Performing Arts Overview

Principles

Definition

Performing arts is an academic field and research concept dedicated to the study of creative practices presented through human action and performance before an audience. It investigates the forms, histories, theories, cultural contexts, and reception of disciplines including theatre, dance, music, and related performative expressions, analyzing their aesthetic, social, and cultural significance.

Ontological type

Core Practices and Forms

Historical Development

Theoretical Frameworks

Key developments

Key Figures

Performance as Social Practice era

Richard Bauman[1] is a key figure in the Performance as Social Practice era, with associations including the University of Alberta[2] and Indiana University[3]. His Verbal Art as Performance[4] (1986) reframed everyday talk as performative social action, shaping how communities understand ritual, authority, and identity in this era. Bauman[1] showed that talk functions as a social act rather than a fixed artifact, foregrounding audience interpretation and the politics of meaning within networks and scenes. Bauman's emphasis on performance as social practice[1] helped establish practice-centered inquiry in pedagogy and scholarship during this period[1].

Experience-Oriented Performance era

James H. Gilmore [1], associated with Louisiana State University [2] during the Experience-Oriented Performance era (1998–2011), helped shape how audiences experience cultural events and services. His key contribution, articulated in The experience economy: work is theatre & every business a stage [3], reframes economic value around immersive experiences that treat work as performance on a stage, a central move for branding and audience-engagement practices in this era. Gilmore [1]'s experience-economy framework became a blueprint for practitioners to orchestrate multisensory encounters and cross-media circulation, underscoring why embodied reception mattered in this era. Gilmore [1]'s ideas helped justify branding and venue design as core strategic tools for cultural institutions seeking to deliver memorable experiences.

Digital-Immersive Performance era

Nicholas Cook [1], associated with the University of Cambridge [2] and the University of Melbourne [3] during the digital-immersive performance era (2012–2023), epitomizes a scholarly focus on how music lives in performance. His key contribution in this era comes from the paper Beyond the score: music as performance [4], which reframes music as a live, relational event rather than a fixed score, a shift crucial for understanding liveness in digitally mediated performance. Cook [1]'s framework informs the era's emphasis on participatory design and streaming by showing why presence arises through interfaces and collective attention. Overall, Cook [1]'s work signals a methodological shift in performance studies toward relational liveness and audience engagement in immersive platforms, shaping how scholars interpret presence in the digital-immersive era.