THE DEFINITION OF

PERFORMANCE

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WHEN RICHARD SCHECHNER FIRST COINED THE TERM
‘PERFORMANCE STUDIES,’ HE POSTULATED THAT A
PERFORMANCE IS ANY BEHAVIOR THAT IS ‘TWICE-
BEHAVED’ OR ‘RESTORED.’
FOR HIM, PERFORMANCES ARE HUMAN ACTIONS OR
EVENTS THAT HAVE BEEN CONSTRUCTED THROUGH A
MULTI-STAGE PROCESS:
THEY HAVE BEEN REHEARSED AND PREPARED,
AND ARE THEN ‘FRAMED,
PRESENTED,
HIGHLIGHTED OR DISPLAYED’ IN A HEIGHTENED
FASHION.

ANY GIVEN PERFORMANCE HAS A HISTORY— IT IS THE

RESULT OF PROCESSES OF LEARNING AND
TRANSMISSION THAT HAVE PRECEDED (AND MAY
SUCCEED) IT.
A PERFORMANCE IS THE SECOND (OR THIRD OR
FOURTH…) PRESENTATION OF A PRACTICED ACT. 2
 ALL BEHAVIORS, AS WE WILL
SEE, HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO
SUCH A REHEARSAL PROCESS,
HAVING BEEN LEARNED,
REVISED AND PRESENTED IN A
PARTICULAR MILIEU OVER TIME.
THEREFORE, IN A
PERFORMANCE STUDIES (PS)
PROJECT, BEHAVIORS ARE NOT
STUDIED AS MERE OBJECTS IN
THE ABSTRACT, BUT INSTEAD IN
RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL
OR GROUP THAT EXHIBITS THEM.
PS SCHOLARS ARE INTERESTED
IN THE ‘INTERACTIONS
AND RELATIONSHIPS’ THAT
PERFORMANCES CREATE.
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 When trying to understand a given performance, begin by
asking some of the following questions:
◦ Who are the actors: elders, children, men only, animals, high-
speed automobiles?...
◦ Where is the performance performed: on the street, in the

Questions to National Theater, a forest?...

◦ Is it performed for someone: a parent, a crowded auditorium,
God?...
Get You ◦ What were the various processes that went into rehearsing and
presenting the ‘show?’
Started ◦ Is a change of state celebrated: from pre-pubescent girl to
woman? From ordinary man to religious elite? From guilty to
innocent? Novice to aficionado?
◦ Who does the performance benefit, and whom does it exclude
or oppress? How?
◦ What seems to be the function or consequence of this
performance within the society, and have these changed over
time?

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 • The theatricality of everyday life: dress,
posture, job uniform, wearing make-up
• Radio talk shows, nightly news report
• Fairs, Carnivals, Mardi Gras
• Magic Shows, Puppet Theater
• Popular entertainment: Stand-up comedy,
Saturday Night Live; nightclubs
• Blue-grass, country music
• Rap music, Spoken word poetry
• Graffiti, Bumper-stickers
KIND OF PERFORMANCES • Internet chat-rooms, blogs, dating
websites
• Sports/Games, Superbowl Sunday
• Pantomime
• Civil Rights Marches, Labor strikes
• College lecturing, student life on campus
• Psychotherapy: psychoanalysis, face-to-
face talk therapy, role-playing

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 • Live theater: Broadway, Off-Broadway, London’s Globe
• Avant-garde performance: 1960s ‘Happenings;’ Off-off
Broadway; street performances; Edinburgh fringe
festival
• Modern dance, ballet, tap, hip-hop, free style
• Opera, orchestra music, musical theater
• Film, U.S. Hollywood culture
• Religious ritual, rite ceremonies
• Sermons/preaching; Gospel music
• Politics: campaign speeches, voting
KIND OF PERFORMANCES • Gang activity and culture
• ‘Secular’ ceremonies: sweet 16s, weddings, job
promotions, college graduations

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 • Military culture, boot camp
• Ways of speaking: promising, betting
• Ways of writing: autobiography, ‘performative writing’
• Trials and executions, public beheadings, taking
hostages on TV
• The ‘performance’ of cars: Top 25 Best Buys of 2006;
mph and 0-60 times
• Parenting
• Computers, digital animation
• Animal Rights’ Protests
KIND OF PERFORMANCES • Portrait Photography

