Performing Arts Performing arts are art forms in which artists use their body or voice to convey artistic expression—as opposed to plastic arts, in which artists use clay, metal, paint, and other materials to create physical art objects. The first recorded use of the term performing arts was in 1711. OVERVIEW OF THE TOPICS: 1 Types of performing arts • 1. 1 Theatre • 1. 2 Dance • 1. 3 Music 2 History of Western performing arts • 2. 1 Renaissance • 2. 2 Modern era • 2. 3 Post-War performance 3 Eastern performing arts • 3. 1 Middle East • 3. 2 Iran • 3. 3 India and Pakistan 3. 4 China • 3. 5 Thailand • 3. 6 Cambodia • 3. 7 Japan 4 Philippines performing arts • Theatre • Dance • Music Performing arts include dance, music, opera, theatre, magic, Spoken word, circus arts and musical theatre. Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called: Performers – including actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, musicians, and singers Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as song writing 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. Theatre Theatre 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 of plays, theatre takes such forms as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, illusion, mime, classical Indian dance, kabuki, mummers’ plays, improvisational theatre, stand-up comedy, pantomime, and non-conventional or arthouse theatre. A scene from The Nultcracker ballet (Watch). 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 or body language between humans or animals (bee dance, mating dance), motion in inanimate objects (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain music 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. History of Western Performing Arts |Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period of performing art began in Greece, ushered in by the |[pic] | |tragic poets such as Sophocles. These poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance |Sophocles, as depicted in the Nordisk | |(see Euripides). The Hellenistic period began the widespread use of comedy. |familjebok. | | | |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. | |
Renaissance |In the 15th century performing arts, along with the arts in general, saw a revival as the Renaissance |[pic] | |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 |commedia dell’arte show, dated 1657. (Louvre) | |Choreas Ducendi) instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli. The term eventually became Ballet. | |The first Ballet per se is thought to be Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx’s Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581). | | |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. | Modern era (Modern world) |The introduction of the proscenium arch in Italy during the 17th century established the traditional|Isadora Duncan, one of the developers of free | |theater form that persists to this day. Meanwhile, in England, the Puritans forbid acting, bringing |dance. | |a halt to performing arts that lasted until 1660. After then, women began to appear in |[pic] | |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 were 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 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, technical | | |advances such as the introduction of gaslight to theatres, burlesque, minstrel dancing, and variety | | |theater. In ballet, women make great progress in the previously male-dominated art. | | |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. | | | |The arrival of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (1909–1929) revolutionised ballet and the performing arts generally throughout the Western world, | |most importatntly through Diaghilev’s emphasis on collaboration, which brought choreographers, dancers, set designers/artists, composers and | |musicians together to revitalise and revolutionise ballet. | | |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. | | | |Rhythm and blues, a cultural phenomenon of black America became came to prominence in the early 20th century, influencing a range of later popular | |music styles internationally. | | | |In the 1930s Jean Rosenthal introduced what would become modern stage lighting, changing the nature of the stage as the Broadway musical became a | |phenomenon in the United States. | Post-War performance Post-World War II performing arts were highlighted by the resurgence of both |[pic] Portrait of Alvin Ailey. | |ballet and opera in the Western world. | | | | | |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. | Eastern Performing Arts Middle East |The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with the passion |[pic] | |plays of Ancient Egypt. This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at | | |festivals throughout the civilization, marking the known beginning of a long | | |relationship between theatre and religion. | | | | |The most popular forms of theater in the medieval Islamic world were puppet | | |theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) | | |and live passion plays known as ta’ziya, where actors re-enact episodes | | |from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around | | |the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali’s sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali.
Live | | |secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, though| | |they were less common than puppetry and ta’ziya theater. | | Iran In Iran there are other forms of theatrical events such as Naghali (story telling), Ru-Howzi, Siah-Bazi, Parde-Khani,Mareke giri… India and Pakistan Theatre in India and Sanskrit drama |Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in |[pic] | |the 2nd millennium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, | | |ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life.
The last element made it the origin of | | |the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad | | |Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism | | |amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals | | |and some others were the hunters.
Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, | | |monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters. | | |Bharata Muni (fl. 5th–2nd century BC) was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing |[pic] | |the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, | | |including theatre, dance,acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle’s Poetics. | |Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be | | |the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The | | |Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to | | |be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti).
As| | |men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by | | |the term roopaka, which means portrayal. | | |The Ramayana and Mahabharata can be considered the first recognized plays that originated in |[pic] | |India. These epics provided the inspiration to the earliest Indian dramatists and they do it |[pic] | |even today. Indian dramatists such as Bhasa in the 2nd century BC wrote plays that were heavily | | |inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata. | | | | |Kalidasa in the 1st century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India’s greatest dramatist. | | |Three famous romantic plays written by Kalidasa are the Malavikagnimitram (Malavika and | | |Agnimitra), Vikramuurvashiiya (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijnanasakuntala (The | | |Recognition of Shakuntala).
The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most | | |famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. In comparison to Bhasa, who | | |drew heavily from the epics, Kalidasa can be considered an original playwright. | | | | | |The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century).
He is said to have written the | | |following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three,| | |the last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian | | |emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having written three plays: the | | |comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda. Many other dramatists followed| | |during the Middle Ages. | | | | |There were many performing art forms in the southern part of India, Kerala is such a state with | | |different such art forms like Kathakali, Chakyar koothu and there were many prominent artists | | |like Painkulam Raman Chakyar and others. | | China Chinese theatre |There are references to theatrical entertainments in China as early as 1500 BC during the Shang Dynasty;|[pic] | |they often involved music, clowning and acrobatic displays. | | | [pic] | |a. The Tang Dynasty is sometimes known as “The Age of 1000 Entertainments”. | | |- Emperor Xuanzong formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden to produce a form of|[pic] | |drama that was primarily musical. | | | | | |b.
Han Dynasty, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. | | |The two styles were differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods | | |on the puppets, as opposed to the type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed| | |plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for | | |political propaganda. | | | | |Two distinct forms of shadow puppetry: | | |Cantonese southern and | | |Puppets were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather that created more substantial | | |shadows. Symbolic color was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. | | |The rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets’ heads.
Thus, they| | |were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. | | | | | |Pekingese northern. | | |Puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather usually taken| | |from the belly of a donkey. They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast a very colorful | | |shadow.
The thin rods that controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of | | |the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet then turned at a ninety degree angle to | | |connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside the | | |shadow of the puppet; thus they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods attached | | |at the necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body.
When the heads were not being used, | | |they were stored in a muslin book or fabric lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was | | |in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some | | |puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce | | |the possibility of reanimating puppets.
Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of | | |artistic development in the 11th century before becoming a tool of the government. | | | | | |c. Sung Dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. | | |These developed in the Yuan Dynasty into a more sophisticated form with a four or five act structure. | |Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, the best known of which is | | |Beijing Opera, which is still popular today. | | Thailand |In Thailand, it has been a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots |[pic] | |drawn from Indian epics. In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand’s national | | |epic Ramakien, a version of the Indian Ramayana, remains popular in Thailand even today. | | | | |Ramakien “Glory of Rama” is Thailand’s national epic, derived from | | |the Hindu epic Ramayana. The word is derived from Sanskrit word Ramakhyan (Ram + Akhyan) | | |where Akhyan means a long story or epic. | | Cambodia |In Cambodia, at the ancient capital Angkor Wat, stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and |[pic] | |Mahabharata have been carved on the walls of temples and palaces.
Similar reliefs are found | | |at Borobudur in Indonesia. | | Japan |Theatre form is the superb Japanese dramatic art representation, and maybe also the one that |[pic] | |gathers the most aspects of it. Kabuki is hard to categorize because it shares both opera and |[pic] | |ballet elements. Figurative or literal translation of Kabuki could be “dance and singing |Kabuki | |discipline”. | | | | |As an interesting fact, it can be outlined that Kabuki nowadays is only represented by male | | |actors, female parts of a play are also played by men dressed as women, but this has not always | | |been the same: from the beginnings of kabuki until 1629, there were actresses, women in plays.
