its hipste r credentials by incorp oratin er witho ut benef it of a plot. It
g music by the Brooklyn band Turing Machine
and Tim Armst rong of Rancid.
Interviews with bands like Dilling er Escape
Plan and My Chemical Romance are intersp
ersed with the sex.
"Som e people make music, others paint, I make
porn, " she [Ms. Ange l] said. Still, Ms. Angel
field; there seem to be plenty of women who, is in no way a pioneer in her
rathe r than struggle to get published in The
Paris Review or writte n up in
Art News, have instead channeled their creati
ve ambit ions into erotic a.
J
2005, "Wea ring Nothi ng but Attitu :e," 15~

Clif ford Gee rtz

Human behavior as symbolic action
Once human behavior is seen as L .. J symb
olic action - action which, like phonation In
speech, pigment in painting, line in
writin g, or sonance in music, signif ies- the
question as to whether culture is patterned condu
ct or a frame of mind, or even
the two somehow mixed together, loses sense.
L . J Behavior must be attended to, and with some
throug h the flow of behavior - or more precis exactness, because it is
ely, social action - that cultur al forms find
articu lation . They find it
as well, of course, in various sorts of artifa cts,
and various states of consciousness; but these
role they play[ . . .) in an ongoing patter n of draw their meaning from the
life L ..J.

1973, The Interp retatio n of Cultures, 10, 17

holes, and other marking:. that form a recor d of

the actions resto red bcha' ior sense means ne\ cr for the firM time,
of m) thical beings. Onl~ the initiated kno\\ the alwa~ s
relationship lor the second to nth time: t\\ icc-hehan~d bcha\
hct\\c cn the ordinar) gcograph) and thl! sacred ior.
geography.
To hecom c Lonscious of reo;torcd beha\ ior is to
rccogni:re
the process by "hich social processes in all their
multi ple Caution! Beware of
forms arc transformed into theatre.Theatre, not in
the limited
sense of enactment~ of dramas on stage s(\\ hich, generalizations
after all, is
a practice that, until it becam e \ cry \\ i<lcspread
as part l '''ilnt to cmphi1~i7.c: Pcrlo rman ccs can be gcncrali1ed
of colonialism, belonged to rclath cl) few LUitu at the
res), but in theoretical lc\'cl of restoration of hcha' ior, hut il'
the broader sense outlined in Chap ter I. Performan embodied
ce in the practices each and e\cry perfo rmance b specific
and differ

36
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

ent from e\cry other. The differences enact the comentions play-acting - it's pretty much "all a show." Fans of sumo and
and traditions of a genre, the personal choices made by the fans of World Wrestling Federation matches know their
performers, directors, and authors, ,arious cultural patterns, heroes and ,illains, can tell you the history of their sport, ami
historical circumstances, and the particularities of reception. react according to accepted comentions and traditions. Both
Take wrestling, for ~xample. In Japan, the mo\'CS of a sumo sumo and "hat occurs under the banner of the World
wrestler arc well determined by long tradition. These mmcs Wrestling Federation arc"" rcstling;" each enacts the Yalucs
include the athletes' swaggering circulation around the ofiL~ particular culture.
ring, adjusting their groin belts, throwing handfuls of salt, Whilt's true of wrestling is also true of the performing
eyeballing the opponent, and the final, often \'cry brief, arts, political demonstrations, the roles of everyday life
grapple of the two enormous competitors (sec figure 2.5). (doctor, mother, cop, etc.), and illl other performances. Each
Knowing spectators sec in these carefully ritualized displays genre is dhided into milO)' sub-genres. What is American
a centuries-old tradition linked to Shinto, the indigenous theatre? Broad" ay, oiT Broad" ay, ofT ofT Broallway, regional
Japanese religion. By contrast, American professional theatre, community theatre, community-based theatre,
wrestling is a noisy sport for "outlaws" where each wrestler college theatre, and more. Each sub-genre has its O\\ n
flaunts his own raucous and carefully constructed identity particulariti<:s - similar in some "il)'S to related forms but
(sec figure 2.6). During the matches referees arc clobbered, also different . Ami the whole system wuld he looked at from
wrestlers arc thrown from the ring, ami cheating is endemic. other pcrspecthcs in terms, for example, of corned),
All this is spurred on by fans who hurl epithets and objects. tragedy, melodrama, musicab ; or dhided according to
Howc\'cr, c\eryonc knows that the outcome of American professional or amateur, issue-oriented or apolitical, and so
wn~stling is determined in ad\'ance, that the lawlessness is on. Nor arc categoril'S fixed or stiltic. New genres emerge,

ftg Z.S. Japane5e :sumo wre:stJer:s grappling In the rng The referee n r tua dre:ss Is In the left foreground Photograph by M chael Macintyre
Copyright Eye Ublqultou5/Hutchl:;on PICture Library
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

cnt from c\'cn other. The differences enact the conventions play-acting - it's pretty much "all a show." Fans of sumo and
and traditions. of a genre, the personal choic"s made by the fans of World Wrestling Federation matches know their
performers, directors, and authors, ,arious cultural patterns, heroes and villilins, can tdl you the history of their sport, and
historical circumstances, and the particularities of reception. react according to accepted conventions and traditions. Both
Take wrestling, for example. In japan, the mo\cs of a sumo sumo and whilt occurs under the banner of the World
wrestler arc well determined by long tradition. These moves \Vrestling Fedcriltion arc"" rest ling;" each enacts the \'alues
include the athletes' swaggering circulation around the of iL~ particular culture.
ring, adjusting their groin belts, throwing handfuls of salt, What's true of \\ restling is also true of the performing
cyd>alling the opponent, and the final, often very brief, arts, political demonstrations, the role~ of C\'Cr) dily life
grilpple of the two enormous competitors (sec figure 2.5). (doctor, mother, cop, etc.), and all other performances. Each
Knowing spectators sec in these carefully ritualized displays genre is dh ided into many sub-genres. Whilt is American
a centuries-old tradition linked to Shinto, the indigenous theatre? Broadway, oiT Broadway, oiT off Broa(lway, regional
Japanese religion. By contrast, American professional theatre, community theatre, community-based theatre,
wrestling is a noisy sport for "outlaws" where each wrestler college theatre, ami more. Each ~ub-genrc has its own
Haunts his own raucous and carefully constructed identity particularities - similar in some ways to related forms but
(sec figure 2.6). During the matches relcrces arc clobbered, also dil1crcnt. And the ''hole system could be looked at from
wrestlers arc thrown from the ring, and cheating is endemic. other pcrspcctin~s - in terms, for example, of comedy,
All this is spurred on by fans who hurl epithets and objects. tragedy, melodrama, musicals; or di\'ided according to
Hmwvcr, c\eryonc knows that the outcome of American prufcssionill or amateur, issue -oriented or apolitical, and so
wrestling is determined in a(h-ancc, that the lawlessness is on. Nor ilre categories fixed or static. New genres emerge,

ftgz.s. Japane5e 5umo wrestlers grappling In the rtng The referee In ritual dress s In the le ft foreground. Photograph by Michael Macintyre
Copyright Eye Ublqultou:;JNutchlson Picture Library
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

fig 2.6. (above) ''The Road Wamors" professional Amer

can wrestlers
posing with their manager Copyright Superstar Wrestl
ng (r ght)
Wahoo McDaniel displaying himself for his admiring
fan~ Copyright
www.pwbts com

