Why Are Performing Arts Important?
Josiah Sissom
Senior Paper
Yampah Mountain High School
January 22, 2012
This paper is my attempt to share the things that I discovered about performing arts and my feelings on the subject. At times, it seems to ramble, and I think that that is a good example of the diversity of the art itself.
I think that having a world without performing arts would be an insult to humankind and Mother Nature. The need for performing arts so embedded is in our genes, that even if we tried to eradicate it, we would inevitably find some way to entertain the people of the world. Entertainment is something that we see, breathe, and live every day. It is a part of us.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (The Allegory of the Cave Retrieved 5/18/2012) is an example of entertainment in ancient Greece. In it, there is a major discussion between Socrates and Plato’s brother, Glaucon. Socrates tells Glaucon a story about a group of people who live in a cave, chained to the wall, and all the chained people can ever see are shadows being projected onto the wall in front of them, which is all they know. Even if this is all they know, they are still entertained by the shadows. However, one day, one of the chained people is released and looks around to discover that the shadows are projected by figures that other people are holding in front of a fire. All of a sudden, to this individual, the world is a lot bigger and amazing than previously imagined.
This story is a big deal because it is generally agreed that Socrates was a very influential Philosopher and if he had time to talk about how performing arts are important then they must be so.
Going back to the story, farther along in the discussion, Socrates tells how this released individual was urged to stand up and turn around. When he does, he cannot understand anything that is going on because all of his life, the shadows have been the truth, but now he sees something else. You would think he would have been experiencing emotional pain because of what he saw, but would still be intrigued. The reason this story is important is, not only that it comes from long ago, but also that it talks about how people are stuck in what they know.
The history of performing arts in Western Civilization starts in the time period of the Greek Empire, around 534 BC (Infoplease.© 2000–2007). A man named Thespis won a public contest for his tragic poems (Infoplease.© 2000–2007). The term Thespian, which is what stage actors are called, comes from his name. Thespis’ works are considered the start of performing arts (Infoplease.© 2000–2007). Then, between 525 and 385 BC, a dramatic period in performing arts existed, and in that time era, one of the main poets, Euripides, wrote poems with choreography added to them. At that time, for some reason, most performances were based on tragic life or loss and this seemed to be the only way an audience could connect because they would attach to the performers and feel the emotions that were projected by the performers. Things stayed that way for a while. People just seemed to find different ways to show a tragic story, which has carried on to today’s time, modern songs that are hugely successful have either a tragic story of a dramatic climax and quick drop. Don’t get me wrong, audiences came to prefer comedy—eventually, but in its beginning, performance had a tragic base. I believe that tragedy is only one way of performing. It is a way of projecting emotions and controlling the feelings of the audience, which is more a way of experiencing emotion, being able to feel, and trying to make others feel the same thing. This practice has been around for some time. There is an art to it, but you cannot show it, it is happening around the audience, in the air, so to speak. The act of handing out emotions, so that others can try them on, like a garment, and wear them for a little while, in my opinion, is what performing arts are all about. On a side note, it is humorous to me that there was even a time when the Christians knew that they were being controlled by this genre of entertainment because there was a long time when performance was based only on fantasy. Honestly, they eradicated it for a number of years just because they did not believe in it. The religious leaders in ancient Egypt also participated in trying to control emotion through performance. They would go down the streets praising Osiris, letting all know the story of the god, to bring faith to the people.
The most common type of performance of those times came in the form of hand puppets. This happened more around the Islamic area of the Middle East. Hand puppeteering was most common (probably) due to the availability of the common people to access the puppet stages in the bazaars and markets of the time. In addition to puppets, history shows that the Muslim (and other) nations enjoyed the acts of live performers (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012). In India, and in Pakistan, it was popular to tell stories through dance, food, and ritualism in describing daily life. These stories played a big part in the people’s lives. In a story, the actors would show wild animals being played by men, and then there would be hunters chasing them down and killing them. That performance might have been the story of a famous hunt or maybe the cycle of life.
In China, the art of performance dates back as far as 1,500 BC (Performing Arts/Wikipedia). Chinese performances are known for their clowning around music and great acrobatic display (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012). The Tang dynasty was called “The age of 1,000 Entertainments” (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012) and while the family was still in control, Emperor Xuanzong formed a performing school called Children of the Pear Garden (author). The Emperor gave the school the task of making dramas that were primarily musical.