In| | |this date women were banned from appearing in kabuki theater once the government discovered that | | |many of them were working as prostitutes outside the stage; the government was afraid that the | | |actresses incited public moral decadence, but later on, some young actors were brought into this | | |kind of activities. | | | | | |Nowadays there are special representations where women are allowed to take part in a kabuki play. | | |Male actors that play female parts are called “onnagata”. | | |On the other hand, Noh theater has religious origins.
Nobility in those days required esoteric |[pic] | |poetry, refined language and movement simplicity without losing glamour |Noh [pic] | | | | |Around 1338 Noh theater became from being a popular amusement into a complex form of drama. | | | | | |It is difficult to describe a Noh theater play, but there are some translations.
Ashikaga | | |Yoshimasa, Yoshimitsu’s grandson, who became Shogun in 1449, benefit art in general, Noh theater | | |between them. Noh representation had been transformed by the previous shogun Ashikaga into a | | |refined and slender amusement, came from popular singing and dancing representations in Heian age| | |or even before that. | | | | |Presented in a simple stage without any special scenery, play used to be, as it is today, a | | |historic romance in which drum music and dance with flutes, beautiful dresses, poetic dialogs and| | |symbolic pantomime were combined. | | |Bunraku is the traditional puppet theater.
Without exception, each play is represented with |[pic] | |puppets manipulated by handy dressed in black artists, even their faces are covered with a |[pic] | |semi-transparent black veil. Apparently puppets were already famous in Japan since the XVII |Bunraku | |century, when travelling actors coming from China and Korea wandered across the country with half| | |religious representations.
Nevertheless, what is now known as bunraku, wasn’t formed until XVI | | |and XVII centuries, when narrators joined actors and shamisen (a kind of banjo) accompanying. | | | | | |Bunraku, despite what it can appear, it’s more likely an adult theater for the kind of plot it is| | |built on, talks about very deep subjects as in William Sakespeare’s play; love, rejection, | | |revenge, sacrifice, reincarnation, etc. | | | | |Three artists give life to each puppet, this requires lots of coordination and audience must not | | |sense the artist most of the time. | | | | | |The approximate size of a puppet is a third part of a human. Narrators are called “gidayu” and | | |they play a very important role, gesticulate, moan and sob in the left side of the stage to give | | |life to the play’s representation. | Philippine Performing Arts Philippine Theatre Arts |Theatre comes from a Greek word “theatron” and it is a branch of performing arts that deals with |[pic] | |acting, singing and dancing on stage to present a story dramatically. In the Philippines, many talents | | |are first exposed in the field of theatre arts. In fact, theatre arts have long been existing as a part| | |of the Filipino tradition and serve effectively as a medium of social awareness and entertainment.
It | | |is also a means of liberal and artful way of expressing opinions and talents. | | |Cenaculo – during Holy Week, takes place as an on-stage performance that re-enacts the passion of |[pic] | |Christ. | | |Moro-Moro which expresses the conflict between Christians and Muslims in the country. In other towns, a|[pic] | |famous theatre form called “carillo”, which is usually a drama play, is shown after the harvest season. | | | | |Zarzuela – another famous theatre performance, a local version of Spanish operetta. In many other |[pic] | |places or occasions, variety of traditional plays that express the Filipino love for arts are shown | | |even up to this very day. | | Today, the theatre industry is one of the factors that bring the country into the world’s spotlight. Many famous theatrical productions are played and commended in other countries while they open doors to Filipino talents for world class performances.
