- What are the performing arts?
- Performing arts types
- What are the elements of the performing arts?
- Importance of the performing arts
We explain what the performing arts are and the characteristics of these artistic representations. Also, the types that exist, their elements and importance.
What are the performing arts?
The performing arts are artistic disciplines that are intended to be performed in front of an audience. These demonstrations can take place in specially designated settings, such as theater stages and performance halls, or they can take place in public spaces, such as on a street or square.
The space in which the representation takes place is fundamental and, together with the actors or interpreters (who use their bodies as an instrument to produce the desired aesthetic effect) and the public (who observe and in some cases intervene in the representation), it is one of the main elements of all performing art.
There are three groups of performing arts: the dance, the theater and the music. These groups include various artistic forms, such as ballet, opera, recital, puppets, performance and all those disciplines that require a stage space. In some cases, the performing arts include parades, religious processions, popular festivals or carnivals.
Scenic representations are a type of ephemeral art, because they occur in a specific time and place, and use resources such as words, music, the movement and the sound. They can include objects, scenery, costumes, makeup, technology and everything that helps in the process of production and representation of the work or artistic piece.
The performing arts differ from the plastic arts, which is a type of non-ephemeral art that uses techniques that include elements or materials that the artist uses to create. Such is the case of the painting, the sculpture, engraving or pottery.
Performing arts types
The main types of performing arts are:
- Theater. It is one of the most cultivated and most impactful performing arts, which consists of imparting a message through the representation, by one or more actors, of a real or fictional story. In its staging, there are usually other performing arts (such as singing and dance) and also elements of the literature, Like the dialogues and the script. In addition, the theater often uses objects or scenery that help give context to the works (which can be comedies, dramas, musicals, tragedies, among other).
- Dance. It is an art that consists of the movement of the body to rhythm of a music. There are different types of dances that are carried out by one or more dancers, such as classical ballet, contemporary dance or dance. folk dances. It is one of the oldest art forms of mankind and used to be part of celebrations and rituals.
- Music. It is one of the most complex aesthetic forms, which, through sounds made with various instruments, produces symphonies of varying complexity and length that evoke different feelings and impressions. There are different musical styles and ways in which they are represented, such as concerts, recitals, choirs, operas, among others.
- Circus. It is an art that is based on a staging and the exhibition of skills, such as juggling, tightrope walking, trapeze, and circus characters such as magicians and clowns. Circuses usually do itinerant staging and are inherited from the legendary Roman circus, to which less aggressive elements were incorporated.
- Performance. It is an art formed by more or less defined manifestations of different disciplines, which are usually improvisations or prepared acts that take place on stage or in public places. Some examples of performances are the happening or the fluxus.
What are the elements of the performing arts?
The performing arts require the following main elements:
- Interpreters They are actors, poets, dancers, musicians or any other person or group that uses their body on stage and assumes a role to produce an aesthetic effect. They are essential to carry out any representation.
- Public. It is made up of a group of persons in front of which the representation is made. In some cases, the public is summoned by the artists to assume an active role within the show.
- Stage. It is the physical place where cultural action takes place. This stage can be in a theater or a performance hall, or it can be the street, a makeshift stage, a public square, among many others.
- Objects. They are those material goods that function as support within the representation. These objects can be part of the stage set, they can be participants in the representation or function as a technical aid to produce a desired effect.
Importance of the performing arts
The performing arts have their origin in ancient times, with music and dances carried out in different rituals, and then with the development of the Greek theater and the oriental theater. These arts emerged as a form of communication and the transmission of a message through the use of the body and both sound and visual resources. Today, the performing arts are professionalized and can be studied at universities, undergraduate and graduate degrees.
The scenic artistic manifestations were of great importance in history, because they were erected as a form of expression that, through staging, transmitted values and important cultural works for different generations from generation to generation. societies. The performing arts are a form of cultural transmission that makes it possible to stage and communicate great works of music and world literature.
It is important that the performing arts are promoted from early childhood, because they help individuals to develop capacities such as expression, disinhibition, confidence and communication. In addition, they are a source of transmission of values As the teamwork and effort and perseverance.