No matter how far back you look in history, you will find some form of performing art in every great (or not so great) culture. This phenomenon shows how the world has a need, more than a desire, for performing arts. On my senior trip, we were shown the place where the ancient Anasazi people would perform different types of religious rituals that involved some form of performance to please their gods, or to make their crops grow. It is amazing, to me, that every great (or not so great) civilization had a form of performance as part of their culture.
The main categories of modern performing arts are split into dance and theatre, but of those two, there are several sub-categories. The different categories of theatre performance can be broken up into plays, musicals, opera, ballet, illusion, or magic shows, mime, classical Indian dance, kabuki, mummer’s plays, improvisational theatre, stand-up comedy, and more. Of all of these, dance is more of an athletic or sport art form of performance. One uses one’s body in motion to make emotions shine. Dance has sub-categories and they are social, cultural, and moral. Dance seems to benefit both the person who is performing and the person who is being entertained.
A play is described as a piece of literature that has several characters (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012). Most of the time a play has dialog only, but sometimes a play will contain song and dance. If a play happened to contain quite a number of characters and songs, it would be classified as a musical. Opera is another form of a musical, but the difficulty of performing in operatic theatre is such that it requires individuals with lots of talent and poise to be able to do well in that type of genre. Opera seems quite funny to me, maybe due to the fact that the performers have to be so loud, powerful, and hyper-dramatic in order to get the point of the story across.
Another form of entertainment that I haven’t talked about is organized sporting events. We Americans love football and accept it as a society as the main sport for America. In the culture of this country, we scream, yell, and shout as loud as we can to root for our team and no matter the outcome, we are still pumped to be there. The best part about this pastime is that we have found a way to use the theatre form of performing arts in football.
The true form of performing is to do it with the love of the art and not for the money, wealth, and fame. What is what is wrong with our society today is that we base our love of entertainment on how much a person has in his/her pocketbook. I do not know if this is a bad thing for us, or the world, but I do know that it is turning us into a bunch of greedy individuals who are into the financial outcome of a life decision, rather than the spiritual outcome. If we start to look at entertainment as a way to bring us closer to a higher power, or to strengthen our beliefs, in other words, the things we stand for--what is important to us; then we might be getting back to the reason for the creation of performing arts. To use the art of performance to belittle someone because of their height, or lack of it (or for any other reason), to creating a greater feeling of self-worth in ourselves, is doing the opposite of what we could be. This world has found a lot of ways to smash the weak and build up the strong. We should be using the performing arts to bring joy to the world, and camaraderie, rather than jealousy and discord.
In the acting class I took, up in Carbondale, the instructor was Keather jade she was one of the most inspirational person I had the honor to meet. She opened my mind to a lot of concepts of performing. Lessons usually fell between emotional or connection to your past. The meaning of getting a good performance is to make your audience fell the emotion your playing. It’s hard to do on key but everyone dose it. We all have an act of shedding off emotions on to others. The main thing to perform for some one is to fell those emotions as well. The way Keather explained the art of performing made me relies it is an expression we all have different opinions on it. She would say in a round about way that a person who can perform well can control the thoughts of others maybe not on the nose but in a ballpark. It is a little shallow to think that way but it is the truth, if you have ever watched the movie “where the red fern grows” you can’t say you didn’t fell happy, sad or just straight up crying at the end of the movie. Maybe nothing at all but you probably thought of death or mare attached to your furry companion. Those dogs didn’t die so why are you sad or ect. Because the actor was performed in away of shedding the pain and the felling he had felt for those dogs and you are just picking them up and wearing them. I experienced a new way sight of accepting every emotion that comes my way so I can connect with a performer or the audience.
The word has been falling in to a haze of not having to get up and go out for their entertainment they sit down and flip the switch to drain their brain of all thoughts. I have discovered that on January 2013 if the congress dose not veto this law then there will be a cutting of 4.1 million dollars out of the education funding alone (cef.org retreved05/18/12). This is outrageous why would they even just give it a solid number it is like they know how much is going to be gone and that means they must have already spent it. If all school had to cut something they would most likely cut the performing arts because today’s society has forgotten how we connected to the performer and the environment. The thing that makes me really mad is that some people find it to be a lot better financially but it is better to spend money in your community so that it flows around to everyone. The thought that people are getting lazier over this box that sits in front of us and makes us useless. In The Allegory of the Cave they talk about people being chained to a wall and all they can do is watch theses shadows and this some how is similar to our society with television. The funny thing is that Socrates came up with the conclusion that we might come out of the cave and relies how bright the sun is, the ancient Greek had it better made then we have ever gotten. I do not disagree that we have amazing performances and they are about as interesting as the amount of people that visit them.