others fadt ;m a). Yestcn la) \ ;n ant ganlc is toll a)'s main
stream is tomor ro\\ 's lorgottLn practi u: . Particular genrls
migrate from one catcgo r) to another.
Take jan, lor examp le. During its format iw years at the
st.ll't of the twentieth century, jau. wa~ not rtgan kd a.~ an art.
It" as akin to "folk pcrfor mante " or"pop ular enterta inmen
t."
But as pcrfor rmr'i moved out of red-light di~tricts into
respectahlc dub~ and finally into conce rt halb, .sd10la
rs
increasingly paid attl'ntion to jan. A suhstantial re pertor
y
of mu'iic "a:. ardth eel. Particular musicians' works adticv
ed
canonical 'itatus. B) the 1950~ jat./ was regard ed as "art."
Toda) \popu lar mu'iic indude:. rock, rap, and reggae, hut
not
"pure jau." But that i~ not to say that rock and othe r forms
so. One canno t determ ine "hat "is" a performance '' ithout
of pop mmic " ill not someday he li.'itcncd to and regarded
in referri ng to specific cultural circumstances.There is nothin
the same \\ ay that jan or cla'isical musk is now. The c<Jtcgorics g
inhe rent in an action in itself that makes it a perfor mance
of"folk,""pop," and "dassical"ha\e more to do with ideolo
gy, or disqualifieS it from being a performance . !"rom the \'ilntag
politics, and economic pm,cr than with the formal qualiti c
es of the kind of perfor mance theory I am propounding, C\ cr)
of the mu'iic.
action is a pe rforma nce. But from the 'ant age of cultur
al
practi ce, some actions "ill he deeme d performances and
others not; and this ''ill 'ar) from cultur e to cultur
e,
"Is" and "as" performance historical period to historical period .
Let me usc the European traditi on as an example to
\Vhat is the difference bet\\ een "is" perfor mance and "as"
explain in more detail ho\\ dcllnitions operat e "ithin
perfor mance ? Certai n events arc perfor mance s and other
contexts. \Vhat "is" or "is not" performance docs not depen
erents le'i'i ~o. There arc limit-; to what "is" pe rforma nce. d
on an e,cnt in itself but on how that e\ent is rccchc d anti
But just about an~ thing can be studied "a.~" perfor mance
. placed. Toda) the enactm ent of dramas h) actors "is"
Somet hing "i~" a perfor mance when historical and social a
theatrical performance. But it \\as not alwa) S so. \Vhat
contex t, comcn tion, usage, and tradition say it i:;. Ritual \\ e
s, today call "theatre" people in other times did not. The anden
play and g<~mes , and thL role~ of e,eryda) life arc perfor t
- Greek s used \\Ords similar to ours to describe the th eatre
mances bccau!>e com cntion , contex t, usage, and tradition
say (our words derin: from theirs), hut \\hat the Greeks meant
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

in practice was \cry diflcrent from what we mean. During the then, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the rcmlution
l'poch of the tragedian~ Aeschylus, Sophocles, and in thought and practice called the Renaissance began.
Euripides, the enactment oftragic dramas \\as more a ritual Renaissance means "rebirth" because the humanists of the da\J
infused "ith competitions for prizes lor the best actor and thought they were bringing back to life the da~sical culture
the best pia~ than it was theatre in our sense. The occasions of Greece ami Home. When Andrea Palladio designed
for the pia~ ing of the tragedks "ere religious festirals. Highly the Teatro Olimpico (Theatre of Olympu~) in Vicema, !tal~.
~ought-after prizes \\ere awarded. These prizes were based he bclic,ed he \\as rcimenting a Greek tl1c:'atre- the first
on aesthetic l'Xccllence, but the c\cnt~ in \\hich that cxccl- production in the Olimpico was Sophocles' OcJtpu~ - not
llnce was demonstrated "ere not artistic hut ritual. It \\as pointing the way to the modern proscenium theatre which the
Aristotle, '' riting a century after the high point of Greek Olimpico did.
tragedy as embodied performance," ho codified the aesthetic
under~tancling of theatre in its l' ntirety in all ol its "six
Andrea P.11Iadio ( 1508-80): Italian arc:hitect \\ ho "orkcrl in
part~," as the philosopher parsc:d it. After Arb.totle, in Hellenic
\'iccnza and Venice designing\ illas and churches. J>alladio's Tcatro
and Roman times, the entertainment-aesthetic aspect of Olimpil'o, l'Ompldt!d four years after his dcatl1, is tl1e only n maining
theatre became more dominant as the ritual -efficacious example of an indoor Rcnaiqsancc U1catrc. Autlmr of I Qyatrro l.ibri
eltments rended. Jd/' :lrchiwrura ( 1570, The Four noolu on tlrcilitccturc, 1997).

Aeschylus (c. 515-c. 456 UCil): Greek playwright ami 01ctor,

regarded as the first gn;st tr;sgcdi;sn. Sun i\ ing works incluclc The Take another leap to the last third of the nincttcnth
Persians (c. 472 net) and Th~ Orarcia (4-58 IICh). century. The notion of theatre as an art \\a~ h~ thcn \\CII
established. In fact, so well founded that countermm emenl~
calkd "a,ant-garde" erupted frequent!) as d'forts among
Sophocles (c. 496-c. 406 net:): Greek pl;sywright, cn:tlitcd with radical artists to disrupt the status quo. Onward into and
introducing the thirtl;sctor onto the st;sgc of tragedy. Sunhing pla)S throughout the twentieth century, tach new" a\ c attempted
include: Oedipus rhe Kina (c. 429 liCE), Elecrra (date uncertain), and to dislodge what \\cnl hdi>re. Some of yc: stt:rday's aunt
Anrioonc (c. #I IICL) . garde bctame locla) 's estahlishment. The list of a\ant garde
movement~ is long, induding nalism,naturalism, symholi~m.
futuri.m1, surrealism, constructivism, Dada, exprcssionbm,
Euripides (c. 485-c. 405 neE): Greek playwright whose sunh ing cuhism, theatre of the ahsunl, Happening~. r:luxus, environ
work.~indudc .1/cJca (431 IICI ), Hippolj,tus (428 ncr.), The Trojan mental theatre, performance art ... and more. Sometimes
Women (4-1 5 1\Ch), and The DafChae (c. 4{)5 IICL:).
works in these styk's were considered theatre, sometimes
dance, sometimes music, sumctimcs 'isual art, sometimes
Skipping forward more than a millennium to medie,al multimedia, etc. Oftcn enough, e\ cnt~ were atta<:ked or
Europe, acting written elrama~ on public stagl'S \\as dismisscd as not being art at all - as were Happenings, an
"forgotten" or at least not practiced. But there \\as not antecedent to performance art. Allan Kaprow, creator of the
a scarcity of performances. On the streets, in town squares, first Happening, jumped at this chance to make a tlistinction
in churches, castles, and mansiom a wide range of popular bct\\ecn "artlih art" and "lifelike art" {sec Kaprow box).
entertainmc:nts and religiou.~ ceremonies held people's The term "performance art" was coined in the 1970s as an
attention. There were a multitude of mimes, magicians, umbrella for works that otherwise resisted categorization.
animal act~. acrobats, puppet shows, and what would later The outcome is that today many e\ents that formerly
hecome the commcJia Jcll'cmc. The Church offered a would not be thought of as art arc now so designated. These
rich panoply of feast~, sen ices, and ritual:;. By the fourteenth kinds of actions arc performed every" hcre, not jmt in the
century the popular entertainments ancl religious obser West. The feedback loop is very complicated. The \\ ork of a
vances joined to form the basis for the great cycle plays Japanese dancer may affect a German choreographer who~c
celebrating and enacting the history of the world from dances in turn arc elaborated on hy a Mexican performance
Creation through the Crucifixion and Resurrection to artist ... and so on "ithout definite national or cultural
the Last Judgment. These \\e would now call"theatre," but limits. Beyond composed artworks is a blurry "oriel of
thevJ were not named that at the time. The anti-the;strical "atcidcntal" or "incidental" performance. \IVchcams broadcast
prejudice of the Church disallowed any such designation. But m-er the internet what peoplc do at home. Tcle\ is ion frame.~
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