Performing artists involve in theatre arts usually have inner talents or potential capability to act, sing and dance on stage and provide entertainment to a wide number of audiences. Some are amateurs while others are professionals and together with them are stage managers, musical directors, stage crews, who all create ideally entertaining productions. The Crafts Stage performance is a craft. Like any other craft, it is something that can be nurtured, improved and enhanced from time to time. Like what has been mentioned earlier, theatre arts involve acting, singing and dancing in portraying different story or play characters. These are the crafts that must be given emphasis in every performance. The quality of the performance strongly depends on how the artists execute their crafts in all the scenes. [pic] The early music of the Philippines featured a mixture of Indigenous, Islamic and a variety of Asian |[pic] | |sounds that flourished before the European and American colonization in the 16th and 20th centuries. | | |Spanish settlers and Filipinos played a variety of musical | | |instruments,including flutes, guitar,ukelele, violin, trumpets and drums. They performed songs and | | |dances to celebrate festive occasions. By the 21st century, any of the folk songs and dances have | | |remained intact throughout the Philippines. Some of the groups that perform these folk songs and | | |dances are the Bayanihan, Filipinescas, Barangay-Barrio, Hariraya, the Karilagan Ensemble, and groups | | |associated with the guilds of Manila, and Fort Santiago theatres. Many Filipino musicians have risen | | |prominence such as the composer and conductor Antonio J. Molina, the composer Felipe P. e Leon, known| | |for his nationalistic themes and the opera singer Jovita Fuentes. | | | | | |Modern day Philippine music features several styles. Most music genres are contemporary such | | |as Filipino rock, Filipino hip hop and other musical styles. Some are traditional such as Filipino | | |folk music. | Dance |Philippine folk dances include the Tinikling and Carinosa. In the southern region of |[pic] A Zamboangueno dance in Philippine Hispanic tradition. | |Mindanao, Singkil is a popular dance showcasing the story of a prince and princess in the | | |forest. Bamboo poles are arranged in a tic-tac-toe pattern in which the dancers exploit | | |every position of these clashing poles. | |
Cinema and television Main article: Cinema of the Philippines |The advent of the cinema of the Philippines can be traced back to the early days of filmmaking in 1897 |[pic] | |when a Spanish theatre owner screened imported moving pictures. |Mila del Sol starred in one of the earliest Filipino | | |movies, Giliw Ko (1939), along with Fernando Poe, Sr. | |The formative years of Philippine cinema, starting from the 1930s, were a time of discovery of film as | | |a new medium of expressing artworks.
Scripts and characterizations in films came from popular theatre | | |shows and Philippine literature. | | | | | |In the 1940s, Philippine cinema brought the consciousness of reality in its film industry. | | |Nationalistic films became popular, and movie themes consisting primarily of war and heroism and proved| | |to be successful with Philippine audiences. | | | | |The 1950s saw the first golden age of Philippine cinema, with the emergence of more artistic and mature| | |films, and significant improvement in cinematic techniques among filmmakers. The studio system produced| | |frenetic activity in the Philippine film industry as many films were made annually and several local | | |talents started to gain recognition abroad. Award-winning filmmakers and actors were first introduced | | |during this period. As the decade drew to a close, the studio system monopoly came under siege as a | | |result of labor-management conflicts.
By the 1960s, the artistry established in the previous years was | | |in decline. This era can be characterized by rampant commercialism in films. | | | | | |The 1970s and 1980s were considered turbulent years for the Philippine film industry, bringing both | | |positive and negative changes. The films in this period dealt with more serious topics following the | | |Martial law era.
In addition, action, western, drama, adult and comedy films developed further in | | |picture quality, sound and writing. The 1980s brought the arrival of alternative or independent cinema | | |in the Philippines. | | | | | |The 1990s saw the emerging popularity of drama, teen-oriented romantic comedy, adult, comedy and action| | |films. | | | | |The Philippines, being one of Asia’s earliest film industry producers, remains undisputed in terms of | | |the highest level of theater admission in Asia. Over the years, however, the Philippine film industry | | |has registered a steady decline in movie viewership from 131 million in 1996 to 63 million in 2004. | |From a high production rate of 350 films a year in the 1950s, and 200 films a year during the 1980s, | | |the Philippine film industry production rate declined in 2006 to 2007. The 21st century saw the rebirth| | |of independent filmmaking through the use of digital technology and a number of films have once again | | |earned nationwide recognition and prestige. | | References: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Performing_arts; http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Culture_of_the_Philippines http://www. aprenderjapones. com/index. php? content=teatro&lang=en
