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The performing arts are those forms of art which
differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body,
face and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal
or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some art object.
Contents [hide]
1 Types of performing arts
1.1 Music
1.2 Theater
1.3 Dance
2 History of Western performing arts
2.1 Renaissance
2.2 Modern era
2.3 Post-War performance
3 See also
4 References
[edit] Types of performing arts
Performing arts include the acrobatics, busking, comedy, dance, magic, music,
opera, film, juggling, marching arts, such as brass bands, theatre, and circus
arts.
Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called
performers, including actors, comedians, dancers, musicians, and singers.
Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as
songwriting and stagecraft.
Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup,
etc.
There is also a specialized form of fine art in which the artists perform their
work live to an audience. This is called Performance art. Most performance art
also involves some form of plastic art, perhaps in the creation of props. Dance
was often referred to as a plastic art during the Modern dance era.
[edit] Music
Main article: Music
Music as an academic discipline mainly focuses on two career paths, music
performance (focused on the orchestra and the concert hall) and music education
(training music teachers). Students learn to play instruments, but also study
music theory, musicology, history of music and composition. In the liberal arts
tradition, music is also used to broaden skills of non-musicians by teaching
skills such as concentration and listening.
[edit] Theater
Theatre or theater (Greek "theatron", θέατρον) is the branch of the performing
arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using
combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any
one or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard
narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as classical Indian dance,
Chinese opera,opera, ballet, Illusion, mime, kabuki, mummers' plays, and
pantomime.
The oldest surviving performance art tradition (Sanskrit) in world - Kudiyattam.
Artist Guru Mani Madhava Chakyar
[edit] Dance
Dance (from Old French dancier, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to human
movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual
or performance setting.
Dance is also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body
language) between humans or animals (bee dance, mating dance), motion in
inanimate objects (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or
genres.
Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who does this is called
a choreographer.
Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural,
aesthetic artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement
(such as Folk dance) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet. In sports,
gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while
Martial arts 'kata' are often compared to dances.
[edit] History of Western performing arts
Main article: Western art history
Sophocles, as depicted in the Nordisk familjebok.Starting in the 6th century BC,
the Classical period of performing art began in Greece, ushered in by the tragic
poets such as Sophocles. These poets wrote plays which, in some cases,
incorporated dance (see Euripides). The Hellenistic period began the widespread
use of comedy.
However, by the 6th century AD, Western performing arts had been largely ended,
as the Dark Ages began. Between the 9th century and 14th century, performing art
in the West was limited to religious historical enactments and morality plays,
organized by the Church in celebration of holy days and other important events.
[edit] Renaissance
Main article: Renaissance
In the 15th century performing arts, along with the arts in general, saw a
revival as the Renaissance began in Italy and spread throughout Europe plays,
some of which incorporated dance were performed and Domenico da Piacenza was
credited with the first use of the term ballo (in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas
Ducendi) instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli which later came to
be known as Ballets. The first Ballet per se is considered to be Balthasar de
Beaujoyeulx's Ballet Comique de la Royne (1581).
commedia dell'arte show, dated 1657. (Louvre)By the mid-16th century commedia
dell'arte became popular in Europe, introducing the use of improvisation. This
period also introduced the Elizabethan masque, featuring music, dance and
elaborate costumes as well as professional theatrical companies in England.
William Shakespeare's plays in the late 16th century developed from this new
class of professional performance.
In 1597, the first opera, Dafne was performed and throughout the 17th century,
opera would rapidly become the entertainment of choice for the aristocracy in
most of Europe, and eventually for large numbers of people living in cities and
towns throughout Europe.
[edit] Modern era
Main article: Modern world
The introduction of the proscenium arch in Italy during the 17th century
established the traditional theater form that persists to this day. Meanwhile,
in England, the Puritans forbid acting, bringing a halt to performing arts which
lasted until 1660. After this period, women began to appear in both French and
English plays. The French introduced a formal dance instruction in the late 17th
century.
It is also during this time that the first plays are performed in the American
Colonies.
During the 18th century the introduction of the popular opera buffa brought
opera to the masses as an accessible form of performance. Mozart's The Marriage
of Figaro and Don Giovanni are landmarks of the late 18th century opera.
At the turn of the 19th century Beethoven and the Romantic movement ushered in a
new era that lead first to the spectacles of grand opera and then to the great
musical dramas of Giuseppe Verdi and the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) of
the operas of Richard Wagner leading directly to the music of the 20th century.
The 19th century was a period of growth for the performing arts for all social
classes, the technical introduction of gaslight to theaters in the United
States, burlesque (a British import that became popular in the U.S.), minstrel
dancing, and variety theater. In ballet, women make great progress in the
previously male-dominated art.
Isadora Duncan, one of the developers of free dance.Modern dance began in the
late 19th century and early 20th century in response to the restrictions of
traditional ballet.
Konstantin Stanislavski's "System" revolutionized acting in the early 20th
century, and continues to have a major influence on actors of stage and screen
to the current day. Both impressionism and modern realism were introduced to the
stage during this period.
With the invention of the motion picture in the late 19th century by Thomas
Edison, and the growth of the motion picture industry in Hollywood in the early
20th century, film became a dominant performance medium throughout the 20th and
21st centuries.
The Darktown Follies and the later cultural growth of the Harlem Renaissance
spanned the 1910s to the early 1940s. Rhythm and blues, a cultural phenomenon of
black America became a distinctive genera in the early 20th century.
In the 1930s Jean Rosenthal introduced what would be come modern stage lighting,
changing the nature of the stage as the Broadway musical became a phenomenon in
the United States. George Gershwin and Rodgers & Hammerstein radically re-shaped
the medium as the Great depression came to an end and World War II erupted.
[edit] Post-War performance
Post-World War II performing arts were highlighted by the resurgence of both
ballet and opera in Europe and the United States.
Portrait of Alvin Ailey.Alvin Ailey's revolutionary American Dance Theater was
created in the 1950s, signaling the radical changes that were to come to
performing arts in the 1950s and 1960s as new cultural themes bombarded the
public consciousness in the United States and abroad. Postmodernism in
performing arts dominated the 1960s to large extent.
Rock and roll evolved from rhythm and blues during the 1950s, and became the
staple musical form of popular entertainment.
In 1968, Hair introduced the rock opera.
[edit] See also
List of basic performing arts topics
The Apogee Foundation
Fine art
Performance art
Performing arts education
United States copyright law in the performing arts
[edit] References
Infoplease: Performing Arts Timeline
Performing Arts Trends
AHDS Performing Arts - a UK national digital preservation service for Performing
Arts data.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performing_arts"
Category: Performing arts
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