the new s as ente rtai nme nt. Pub

lic figures nee d to he med ia
All an l< ap ro w sa\ ' y. Is it h) acd dcn t that
an acto r, Ro nal d Rea gan
,
hcc amc pres iden t of the USA
and that a play wri ght, Vac hw
Art /ike art and life like art Ha vel , bec ame pre side nt of
the C'.~c ch Rep ubli c, \\ hilc
ano the r acto r and pia )'' righ
Western art actually has two avan t, Kar ol joz cf Wo jtyl a,
tgarde histories: one bec ame pop e? Pcrf orm an<,c
of artlike art, and the other of theorist.~ argu e tha t e\ cr)
lifelike art. L . .J life is per form ance - cour~cs day
Simplistically put, artlike art hold arc offe red in the aest heti cs of
s that art is separate c\ cr) da) life. At pre sen t, ther
from life and everything else, while e i~ hard ly any hum an acth ity
lifelike art holds that that is not a per form anc
e for som eon e som e\\ he re.
art is connected to life and ever
ything else. In other Gen eral l), the tend enc y o\'c
r the past cen tury has bee n
words, there's art at the service to
of art, and art at the dbs oh e the boundaric~ se para
service of life. The maker of arlli ting per form ing from not -
ke art tends to be a per form ing , art from not-art
. At one end of the spe ctru m it's
specialist; the maker of lifelike art,
a generalist. L . .J dea r\\ hat a perf orm anc e is,"
hat an artw ork b; at the oth lr
Avantgarde artlike art occupies
the majority of end of the spe ctru m no SUl h
attention from artists and public. dar it) cxi~ts .
It is usually seen as
serious and a part of the mainstr
eam Western art- Ron ald Rea gan ( 191 1-20 04-)
historical tradition, in which mind : lurtil'th prc~ idcnl of the Uni
is separate from body, Stall'~ (I 9!! I hd
individual is separate from peo 89) ami tim m11 1r of California
ple, civilization is (1967 75), Rcagan \\,1\
a hroadca~ll'r, mm it a~.:tor, and
separate from nature, and each art puh lk spcakt~r ht~fon cntlring
is separate from the dcltnrill pnli tils. Knm\ n as tht
other.[. . .l Avantgarde artlike art "Gnat Communicator," lhagan
basically believes in sdf-dcp ncating '(uips ancl rclaxtcl '~
(or does not eliminate) the continuity manntr olll'.mwra tndtarcd him
of the traditionally to millions clLsp itc his t'tm~cn atiH
.11111 often bdl iws c polidts.
separate genres of visual art, mus
ic, dance, literature,
theatre, etc. L . .]
Avantgarde lifelike art, in con \'ad a, Hav el (19 36- ): ClL'l'h pJay ,uig
trast, concerns ht "'" ' was tlw last
an intermittent minority <Futuris prcsitltnt nf Ctcdu>~lm akia ( 19!!9
ts, Dadas, guatai, 92) ami the llrst nf tlw Lltch
Happeners, fluxarti sts, Earthworke Rtp uhlk ( 199~ 200 i ). A lwrn
rs, body artists, cldcncltr nl'fr cc spttc-h and ltack
r
proves, postal arti sts, noise mus nf till' "\'dw t Re' nlution" nf 1
icians, performance 9!!9 mc rtur ning Communist
rule ,
poets, shamanistic artists, concept Ha,cl' soft en pnlitilo1l pia~ s indu
ualists) . Avantgarde tk The ,llcmonmdum ( 1965 ), Prot
(19i H), ami Rcdculcopmtnr t 197! ~t
lifelike art is not nearly as serious !).
as avantgarde artlike
art. Often it is quite humorous.
It isn't very interested in the great
Western tradition Kar ol joz cfW ojt) la, Pop e Joh
either, since it tends to mix things n Pau l II (1920-2005): Polish
up: body with mind, a1to r and plap uig ht who in
individual with people in general 197!! lll'Lamc pop e. Dur ing Wo
rld
, civilization with Wa r II, Wojtyla \\a\ a mtm
nature, and so on. Thus it mixes lwr nf the Rhapsoclk ThN trc,
up the traditional utullrgmund rcsi~tanlc group. Orcl an
art genres, or avoids them entirely aintcl as a priest in I<JH, \ \' ujt) Ia
- for example, a continUtcl to \Hit c fnr and
ahout the tlua trc , Ilis thl'atrica
mechanical fiddle playing around l
the clock to a cow in knowlc:dgt sc~rwd him wdl a.~ a
glohctr ottin g, mttliaSa\ ,.)' pon
the barnyard. Or going to the laun Sec his Collected Plap t~nd ll'ritinas tiff.
dromat. on ThM tr ( 1987).
Despite formalist and idealist inte
rpretations of art,
lifelike art makers' principal dial
ogue is not with art
but with everything e'se, one even
t suggesting another.
If you don't know much about life,
you'll miss much of Maps "as" performance
the meaning of the lifelike art that
's born of it. Indeed,
it's never certain if an artist who
creates avantgarde An) beh a' ior, e\ cnt , acti on,
or thin g c;m be stud ied "as"
lifelike art is an artist.
per form anc e. Tak e map~. lor
exa mpl e. En~r)one kno"~ the
1983, "The Real Experiment, " 36, "or ld is rou nd and map s arc
Oat. But you can 't sec the ''ho
38 wor ld at the sam e tim e on a glob le
e. You can 't fold a glo be and
tuck it in you r poc ket or bac
kpa ck. Map s flatt en the \\or iel
the bet ter to lay out terr itor
ies on a tabl e or tack them to
\\al l. On mos t map s, nati ons a
arc sep arat ed from cad 1 oth er
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