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WHEN EACH LITTLE GIRL PUTS ON THE HAT, THEN, SHE IS PERFORMING A BEHAVIOR
THAT IS NOT-FOR-THE-FIRST-TIME:
THIS RITUAL HAS ALREADY BEEN STRUCTURED AND GIVEN MEANING BY HER
SOCIETY;
SHE HERSELF MAY EVEN HAVE PERFORMED IT BEFORE. THAT IS WHAT SCHECHNER
MEANS BY ‘TWICE BEHAVED.’
THIS ACTION HAS BEEN LEARNED AND REPEATED EITHER BY HER, OR BY HER
SOCIETY, PRIOR TO THIS GIVEN EVENT.
WE LOOK AT IT ‘AFTER THE FACT’— IN ITS SECOND PRESENTATION—TO LEARN WHAT
THIS PERFORMANCE REVEALS ABOUT THE CULTURAL PROCESSES AND BELIEF
STRUCTURES THAT FIRST GAVE RISE TO IT. 8
 ◦ 1. The Study of Religion: Trembling, Trance,
Shaking and Shuckling: A Comparative Look at
the Physicality of Ecstatic Prayer
SAMPLE ◦ 2. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Staged
PERFORMANCE Starvations: A Cultural Evaluation of Anorexia
STUDIESPROJECTS Nervosa as Teen-Age Performance in the U.S.
◦ 3. Comparative Literature: King Lear in New
Delhi, Hamlet in El Salvador. 20th Century World
Here are some examples of PS Translations of Shakespearean Drama.
interdisciplinary research projects. Each
of these papers investigates ‘points of ◦ 4. African Studies: Performing Colonialism:
contact,’ to use Schechner’s phrase, Belgian Conquest Propaganda and Narrative
between PS and (at least) one other
Harvard department
Strategies in the Congo, 1860-1960.
◦ 5. Psychology: Stages of Mourning, Staging
Mourning: Dances of Healing by U.S. Artist-
Bereavement Groups in the 1960s.

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 ◦ 6. History: Marionette Theater in Prague, 1930 to
1975: The Rise and Fall of a Civic Tradition.
◦ 7. Visual and Environmental Studies: The
Performance of Space: Acoustic Design at the
SAMPLE Ancient Theater of Epidaurus.
PERFORMANCE
STUDIESPROJECTS ◦ 8. Government: All Eyes on Tiananmen: Student
Protest in Beijing and its International Media
Here are some examples of PS Audience, April 15-June 4, 1989.
interdisciplinary research projects. Each
of these papers investigates ‘points of ◦ 9. Computer Science: ‘I’d Like to
contact,’ to use Schechner’s phrase, Present…Myself:’ Fashioning Personal Identity on
between PS and (at least) one other Internet Dating Sites.
Harvard department
◦ 10. Dramatic Arts: The Sound of the Silence: The
Role of the Pause in Pinter’s Dialogue.
◦ 11. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations:
Acts of Holy War: The Changing Face of Jihad
Practice, 1948-2006.

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 ◦ 12. East Asian Languages and
Civilizations: Kabuki Costume Design and
SAMPLE
the Performance of Masculinity in Ginza,
PERFORMANCE Tokyo.
STUDIESPROJECTS ◦ 13. Social Studies: Brecht’s Theory of
Observation: The V-Effekt as Tool of
Social Critique.
Here are some examples of PS
interdisciplinary research ◦ 14. Jewish Studies: Speaking through
projects. Each of these papers the Page: Scholem Aleichem’s Tevye and
investigates ‘points of contact,’ Reader Response Theory.
to use Schechner’s phrase,
between PS and (at least) one ◦ 15. History of Science: Dr. Robot:
other Harvard department Laparoscopic Cancer Treatment and the
Robots Who Perform It. The History of a
Procedure.