There really is no reason for why the theaters around America are not striving as well. I believe that it is falling because of the television industry and how easy it is to get. The thing about actors is to see them act, not some recording of one man kicking a fellow man in the nuts. I think that is why we still have concerts cause to try and banish music from the world would be a funny action, cause they would try and that is the limited. You can watch a man on the internet cry and laugh about it but if you saw him in real life crying it might be different and that’s why we need that connection with another person who is not related or is a friend. So we can share our experience our intelligence, to feel a feeling that was shunned upon in societies eyes. So another human say what is on their mind, how that makes them feel and share it with the world. Giving and receiving advice between 7 billion humans, interacting for the sake of having a person to rely on. Only if the human race can see that mother earth gave us our life and we owe it to her and should share our lives with each other. That’s a far ways a way in the future though. We can wait only knowing what’s to come and that alone makes it scary. Or we can embrace the future and just jump into this idea of having a world of arts. I am quiet mad at America right now cause we cant just keep things how they were so we need to better entertainment with TV and all these nick naks that make life a indoor experience.
I have concluded, both in my life, and in this paper, that the world is failing because we cannot find a way to stabilize anything. I also know that performing arts are a very small way to attempt any kind of change, but I know, too, that if we do not do anything, we are as much to blame for the way the world is going as much as anyone.
Josiah Sissom
Senior Paper
Yampah Mountain High School
January 22, 2012
This paper is my attempt to share the things that I discovered about performing arts and my feelings on the subject. At times, it seems to ramble, and I think that that is a good example of the diversity of the art itself.
I think that having a world without performing arts would be an insult to humankind and Mother Nature. The need for performing arts so embedded is in our genes, that even if we tried to eradicate it, we would inevitably find some way to entertain the people of the world. Entertainment is something that we see, breathe, and live every day. It is a part of us.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (The Allegory of the Cave Retrieved 5/18/2012) is an example of entertainment in ancient Greece. In it, there is a major discussion between Socrates and Plato’s brother, Glaucon. Socrates tells Glaucon a story about a group of people who live in a cave, chained to the wall, and all the chained people can ever see are shadows being projected onto the wall in front of them, which is all they know. Even if this is all they know, they are still entertained by the shadows. However, one day, one of the chained people is released and looks around to discover that the shadows are projected by figures that other people are holding in front of a fire. All of a sudden, to this individual, the world is a lot bigger and amazing than previously imagined.
This story is a big deal because it is generally agreed that Socrates was a very influential Philosopher and if he had time to talk about how performing arts are important then they must be so.
Going back to the story, farther along in the discussion, Socrates tells how this released individual was urged to stand up and turn around. When he does, he cannot understand anything that is going on because all of his life, the shadows have been the truth, but now he sees something else. You would think he would have been experiencing emotional pain because of what he saw, but would still be intrigued. The reason this story is important is, not only that it comes from long ago, but also that it talks about how people are stuck in what they know.
The history of performing arts in Western Civilization starts in the time period of the Greek Empire, around 534 BC (Infoplease.© 2000–2007). A man named Thespis won a public contest for his tragic poems (Infoplease.© 2000–2007). The term Thespian, which is what stage actors are called, comes from his name. Thespis’ works are considered the start of performing arts (Infoplease.© 2000–2007). Then, between 525 and 385 BC, a dramatic period in performing arts existed, and in that time era, one of the main poets, Euripides, wrote poems with choreography added to them. At that time, for some reason, most performances were based on tragic life or loss and this seemed to be the only way an audience could connect because they would attach to the performers and feel the emotions that were projected by the performers. Things stayed that way for a while. People just seemed to find different ways to show a tragic story, which has carried on to today’s time, modern songs that are hugely successful have either a tragic story of a dramatic climax and quick drop. Don’t get me wrong, audiences came to prefer comedy—eventually, but in its beginning, performance had a tragic base. I believe that tragedy is only one way of performing. It is a way of projecting emotions and controlling the feelings of the audience, which is more a way of experiencing emotion, being able to feel, and trying to make others feel the same thing. This practice has been around for some time. There is an art to it, but you cannot show it, it is happening around the audience, in the air, so to speak. The act of handing out emotions, so that others can try them on, like a garment, and wear them for a little while, in my opinion, is what performing arts are all about. On a side note, it is humorous to me that there was even a time when the Christians knew that they were being controlled by this genre of entertainment because there was a long time when performance was based only on fantasy. Honestly, they eradicated it for a number of years just because they did not believe in it. The religious leaders in ancient Egypt also participated in trying to control emotion through performance. They would go down the streets praising Osiris, letting all know the story of the god, to bring faith to the people.
