Performing arts
A performance of the ballet Swan Lake illustrates a core truth about live art. Music, dance, and drama exist to be performed for an audience in real time. These forms differ from visual arts that use paint or canvas to create static objects. Theatre, music, gymnastics, and object manipulation appear in all human cultures. Circus skills date back to at least Ancient Egypt while music and dance history stretches into pre-historic times. Performers adapt their appearance with costumes, stage makeup, and lighting to shape the experience. Workers in songwriting, choreography, and stagecraft support these artists behind the scenes. Live performances happen in purpose-built buildings like theatres or on open air stages at festivals. They occur in tents as seen in circuses or directly on city streets.
Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period began in Greece with tragic poets such as Sophocles. These poets wrote plays that sometimes incorporated dance as seen in works by Euripides. The Hellenistic period later brought widespread use of comedy to Western traditions. Between the 9th century and 14th century performing art remained mostly limited to religious enactments organized by the Church. In the 15th century the Renaissance sparked a revival across Italy before spreading throughout Europe. Domenico da Piacenza used the term ballo instead of danza for his balli in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas Ducendi. Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx created Ballet Comique de la Reine in 1581 which is thought to be the first true ballet. By the mid-16th century Commedia Dell'arte introduced improvisation to European audiences. William Shakespeare developed professional performance styles from this new class of theatrical companies in England during the late 16th century. The first opera Dafne appeared in 1597 while opera became entertainment of choice for aristocracy throughout the 17th century. Jean Rosenthal introduced modern stage lighting in the 1930s changing the nature of Broadway musicals.
The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with ceremonial plays of Ancient Egypt. The story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals marking the known beginning of theatre and religion. A Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus details the performance during the Sed Festival as evidence of early tradition. West African Griots use storytelling, poetry, and music to express genealogies often playing instruments such as the kora. In Iran Naghali or Naqqāli involves storytellers reciting sections of a story at a time in coffeehouses. These stories referenced poetries from the Shahnameh and were altered to bond with audience moods. Bharata Muni wrote the Natya Shastra between the 5th and 2nd century BC establishing systematic techniques for Indian performing arts. Kālidāsa wrote three famous romantic plays including Abhijñānaśākuntala which is the most famous and first translated into English. During the Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzong formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden. Shadow puppetry reached its highest point of artistic development in China during the 11th century before becoming a government tool. Kabuki began shortly after Bunraku by an actress named Okuni who lived around the end of the 16th century.
Music combines pitch rhythm and dynamic to create sound using various instruments and styles. Genres include folk jazz hip hop pop and rock appearing in live or recorded formats. As a protean art form it easily coordinates with words for songs just as physical movements do in dance. It has the capability of shaping human behaviors by impacting our emotions directly. Dance generally refers to human movement that is typically rhythmic and set to music for entertainment. Definitions depend on social cultural aesthetic artistic and moral constraints ranging from functional folk dance to codified virtuoso ballet. Isadora Duncan developed novel vector choreography using Nietzsche's idea of supreme mind in free mind during the late 19th century. Choreography remains the art of making dances while the practitioner is called a choreographer. Dancers aim to channel emotions into expressive motion that may delight spectators who feel no wish to dance themselves. The connection between impulse and skillfully choreographed art practiced by professionals exists very strongly within any consideration of the subject.
The development of audio and video recording has allowed for private consumption of performing arts. Thomas Edison invented the motion picture in the late 19th century while Hollywood grew rapidly in the early 20th century. Film became a dominant performance medium throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Gaslight was introduced to theatres during the 19th century enabling burlesque minstrel dancing and variety theatre. Jean Rosenthal changed the nature of the stage with modern lighting innovations in the 1930s. The proscenium arch established traditional theatre form in Italy during the 17th century which persists to this day. Women began to appear in both French and English plays after Puritans forbade acting until 1660. The arrival of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1929 revolutionized ballet through emphasis on collaboration among choreographers dancers set designers composers and musicians. Post-World War II saw resurgence of both ballet and opera in the Western world before postmodernism dominated during the 1970s and 1980s.
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Common questions
When did the Classical period of performing arts begin in Greece?
The Classical period began in Greece during the 6th century BC. This era started with tragic poets such as Sophocles who wrote plays that sometimes incorporated dance.
Who created Ballet Comique de la Reine and when was it performed?
Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx created Ballet Comique de la Reine in 1581. This work is thought to be the first true ballet in history.
What is the earliest recorded theatrical event and where did it occur?
The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with ceremonial plays of Ancient Egypt. The story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals marking the known beginning of theatre and religion.
Which book established systematic techniques for Indian performing arts?
Bharata Muni wrote the Natya Shastra between the 5th and 2nd century BC establishing systematic techniques for Indian performing arts. Kālidāsa later wrote three famous romantic plays including Abhijñānaśākuntala which is the most famous and first translated into English.
When did women begin to appear in French and English plays after being forbidden from acting?
Women began to appear in both French and English plays after Puritans forbade acting until 1660. This change occurred following a long period where female roles were not performed by actresses.