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 “IT DOES TAKE DEEP SKILL, LONG TRAINING AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPACITY TO BECOME A STAGE
ACTOR.
BUT THIS FACT SHOULD NOT BLIND US TO ANOTHER
ONE: THAT ALMOST ANYONE CAN QUICKLY LEARN
A SCRIPT WELL ENOUGH TO GIVE A CHARITABLE
AUDIENCE SOME SENSE OF REALNESS IN WHAT IS
BEING CONTRIVED BEFORE THEM…
THE LEGITIMATE PERFORMANCES OF EVERYDAY LIFE —Erving Goffman,
ARE NOT ‘ACTED’ OR ‘PUT ON’ IN THE SENSE THAT
THE PERFORMER KNOWS IN ADVANCE JUST WHAT Presentation of
HE IS GOING TO DO …
Self in Everyday
BUT [THIS] DOES NOT MEAN THAT [THE PERSON]
WILL NOT EXPRESS HIMSELF…IN A WAY THAT IS Life
DRAMATIZED AND PREFORMED....
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IN SHORT, WE ACT BETTER THAN WE KNOW HOW. “

Goffman wrote, most of us act so well that we
fully believe in the part we are playing, the
self we have presented.

We bolster our front with the use of supporting ‘props’in

appropriate ‘settings:’ we wear a white coat to assure our
patient he is in good hands, we hold up our badge to
Daily Life Drama
demonstrate that we have a right to search a house, we
cross our arms, speak in a stern voice and wag a finger to
warn a child against crossing us.

Often, when we behave these actions repeatedly over

time, we ourselves come to believe the impression of
reality we sought to engender. We step so fully into our
roles that the processes that went into structuring them
are long forgotten.We too are taken in by the show.

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To Perform can also be understood related
to:

• Being • Doing • Showing doing • Explaining

“showing doing.”

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 .“Being”may be active or static,linear or circular, expanding or contracting, material or
spiritual. Being is a philosophical category pointing to whatever people theorize is the
“ultimate reality.”

“Doing” and “showing doing” are actions.

Doing and showing doing are always in flux,always changing – reality as the pre-Socratic
Greek philosopher Heraclitus experienced it.

Heraclitus aphorized this perpetual flux:

“No one can step twice into the same river, nor touch mortal substance twice in the same
condition” .

The fourth term,“explaining ‘showing doing’,” is a reflexive effort to comprehend the world
of performance and the world as performance. 15

This comprehension is usually the work of critics and scholars.

 Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body,and tell stories.

Performances – of art,rituals, or ordinary life – are “restored behaviors,” “twice-behaved

behaviors,” performed actions that people train for and rehearse . That making art involves
training and rehearsing is clear.

But everyday life also involves years of training and practice, of learning appropriate
culturally specific bits of behavior, of adjusting and performing one’s life roles in relation to
social and personal circumstances.

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 THE RELATIVITY OF ART IN PERFORMANCE

Designating music, dance, and theatre as the “performing arts”may seem relatively
simple.But as categories even these are ambiguous.
What is designated “art,” if anything at all, varies historically and culturally.
Objects and performances called “art” in some cultures are like what is made or done in
other cultures without being so designated.
Many cultures do not have a word for,or category called,“art”even though they create
performances and objects demonstrating a highly developed aesthetic sense realized with
consummate skill.

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 What about actions that are apparently “once-behaved”–cooking, dressing, taking a walk,
talking to a friend? Even these are constructed from behaviors previously behaved. In fact,
the everydayness of everyday life is precisely its familiarity, its being built from known bits
of behavior rearranged and shaped in order to suit
specific circumstances.

But it is also true that many events and behaviors are one-time events.
Their “onceness” is a function of context,reception, and the countless ways bits of behavior
can be organized, performed, and displayed.
The overall event may appear to be new or original, but its constituent parts – if broken
down finely enough and analyzed – are revealed as restored behaviors
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Richard Schechner has outlined seven In his book The Future of
functions of performance: Ritual, he writes that, in any
of these
• To entertain varieties,‘Performance’s
subject [is] transformation:
• To make something that is beautiful
the startling ability of human
• To mark or change identity
beings to create themselves,
• To make or foster community to change, to become—for
• To heal worse or better—what they
• To teach, persuade or convince ordinarily are not.’
• To deal with the sacred and/or the
demonic By means of performance,
then, something is created,
born, changed, celebrated,
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or ended. It is this
transformative site that PS
scholars study
 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
popularity and usage has grown, so has a complex
body of writing about performance, attempting to
analyze and understand just what sort of human
Marvin
Carlson
activity it is. [. . .]