by colors ancllims, and cities appear as circles, ri\crs as lines, o\'er Kashmir, or Palestine and Israel mer Jcru~alem . The
and onans as large, usually hlue, areas. Nation-states drawn most common projection in usc today is dcri\'ed from the
on maps seem so natural that \\hen some people picture the Mercator Projection, de, doped in the sixtl'enth century by
world they imagine it dhided into nation-states. EYer} thing the Flemi~h geographer-carto grapher Gcrardus Mercator
on a map is named - being "on the map" means achicdng (sec figure 2.8).
status. But the "real earth" docs not look like its mapped
representations or C\ en like a glohc. People "ere astonished
Gerard us Mercator ( 1512-94): rll'mish gcograplwr-('artographcr
when they sa\\ the first photographs taken from space of the
whnsc basic S)Sll'm of map making is still practiced tmla}. His actual
whitc-lleckcrl blue hall Earth (sec figure 2. 7).Then: \\as no
name ''as Gerhard Kremer, but like many Europc;m scholars ofhis
sign of a human presence at all. day, he Latini zed his name.
Nor arc maps neutral. They perform a particular
intlrpretation of the world. [\cry map is a "projection," a
spceilk way of' representing a sphere on a flat surface. On The Mercator Projl'ction distorts the glohe wildl) in I:wor
maps, natiom do not on::rlap or share territories. Boundaries of the northern hemisphere. The further north, thc rdatin~l~
arc tlcllnitc. If more than one nation enli>n:es its daim to bigger the territory appears. Spain is as large a.; Zimhalmc,
the same span, \\ ar threatens, as between Pakistan and India North America dwarf.; South America, and Europe is one
fourth the ~ii'e of Africa. In other \\ords, rvllrcator's m.lp
l'nacts the "orld as the colonial po\\ l'rs \\ i~hld to 'ic\\ it .
Although timl'Shan! thanged since the sixtetnth century, the
preponderance of world economic and military pcmer
remains in the hands of Europe and its North American
inheritor, the USA. Perhaps it \\On't he thi~ \\ay in another
centur) or two. If so, a dill~rent projection\\ ill he in common
u~e. Indeed, satellite photography allow.~ a detailed rc
mapping of the glohc.Therc arc also maps sho\\ ing the world
"upsidl' do\\ n ,"that i~," ith south on top; or clra\\ n according
to population, ~filming China and India more than four
times the sii'e of the USA. The Peters Proje1..tion clc,dopld
in 1974 h) Arno Peters is an "an~a acl-uratc" map slum ing
the \\orld's areas si1.eJ correctlv in relation to each other
~

(sec figure 2.9). No longer is Greenland the same ~[zc as

Africa "hen in fact Africa is fourteen times larger than
Grccnh1nd. But the Peters map has its m\ n inaccuracies. It i.;
not lorrelt in terms of shape the southern hemisphere
i!> elongated, the northlrn SCJUashcd. Making a flat map of a
round 1.. arth means that one must sacrifice either accurate
shape 11r sii'c. If the Petlrs map looks "unnatural," then you
fig Z.7. The Americas and Hurncane Andrew as photographed by a kno" how much the Mercator Projl'Ction - or any other map
weather sateJite n 1992 Image source NASA is a performance.

- -=-=- - :..:-
...
-=-=- :x
~'""'!Jf\,.,
- =-
')
-- -=-
,. ...,.. ":-.'".1 ~-- -.-" :'i { ..-<:r <,,....
l;: ._<
-, '...f.... " ~
... :,..-~

tf, ...:.'.--
r
,\

.-
# t '~
'f~l...,

\-- ... ,
\ f
.
!

flg z.e. A contemporary ver5 on or the Mercator PrQJectJon map of the word. Copyright Worldvlew Publications

41
 FORMANCE ST PER
- - - - - - - - - -- - UDIES
-.:.----- -- - - - - - - - -
. .:... - - - - - - - - - - --
.
--

.-: . ~ ..._
.l .. -

........ ~- .. ~.;;
~
-a;;.....-: .... ~ - !
:~ 1! 1
! .. .. - .- "-

-- & -
- -- I
MAP OF "lllE - --
~
- .... i
WO RlD
..._
'-.....
..

:: -- - - I
a

"' t t a i.l t a. _:::: ,

- .. I

-
...,<:,_
... ... :::::

- - - - - -- - - - - -
A
-=
- - - - --- - - -
Ia
1

fig 2. 9. The
Peters Projec
A

- - - - - - - - - - - --
&

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'
I
tion - area ac I
curate " w orld m ap Co C:
6
pyright Oxf ord Cartograp
hers -
A rn o P4.tcrs (
19 16 -1 00 2) :
.m ana o1n ur at lilnnan histor
t: w or ld map, ian. lk w lo pl 'll subatomic <jU
known as the in 1974 alities. If I rega
l'ttc rs Projec rd it "a., matlwm
tion. de h e in to the atic~," I 11
hinar) co dLs ould
"ao; law" would of its program
O ne of th e m mean in te rp re s. Regarding
eanings of "t o ti ng ne t\ \ orks it
clone al co nl in pe rf or m " is to rigl1ts, and Lo of pa te
g to a particul ge t things pe nt ra <. ts. If I w er e to nt s, co p)
maps pr o\ ed ar plan o r snn rformance," I tr ea t the co m
very helpful fo ario. Mercato would C\ aluate pu te r "a ,
r na,igating th r's the clar the speed of ib
straight lines e Sl 'il S hecaus ity o f its displa pr ocC\.'ior,
on the pr oj ec e ), the u~cfuln('S
Mcn.ator dr ew ti on kept to co software, its si S of the pr e-
mpass bearings ze and portahil packaged
his maps to suit . Parcells st it~, and so on
m er ch an ts , am th e scenarios of ar in g ou . l can em i~ion
i military o f th e mariners, t at me td lm g m e Bill
\Vestern Europ an expansioni performs. ho\\ well m~ co
e. Similarly, th st, colonizing m pu te r
scenarios o f th e au th or s of th
ei r own which e ne w maps ha
th ei r maps en ve
maps this way ac t. In te rp re ti
is to examine ng
En:r~ m ap map-making "a Make b e li e f
not only re pr es s" pe rf or m an ce
en ts th e Earth in . and make-b
bu t also enacts
po w er relations a specific way, elieve
hips. Performances
It's no t just map can be either"m
s. hc ry th in g an T he many perl ake-hd ic l' ' or
"as" any cliscip cl anything can ()rmanccs in e' "m ak c belie1e
lim:. of st u d y be studied ro erycla) life ~u ch ."
What the "as" - ph~ sics, ec on les, ge nd er am as professional
says is that th e om ic s, law, et c. no i ra ce ro k ~ . an d shap
"f ro m th e pc rs object of study t make-hclicve ing o n e\ iden
pe ct he of," "i will be regard actions (as pla~ tity arc
n te rm s of," "i nt er ed fi lm m os t prohabl) in g a role on stage
a particular di ro ga te d by" is). T he pe rf or in a
scipline of stud life (which I w or m ances of
ing this book y. For exampl ill ev er
on a Dell Dim e, I am compo discuss in m or )d a)
ension 41 00 de s- "make be e detail in Cha
If I regard it "a sk to p lief" cr ea te pters 5 and 6)
s ph pi cs ," I w co m pu te r. In "m th e 1c r) social
an d ot he r ph ould ex am in e ake-believe" pe realities they
)sical qualities its size, weigh rf or m an ce s, th enact.
, pe rh ap s e\"c t, what's real an e <lbtim.ti on
n its at om ic d "h at 's pr et bc t\ \c en
ancl pIaymg "1 en de d is kept
uo ct or" or "I clear. C hi ld n
< rcss up"kn
o\\ tI1at t hC) ar n
c prctenum .I
g.
42
 PERFORMANCE STUDIE
S

fig 2.1 1. Bntlsh Prime Min

ister Tony Bai r ac:\5 the
part of a "ma n of the peo
ple" In an "Informal
meeting" with 50me "ord
1nary Citizens " Of course
such meetings are carefu ,
lly planned, staged, and
photographed Photo And
rew Burman Copyright
The Independent. Reprod
uced with perml~lon

