Curated playlist
Performing arts
- TheatreChinese puppeteers removed their puppets' heads every night. An old superstition said intact puppets would come to life.
- ChoreographyThe word choreographer first appeared as a credit in 1936. George Balanchine got it for the Broadway show On Your Toes.
- CircusThe circus ring is 42 feet wide for a reason. It was the smallest size where a rider could stand on a cantering horse.
- Performance artPerformance artists Ulay and Marina Abramovic breathed each other's air until both fell unconscious.
- AcrobaticsThe word acrobatics once meant only tightrope walking. In the 19th century circus acts widened it to many skills.
- Magic (illusion)In 1584, Reginald Scot published a book to stop people being killed for witchcraft.
- Performing artsIn England, the Puritans banned theatre until 1660. Women began to appear in plays after that.
- ClownIn many ancient cultures, the priest and the clown were the same person.
- EntertainmentAn audience is what turns private recreation into entertainment. Without one, there is nothing to hold mutually.
- TelevisionEarly television could not show a real face, so an inventor filmed a ventriloquist's dummy.
- Martial artsIn India, practitioners hid their fighting arts from colonial authorities by calling them dance.