The recognition that our lives are structured

according to repeated and socially sanctioned modes
of behavior raises the possibility that all human
activity could potentially be considered as
“performance,” or at least all activity carried out with
a consciousness of itself. [. . .]

If we consider performance as an essentially

contested concept, this will help us to understand the
futility of seeking some overarching semantic field to
cover such seemingly disparate usages as the
performance of an actor, of a schoolchild, of an
automobile.
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1996, Performance: A Critical Introduction , 4 –5
 ◦ Not only making but evaluating “art”occurs everywhere.
◦ People all around the world know how to distinguish “good”
from “bad” dancing, singing, orating, storytelling, sculpting,
Evaluating fabric design, pottery, painting, and so on.
◦ But what makes something “good” or “bad” varies greatly from
Art place to place,time to time,and even occasion to occasion.
◦ The ritual objects of one culture or one historical period
become the artworks of other cultures or periods.
◦ Museums of art are full of paintings and objects that once were
regarded as sacred (and still may be by pillaged peoples eager
to regain their ritual objects and sacred remains).

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 Furthermore, even if a performance has a
strong aesthetic dimension,it is not
necessarily “art.”

The moves of basketball players are as

beautiful as those of ballet dancers,but one
is termed sport, the other art.
Figure skating and gymnastics exist in both
realms .

DECIDING WHAT ART IS Deciding what is art depends on

context,historical circumstance,use,and local
conventions.

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 SEPARATING ART FROM RITUAL

Composers,visual artists,and ◦ Separating “art”from “ritual”is particularly

performers have long made difficult.
works of fine art for use in ◦ objects from many cultures are featured in art
rituals. museums.
To what realm does Johann
Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B ◦ But consider also religious services with
Minor and his many cantatas or music,singing,dancing,preaching,storytelling,sp
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s eaking in tongues, and healing.
Mass in C Minor belong?
◦ At a Christian evangelical church service, for
Church authorities in medieval example, people go into trance, dance in the
Europe such as Amalarius,the aisles,give testimony,receive anointment and
Bishop of Metz,asserted that baptism.
the Mass was theatre equivalent ◦ The gospel music heard in African American
to ancient Greek tragedy (see churches is closely related to blues,jazz,and rock
Hardison box). and roll.Are such services art or ritual?

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◦ More than a few people attend religious services as much for
aesthetic pleasure and social interactivity as for reasons of
belief.
◦ In many cultures,participatory performing is the core of ritual
practices.
◦ In ancient Athens, the great theatre festivals were
ritual,art,sports-like competition,and popular entertainment
simultaneously.
◦ Today,sports are both live and media entertainment featuring
competition,ritual, spectacle,and big business.

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 As noted,some sports are close to fine arts.

Gymnastics, figure skating, and high diving are

recognized by the Olympics.

But there are no quantitative ways to determine

winners as there are in racing, javelin throwing, or
SPORTS
weight lifting. Instead, these “aesthetic athletes”
are judged
qualitatively on the basis of “form” and
AND FINE
“difficulty.”

Their performances are more like dancing than

ARTS
competitions of speed or strength.

But with the widespread use of slowmotion

photography and replay, even “brute sports” like
football,wrestling,and boxing yield an aesthetic
dimension that is more apparent in the re-
viewing than in the swift, tumultuous action itself. 25

An artful add-on is the taunting and victory

displays of athletes who dance and prance their
superiority.
 For all that,everyone knows the difference
between going to church, watching a football Dance emphasizes movement,
game, or attending one of the performing arts.
Theatre emphasizes narration
The difference is based on function, the and impersonation,
circumstance of the event within society, the
venue, and the behavior expected of the players Sports emphasize
and spectators. competition,and
There is even a big difference between various
Ritual emphasizes participation
genres of the performing arts.
and communication with
Being tossed around a mosh pit at a rock concert transcendent forces or beings.
is very different from applauding a performance
of the American Ballet Theatre’s Giselle at New
York’s Metropolitan Opera House.

Dance emphasizes movement, theatre

THE
emphasizes narration and impersonation, sports DIFFERENCE 26

emphasize competition,and ritual emphasizes

participation and communication with OF
transcendent forces or beings.
EMPHASIZE
THANK YOU!

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