Blurry boundaries
un< :cr lain ty pri nci ple : a
tenet uf 'lu~ntum nwchanic
let 's ret urn to Me rca tor h~ Wtnll'r llci~cnlxrg in 1927 propo~ld
's map. Tlw wo rld rep res \\hid! statts that till' mt.,~u
the re is one of nea tl) dem ent ed nf a partitlt's position prmlutc nnwnt
arc ate d sm crc ign nat ion s uncertain!) in the measurtm
nt at wo rld no lon ger exi -sta tes . tlw par tidt' ~ mm1wntum, cnt uf
sts, ifit e'e r 11id (in Me rta or ,.k t \'l'T Q , While tach qua
the Eu rop ean nati on~ " tor 's da) mtasured ilLTUratl'l} on its ntit y lll'Ylw
ere frcltllcntly at wa r wit 11\\ n, hnth 1. an not
h mtasund at the samt tim ht totally .ll'l' ura tdy
o the r me r" hn con tro lled eac h t. Tlu unc crtaint~ pri ndp
wh at). Today national bou rda ttd In the lld ~tnhtrg cfil: ll' is dn sd)
arc ext rcm tl) por ous , not nda ries ct \\ hiLh a~s1. rt~ that tlw mcasu
onl y to peo ple hut e\c n of ant' \l'llt changts th1. tnnt. nnwnt
Joo to inf orm atio n ami ilkas: mo re
l1lc nem :st maps can 't he
hl.'t aus c "h at nee ds to he dra \\ n
rtp n:s ent td arc not ter rito
hut nt't\\ork~ of rdation~h ries
ips . Ma ppi ng the se tak Joh n Ca ge (1912-92): Am
or stream~ of num be r .. es fra ctal ., tritan cnmpnscr ami mu~k
con tinu ally ch.1nging thd \\hose inttrcsts ~p.t mll.d thin tlll'ori~t
and 'alue~ . Th e notion of r ~ha pcs g indttt rminill.')' to makt~
llxi t) has hce n und er atta Bu1ltlhhm, and mushrooms. art, /.1'11
lta st sin tc 1927, "h en C'k at :\ut hnr nf .\1/~nce .'iclccr.:J /.cct
We rne r He ise nb erg pro ll'ritlniJ! (1961 ) and ..t )car urc!S cmd
pos (d from .llunJ11_1 (1967) . !lis
his "u nc ert ain ty pri cumpo~ition& indurlc mal l) mu sical
nc ipl e" and its acc om pan FonrantJ .1/ix ( 1960) ami
"H dse nhc rg e ffect". rC\\' ying Ra< lrtJtoriu ( 198 2).
people outsid e of il sele ct
qua ntu m ph~sici~ts reall) gro up ol
undl.'rstoocl Hd scn hcr g's
13ut "unccrtaint~ " or "in det thc or) . Boundaries arc blu rry in dtlT
erm inacy" rang a hell. It has cre nt \\a~ 3 . On the int ern et
to he a Hr) app rop ria te pro\'en pro ple par tici pate dlo rtlc ,
, dur abl e, and pow erf ul me ssl y in a sysll'm that tran~g
tap hor national bou nda rie s. EH n rc~~l.'s
afli.cti ng tho ugh t in man) languag~s prc s~nt lcs~
disciplines including the arts or a bar rie r
theori st and com pos er Joh . Music tha n bef ore . Alread y )OU
n Ca ge often used indc tcr min can log in, \\ri te in )OU
a.. the ha~is for his mu sic , ac) language, and kno w that you r 0\\ n
influencing a gen era tio n of r message " ill be tra nsl ate
and ptrformancc the orists. art ists the language of\ \ hom ere r d into
you arc addrcs~ing. At prc.,
lacilit) is ;l\ailahle in only cnt , thi~
a lim ited num ber oflanguag
the rc:pcrtor) of tra nsb tah c~. But
W ern cr H eis cn ber g ( 190 lcs will incrcasc. lt "il l he
1-76): German ph)sidst, win for Ch inese-s pea ker s to rou tin e
:-.:ohd Prize I(Jr Physic's in ner of the address Kiku) u ~peakcrs
1932 fur his formulation som eon e in a rem ote dll or for
mechanic.~ which i~ dn of qua ntum agc to add re!>s a message
~cl~ related tn his unc to any
ertainty principle. num ber of peo ple global!~
. r urt her mo re, for bet
English has bec om e a glo ter or " ors e,
bal rat her tha n national lan
At the Un ited Na tio ns, guage.
120 countrieJ> rep res ent
tha n 97 per cen t of the \\o ing mo re
dd 's pop ula tion s cho ose
as the ir me diu m for int ern Eng lish
ational com mu nication.

44
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

The dissolution of national boundaries is occurring

relation to manufactured objects as \\ell as with regard
to politics and information. If, for example, )OU drhc an Bharata
American or Japanese or Swedish or German or Korean car,
you may hclie\C it came from the country whose label it The functions of Natya
displa) s. But where were the parts manuracturetl? Where (Dance- Music- Theatre)
was the car assembled, where designed? The brand name I [The god Brahma1 have created the Natyaveda to
refers to it~df, not to a place of origin. Japanese cars arc made show good and bad actions and feelings of both the
in Tcnnl.'Ssce and Fords roll off assembly lines in Canada,
gods and yourselves. It is a representat ion of the entire
Europe, and dsc\\here. Mexico is a major assembly point
three worlds and not only of the gods or of yourselves.
for mat)~ cars. And what about your clothes? Look at the
Now dharma [ duty), now artha [strategies], now
labels of tht clothes ) ou arc wearing right now. Do your
kama [love], now humor, now fights, now gr eed, now
dress, pants, shoes, and blouse come from the same country?
killing. Natya teache~ right to people going wrong; it
Do you C\ en knm\ "here they were stitched or by whom and
gives enjoyment for those who are pleasure seekers;
at \\hat \\age or under ''hat \\ orking conditions?
it chastises those who are i ll-behaved and promotes
But more than cars and clothes arc transnational. Cultures
tolerance in the wel l-behaved. It gives courage to
arc abo blurring. Glohalintion is accelerating. Airports arc
coward!>, energy to the brave. It enlightens people of
the same "hcreH~r you tra,c/; standardized fast food is
little intellect and gives wisdom to the wise. Natya
a\ailahlc in just about c\ery major city in the world.Amcrican
provides entertainment to kings, fortitude to those grief
tclc\ ision and mo\'ies arc hroadcast C\ crpdtere. But the
stricken, money to those who want to make a living, and
USA it~clfis inucasingly intercultural in both its populations
stability to disturbed minds. Natya is a representation
and it.~ lhing styles. The profusion of intcrnational arts
of the ways of the world involvi ng var ious emot ions
lcsti\'als and the hosts of artists touring all parts of the world
and differi ng circ umstances. It relates the action ~ of
arc a major mcans or circulating st ylcs of pcrl(>rming. "World
good, bad, and middling people, gi ving peace, enter-
beat" music combines clements of African, Asian, Latin
tainment, and happiness, as well as bene ficial advice,
Anllrican, and Euro-Amcrican sounds. New hyhrids arc
emerging all the time. People arc arguing whether or not all to all. It brings rest and peace to persons afflicted

this mixing is good or bad. Is globalization the cqui,alent of by sorrow, fatigue, grief, or helpl essness. There is no art,

Amcricani;r.ation? Questions ofglohali;r.ation and inlercul tural no knowledge, no learning, no action that is not found in

performance arc take n up in Chapter 8. natya.

1996 [second century acE-second century eEl,

The Natyasastra, chapter 1
The functions of performance
I ha,e touclu.d on what performance is and what can be
studied as performance. But what do performances accom -
plish? It is difficult to stipulate the functions of performance. Bharata ( c:. second century acr-e:. second century CE): Indian
O,-cr time , and in difl"crcnt cultures, there han~ been a sage, the putathc author of The 1\"at)'asastra, the earliest and still \Cf)
number of proposals. One of the most indushc is that innucntial South Asian theoretical an<l practical treatise on all aspects
of the Indian sage Bharata, who lch that perlormancc of traditional Indian theatre, d;mcc, playwriting, and to a ksscr
"as a comprchcn~he repository of knowledge and a \'cry extent, music.
pm,crful \'chicle for the expression of emotions (sec
Bharata box) . The Roman p oet-scholar Horace in his
Ars po-etica argued that theatre ought to entertain and educate,
Horace (65-68 RCE): Roman poet whose Ars poctica (The .~rt I![
an idea taken up by many Renaissance thinkers and late r by
Poetry, 1974) offers ad\'icc on the construction of drama. His basic
the German playwright and directo r Bcrtolt Brecht. instruction that art should both "entertain and educate" is very close
to Brecht's ideas on the function of theatre.
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Bcr tolt Bre cht (18 98- 195 6): Gtr

man playwright, clircctnr, atlll
pcrfurmantc thcurist. In 1949
lw ami actrcss Hclcnc \\'l'i gcl
( 1900 71 ), hi5 wife, lountlccl the
Blrlitwr Fnslmhlc . .\lajor works
include The Thrupcnn)' Opera (
1928), The Rm t~nJ f<J/1 ".[the Cil) '!f'
,llalla.'ltmn)' ( 1930), .1/orhcr Cour<1:;c
<1nJ hrr Children ( 1941 ), Galilto
( 194 3), The Good Woman '!['i;
hnan (19+3), and The Caur,.uian Cha
Circle ( 1948 Eng; 195 4 Glr.) Tht lk
datt
s rtftr tel .~tagt pn~mit-re~.
~lany of his thc urd kal "
ritings .ltl' anthulugi1cd in English,
on Thcauc ( 1964 ). in llrcc
hr

Putting tog ethe r ideas dra\\ n from

\'arious sou rce!>, l find
scn 'n functions of perf orm anc e:

to tntcrtain
2 to make something that i~ beautif
ul
~ to mar k or change idcn
tit)
4 to make or foster com munit)
5 to lwal
fig 2.12 . The se\11' Interlocking
6 to tl'a lh, persuade, or <:om intL spheres of performance Drawing
Richard Schechner by
7 to dea l" ith tlw sacr ed and
/ or the demonic .
The se arc notli~tcd in ord er ol arc fou nd all me r the world.
imp orta nce. For ~ome people Cal El Teatro Campesino of
one or a lew of these will he mo ifornia, formed in the 1960s in
re imp orta nt than otlw rs. mig ord er to ~upportlvkxkan
But the hicrarchy changts acco rdin ran t farm wor kcr s in the midst
g to who you an' and what solidari of a bitt er stri ke, bui lt
)OU \\an t to get don ty amo ng the stri hrs , ldu cate
e. Few il any pcrf orm anc es acco d them to the issues
mplish imo hed , atta cke d the
all of these functions, hut man bossc~, ami L:nte rtairll'd
y per form anc es emphasize suc . Gro ups
mo re than one . h as Greenpe.Kc and ACTUP usc
perli.>rmance militantly
For example, a stre et tlcmon~trati in sup por t of a hea lth) cwl ogy
on or propaganda play
and to gain mon e) for
rna) he mo, tly about tl'aching, AID S research and trea tme nt. "Th
pcr~uading, and con \'in dng eatr e lr>r development"
as practiced widely since the 196
- but such a show also has to 0~ in Africa, Latin Am eril
l'nt erta in ami may foster and a,
com mu nit) . Shamans heal, hut Asia edu cate s peo ple in a wid
they l'ntc rtai n also, fost er acti\'itie e range of sub ject s and
com mu nit) , and deal wit h the s, from birt h control and cholera
sac red and /or dem oni c. A gati pre wnt ion to irri -
doc tor' s "be dsid e man ner " is on and the pro tect ion of end ang
a per form anc e of enc our - Boa l' red spec ies. Au gus to
age men t, teaching, and healing l 's The atre of the Oppressed emp
. A cha rism atic Chr istia n ena ct, owc rs "spe ctactors" to
chu n.h sen icc heals, entertai analyt.l', and change their situatio
n~, maintains com mu nity ns.
solidaril), imokes bot h the sacr
ed and the dem oni c, and , if
the serm on i~ ciTecti\e, teaches Au gus to Baa l ( 193 1- ): Bra
. If som eon e at the senice 1ilian dirl'Ctor and tlw oris t,
dec lare s for jesu s and is reb orn fmm der of Tlu~atrc of the Oppress~:d.
, that per son 's iden tity is Hb books indude Theatre
mar ked and cha nge d. A stat e I?{ the Opprcssc:J ( 1985), Gamcs.for .lcto
lead er addressing the nation rs anJ ;\'on-:lctors ( 198 0,
\\an ts to com ince and foster com Eng. 1992), Legislatirc Theam (
mu nity - hut she had bet ter 1998), and his autohiography,
ente rtai n also if she wants peo Hamlet and the Raker's Son (20 0 I).
ple to listen. Rituals tend to
ha,c the gre ates t num ber
of functions, com mer cial
productions the fewest. A Broadw
a) musical will ente rtai n,
but littl e else. The sew n fun Boa! 's The atre of the Opp ress
ctions arc bes t rep rese nted ed is based to ~ome
as o\'crlapping and interacting sph deg ree on Brecht's work, espcciall)
eres, a netw ork (see figu re his Lehwiicke or"l carn ing
2.12). plays" of the 1930s such as The ,1/ea
surel Taken or The ExceptiOn
Wh ole work~. e\ en genres, can and the Rule (se c fig ure 2.1 3). Dur
be shaped to \'ery specific ing China's Cuh ura l
functions. Examples of political Rem luti on ( 196 6-7 5), which she
or propaganda performances help ed orl' hes trat c,Ji ang
Qin g pro duc ed a series of"m odc
l opera~" carefully shaped
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

ftg 2.13. The Measures Taken, by Bertolt Brecht and Hans Elser, a Lehrstuck or "teaching play" - a play w th a clear message At the Benn
Phllharmonnle, 1930 Copyrght Bertolt Brecht Archive, Berlin

to teach, entertain, and put forward a new kind of community

ba.~rd on the 'alucs of Chinese Communism as Jiang inter-
pre ted them. These theatre and ballet pieces employed
hoth traditional Chinr sc performance styles modified to
suit the ideological purposes of the Cultural Rerolution
and clements of \\'estern music and staging (sec figure
2.14). The utopian rision of the model operas contradicted
the terrible fact of the millions who \\ e re killed, torturl'd,
and displa(.cd by the Cultural Rc\Oiution. But by the turn ol
the twent) lirst century, the model operas \\ere again hcing
pcrformrd, studird, ami enjoyed for their enter tainment
,aluc, technical cxccllc ncc, and artistk innorations (sec
Melvin and Cai box).

Jiang Qing ( 1914-91 ) : Chinese Cummunbtltadcr, \\ ift of Chairman

.\\an Ltdong ( \89 3 1976). As Dtputy Director of China's Cultural
Ht\ olution ( \966 76), Jiang Qing sought to rccldine all forms ofartL~tk
l' .\J>rl'ssion in .strict adhcrcntc to rc,olutionary ideals. She m crsaw the
cln dopmcnt of"modd operas" ami "model hallcts," \ l'rsions of Chi ncsc
traditional pcrfonnancc genre~ that mac.lc heroes of peasants and
'' orkcrs instead or aristocrats. After the Cultural Rcmlutiun, she was flg 2.14. The Red Lantern, one of tlve "mode operas performed n
trice! as one of"Thc Gang of four." She died in pri~on . China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) Copyright David King
Collection .
 PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Sheila Me lvin and Cai Jindong

Tile model operas

"The Communist Party of China is like the bright sun," sang Granny Sha, her face glowing through wrinkles of sorrow
as she to d of abuse at the hands of a "poisonous snake, bloodsucker" landlord in Kuomi ntang-ruled Chi na. Her words,
soaring and elongated in the lyrical gymnastics of Beijing Opera, were punctuated by a roar of applause from the audience
in the Yifu theatre here. [. . .] While the scene on stage closely resembled Cultural Revolution-era performance, the
audience members - mostly middle-aged and stylishly dressed, casually taking cell phone calls, slurping Cokes and
licking ice cream bars as the opera proceeded - were decidedly Shanghai 2000. [. . .] As the number of perfor-
mances increases, so do attempts to analyze the artistic value of this genre created expressly to serve politics.
"Naturally, this is ~ensitive, " said Wang Renyuan, a Nanjing-based professor who wrote a boo k on the music in model
operas. "We oppose the Cultural Revolution now, so of course products from then are also criticized. But model operas we re
very special, and we can't just gnore them. If we say that the Cultural Revolution was politics raping art, then we shouldn't
still be doing this today. Criticize the Cultural Revolution, criticize Jiang Qing, but why can't we analyze model operas
artistically?" L . .]
Most intellectuals, even those who detest the genre, are willing to concede that if peop le want to watch model operas, they
should have that rig ht. "I don't want to watch them," said Mr. Luo Zhengrong, the composer.
"I don ' t want to hear them. But they were created well, and if they didn't have a political purpose, they wouldn't exist.
The fact is there's a market for them. If there wasn't a market, they wouldn't be performed. "

2000, "Why this Nostalgia for Fruits of Chaos? " 1, 31

__ _.,
Fntertainment means something produced in order to mcnt (sec figure 2.15). Philosopher Susanne K. L1ngcr
please a public. But " hat may please one audience may not ;1rgued that in lil'c people may l'n<lure terrible experiences,
please anothe r. So one cannot specify cxactl) \\hat constitutcs but in art these cxpcricntcs arc tr.lnslormcd into "cxpresshe
entertainment except to sa) that almost all performanccs form" (sec L1ngcr box). One of the dilll-rcnccs hct\\'l'cn
strive, to some degree or other, to entertain. I include in this "art" and "lil'c" is that in art, we du not experience the ercnt
regard hoth line ami popular arts, a5 well as rituals and the itself hut its representation . Langcr's classical notions of
performance~ of cvcryda) life. \Vhat ahout perlormanccs of aesthetics arc challcngccl today, an epoch of simulation,
a,ant-garcle artist~ and political acthbts clcsigncclto olfcnd ? digitization, pcrlormancc artists, and wchcam performers
Guerrilla theatre cn~nts disrupt and may e'en destroy. These "ho "do" the thing iL~clr in front of our \cry eyes. A con-
arc not entertaining. Howe,er, "offensive" art usually is aimed siderable amount ol' po.~tmodcrn art docs not ofl'cr \'icwl'rs
at two pub] ics simultancou~ly: those" ho do not lind thc work ohjccts or actions for contemplation.
plcasant, and those "ho arc entertained b) the cl iscomfort
the \\ork cYokes in others.
Francisco de Goya y Ludcntc (1746-1828): Spanish artist.
BeaUt) is hard to define. Beauty is not equhalcnt to being Oftln referred to simply as ~Goy a." His sl'rics of etchings titled The
"prctt)." The ghastly, terrif) ing erents of kabuki, Greek J)iscmcrs if llilr chronicled the Plninsu!ar Wars (I 808 14) among
tragedy, Elizahethan theatre, and :;omc performance art arc Spain, l'urtugal, ami France.
not prctt}. Nor arc the demons imokcd by shamans. But
the skilled enactment of horrors can be beautiful and 'icld
aesthetic pleasure. Is this true of such absolute horrors as
.
Susanne K. Lmgcr (1895-1985): AnHrican philosophl'r and
slan~ry, the Shoah, or the extermination ofNative Americans? acsthctician. l-llr major works include Philosoph) in a Xen- Kc_y ( 1942),
Francisco de Goya y Ludcntc's The Disasrcrs I?J' War Fcc/ina anJ Farm (1953), and Prch/ems <?[An (1957).
show that nothing i:; beyond the pun icw of artistic treat

48
 WHAT IS PERFORMAN CE?

-.
susanne 1<. Lange r
Every good art work is beautiful
A work of art is intrinsically expressive; it is designed to abstract and preset forms for perception- forms of life
and feeing,
activity, suffering, selfhood- whereby we conceive these realities, which otherwise we can but blindly undergo.
Every good
work of art is beautiful; as soon as we find it so, we have grasped its expressiveness, and until we do we have not
seen it as
good art, though we may have ample intellectual reason to believe that it is so. Beautiful works may contain elements
that,
taken in isolafon, are hideous.[. . .] The emergent form, the whole, is alive and therefore beautiful, as awful things
may be
as gargoyles, and fearful African masks, and the Greek tragedies of incest and murder are beaut iful. Beauty is not
identical
with the normal, and certainly not with charm and sense appeal, though a I such properties may go to the making
of it. Beauty
is expressive form.

1953, Feeling and Form, 395-96

'------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
c..lothL'S or objects arc put to usc? What roles arc pia) cd and
IX>\\ arc these dilfcrent, if at all, from \\ho the pcrl'ormcrs
usually arc? J-Im\ arc the e\ents controlled, distributed,
recehed, and c\aluated?
"Is" performance refers to more definite, hounded
e\ent~ marked hy context, comention, usage, and tradition.
Howcnr, in the twenty-first century, clear distinctions
hct\\ een "as" performance and "is" performance arc ,anish-
ing. This is part of a general trend toward the dissolution
of hounclaries. The internet, glohali...ation, and the l'\er-
increasing pre:>cncc of media is saturating human hclta\ior
at all Jc,cls . More and more people experience their lh cs
as a connected series of performances that often o\'erlap:
dressing up for a party, in ten ic\\ ing for a job, experimentin g
'' ith sexual orientations and gender roles, playing a life role
such as mother or son, or a professional role such as doctor
fig 2.15. From Goya's DJsasters of War, 1810-1 4. From www . or teacher. The ~>ensc that "performance is e\'crywherc" is
napoleongulde com/goya18 html
heightened h) an inneasingly mediatiLed en\'ironmcnt where
people communicate by fax, phone, ami the internet, where
an unlimited quantity of information and entertainmen t
Conclusion comes through the air.
One '' ay of ordering this complex situation is to arrange
There arc many ways to understand performance. Any the performance genres, pcrformathc hcha\'iors, and
C\ cnt, action, or bLha,ior rna) he examined "as" performante. performance acth ities into a continuum (sec figure 2.16).
Using the category"as"p erformance ha~ ad\'antages. One can These genres, beha\'iors, and acthitics do not each stand
consider things pro\'isionally, in process, and a~ they change alone. A:s in the spl'ctrum of\ isible light, they blend into one
o,er time. In c,ery human acth ity there arc usually many another; their hound aries arc indistinct. They interact \\ ith
players with di!Terent and C\'cn opposing points of \'icw, each other. The continuum is drawn a~ a straight line to
goals, and feelings. Using "as" performance as a tool, one accommodat e the printed page. If I could work in three
can look into things other\\ isc closed o!T to inquiry. One dimensions, I would shape the relationships as more of an
asks performance questions of e\cnts: How is an c\'ent o\erlapping and interlacing spheroid network. For example,
deployed in spaLe and disclosed in time? What special though the) stand at opposite ends of the straight-line

49
 (a) PLAY- GAMES-SPORTS-PDP ENTERTAINMENTS- PERFO
RMING ARTS-DAILY LIFE- IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONS-R
ITUAL

(b) GAMES-SPORTS- POP ENTERTAINMENTS- PERFORMING

ARTS- DAILY LIFE- IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONS
PLAY AND RITUAL
flg 2 .16. The performance contin uum showing
the range, unity, and comprehen~ vlty of perform
a conunuous range n 2 16b "play' and "ritual" ance In 2 16a the cont nuum 15 depiC ted~
are shown as underlying, supporting. and perme
ating the whote range

flg 2 .17. AI of these performance genres Integra

te dance. theatre . and music

A kathakall performer n Kerala, India, In

a heroic role d splaying vigor and energy
Copyright Perform ing Arts Ubrary

...
w .... - - . ~- ..... - - . - : -
": ...~
- ,..,_~
'.
~ ~ ., - - - - - -
r
- _ _. - - . L - a

Maklsht mask perform er, Zambia Photograph

courte sy of Richard
Schec hner.

Yaqui Deer Dancer, New Pascua ,

Arizona , 1960s Photograph by Richard
Schechner

so
 WHAT 15 PERFORMANCE?

continuu m, playing and ritualizing arc closely related to each

other. In some ways, they under! ie all the rest as a foundation. TALK ABOUT
With regard to figure 2. 16: games, sports, pop enter-
tainment s, and perform ing arts include many genres each I. Pick an action not usually thought to he a perform ance.
with thdr own com cntions, ruks, history, and traditions. An
For example , waiting on line at a superma rket checkou t
cnormou ., range of acti\'ities comes under these hanners.
counter, crossing the street at a husy intersection, \'isiting
E,en the same acti\'ity - cricket, fur exampl e- \'aries widely.
a sick fritml. In what ways can cad\ of these he analy:.red
Cricklt at a test match is not the same a~ that pla)cd on a
"as" a performa nce?
neighhor hond a\al. And cricket in the Trohrian d Islands, 2. Sdect a sports match, a religious ritual, an cnryda~ lilc
where it was changed into a ritual encount er hctm:cn towns
occurren ce, and a perform ing art. Discuss their
fi.aturing dancing as much as hitting and ficltling, ami with
similarities and clilli:rences"as" performances with regard
the home team alway.~ winning, is somethi ng else again.
to \'enuc, function, audience in\'ol\'cmtnt, C\cnt
The fact that the ritualize d cricket match shown in Jerry
structur e, ami historical-cultural context.
W. Leat:h's and Gary Kildea's TrobrianJ Cricket (1973) \\as
staged for the cameras add~ another layer of pcrform ath'e
complexity. Despite all complicating factors, certain general-
izations can he made. Ewn though genre:; arc distinct, and PERFORM
no one would confuse the Superho wl with Lc.~ S; lplliJcs,l>oth
ballet and football arc about mo\'emc nt, contact, lifting,
I . Oh~en c an l'\ er) da~ encount er ol pl'nple you do not
carrying, falling, ami rushing to and fro. In many cultures ,
knm\. lnll'n cnc in the l'mount er \'ourself with a dclinit~
theatre, dance, and music arc so wholly integratt:d that it
goal in mind. Al'tlr\\ ards, di.,cu~s how your intcr\'en tion
is not po:.~ihlc to plale a gh-cn cwnt into one or the other
changed till' performance~ of till' otlwrs. Did the)
category. Kathakali in India, a Makishi perform ance in
"l'lcmne or n:~.nt n>ur imcntion? \\'h\'?
Zambia, and the Deer Dance of the 'iaquis arc hut three i
2. In small groups, take turns reproduc ing for your group
cxampll' S among many that int~gratt musk, dance, and
a hit of hl'ha\'ior that you ordinarily do only in priYatc.
tlwatrc (sec figure 2.17).
How did the hcha\ ior thange when you Wlre scll'-
The tlrm~ on the right side of llgurc 2. 16 daily ronsciously pcrli>rming for others?
life and identity con.~tructions arc rclati\'cl) lluid when
compare d to the strict g<)\ernancc on the left side. But
that is not to sar th:H there arc no limits. E\cn the most
apparent!~ casual social interaction is rule-guided and culturc- READ
splcifk. Politl'nc ss, manners , hod) language, and the like
all operate accordin g to kno" n sccnarim . The spcL ilk~ of Carl.un, Man in. ~wh~t is l'< rlimnamd~ The Paf~rn"'""' ~tuJrc.< 1\caJcr,
the rules difl4.-r from society to society, circums tance to I knry llial, ;.! .. 6S 73.l.nndn n anti :-.!cw York: i~outl~lgc, 2()(H.
circumstance. But there is no human social interacti on that G~hl<r, Nc.JI. ~life the .\lmic." The Pcrji1rmunrc Swdr Reader,
I knry Bial,
is not "Ia\\ l'ul," that is not rule-hou nd. <'<1. : 7+-7>. l.nn<lon anti Nc\\ York Routlcdg<', 10<H.
In the remainin g chapters of this hook I explore these Gttrt', Clilliml. ~Biurn:tl li<' nn. The Hdigur~tion of Soda! Thought."
matters in more detail. Chapter 3 deals with ritual, and The l'cijorm~nrc !>rttdt 1\caJcr. Hcnn Btal, c.l.: 6+-67. !.ondon ant! Nc"
York: Rnutlctlgc , 200+.
Chapter 4 with play. Chapter 5 concerns performati\'ity,
Goll'man, En ing. ~l',rl<>nnliKcs lldtd' in the !'art One I Pia\ ing." Tl1c
the extensio n of the idea of perform ance into all areas
l'crfornruncc SwJi;r 1\caJcr, Henry l\iJl,<l.: 59-63. l.ott<lrm ant!~""':' York:
of human life. Chapter 6 concerns the different kind~ of Routicclgc. 200+.
perform ing- from c\'eryday Iiii: to theiltrc to trance. Chapter 1-:aprow, Allan. ~Art \\ hit:h Can't Be Art ( 1986)." Ena,u on tl.c 8/urrin,q r;f
7 is about performa nce processes generating, presenting, L!fc, Allan Kaprnw and Jell Kcl k~ : 219-22. llcrkclc~ Calif.:
:lrt <JnJ
anti C\ aluating perform ances; and about how perform ers llniHrsity of California l'rtss, 2003.

train, rehearse , warm up, perform , and cool dm' n. Chapter Phelan, I'egg~ . ~1\brina Ahranun i< \\'itm:ssing Shatln" ' " ThccJrrc journ<JI
8 examines globalization and its relationship to intercultural 56,+ (200+) : 569 77.

performances. It is neither possible nor ad\'isahlc to lcncc these "dtcthner , Richart!. ~Restoratiun nf lkha\iur.~ Bwccn Theater 11nd
.1mhropolo.'L' 35 116. Philaddph ia,l'a .. UniH:rsity ofl'enns)h ania Press,
topics off from each other so although each chapter dc\'dops
191!5 .
a hasic theme, there is also a good deal of o\'crlap and intcrpla~
Taylor, Diana . ~TrJnslating Pcrfnrrnam e." l'rr;J<uion 1002, I (2002):
among the chapters. ++-50.

51