The most common type of performance of those times came in the form of hand puppets. This happened more around the Islamic area of the Middle East. Hand puppeteering was most common (probably) due to the availability of the common people to access the puppet stages in the bazaars and markets of the time. In addition to puppets, history shows that the Muslim (and other) nations enjoyed the acts of live performers (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012). In India, and in Pakistan, it was popular to tell stories through dance, food, and ritualism in describing daily life. These stories played a big part in the people’s lives. In a story, the actors would show wild animals being played by men, and then there would be hunters chasing them down and killing them. That performance might have been the story of a famous hunt or maybe the cycle of life.
In China, the art of performance dates back as far as 1,500 BC (Performing Arts/Wikipedia). Chinese performances are known for their clowning around music and great acrobatic display (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012). The Tang dynasty was called “The age of 1,000 Entertainments” (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012) and while the family was still in control, Emperor Xuanzong formed a performing school called Children of the Pear Garden (author). The Emperor gave the school the task of making dramas that were primarily musical.
No matter how far back you look in history, you will find some form of performing art in every great (or not so great) culture. This phenomenon shows how the world has a need, more than a desire, for performing arts. On my senior trip, we were shown the place where the ancient Anasazi people would perform different types of religious rituals that involved some form of performance to please their gods, or to make their crops grow. It is amazing, to me, that every great (or not so great) civilization had a form of performance as part of their culture.
The main categories of modern performing arts are split into dance and theatre, but of those two, there are several sub-categories. The different categories of theatre performance can be broken up into plays, musicals, opera, ballet, illusion, or magic shows, mime, classical Indian dance, kabuki, mummer’s plays, improvisational theatre, stand-up comedy, and more. Of all of these, dance is more of an athletic or sport art form of performance. One uses one’s body in motion to make emotions shine. Dance has sub-categories and they are social, cultural, and moral. Dance seems to benefit both the person who is performing and the person who is being entertained.
A play is described as a piece of literature that has several characters (Performing Arts/Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/18/2012). Most of the time a play has dialog only, but sometimes a play will contain song and dance. If a play happened to contain quite a number of characters and songs, it would be classified as a musical. Opera is another form of a musical, but the difficulty of performing in operatic theatre is such that it requires individuals with lots of talent and poise to be able to do well in that type of genre. Opera seems quite funny to me, maybe due to the fact that the performers have to be so loud, powerful, and hyper-dramatic in order to get the point of the story across.
Another form of entertainment that I haven’t talked about is organized sporting events. We Americans love football and accept it as a society as the main sport for America. In the culture of this country, we scream, yell, and shout as loud as we can to root for our team and no matter the outcome, we are still pumped to be there. The best part about this pastime is that we have found a way to use the theatre form of performing arts in football.
The true form of performing is to do it with the love of the art and not for the money, wealth, and fame. What is what is wrong with our society today is that we base our love of entertainment on how much a person has in his/her pocketbook. I do not know if this is a bad thing for us, or the world, but I do know that it is turning us into a bunch of greedy individuals who are into the financial outcome of a life decision, rather than the spiritual outcome. If we start to look at entertainment as a way to bring us closer to a higher power, or to strengthen our beliefs, in other words, the things we stand for--what is important to us; then we might be getting back to the reason for the creation of performing arts. To use the art of performance to belittle someone because of their height, or lack of it (or for any other reason), to creating a greater feeling of self-worth in ourselves, is doing the opposite of what we could be. This world has found a lot of ways to smash the weak and build up the strong. We should be using the performing arts to bring joy to the world, and camaraderie, rather than jealousy and discord.
In the acting class I took, up in Carbondale, the instructor was Keather jade she was one of the most inspirational person I had the honor to meet. She opened my mind to a lot of concepts of performing. Lessons usually fell between emotional or connection to your past. The meaning of getting a good performance is to make your audience fell the emotion your playing. It’s hard to do on key but everyone dose it. We all have an act of shedding off emotions on to others. The main thing to perform for some one is to fell those emotions as well. The way Keather explained the art of performing made me relies it is an expression we all have different opinions on it. She would say in a round about way that a person who can perform well can control the thoughts of others maybe not on the nose but in a ballpark. It is a little shallow to think that way but it is the truth, if you have ever watched the movie “where the red fern grows” you can’t say you didn’t fell happy, sad or just straight up crying at the end of the movie. Maybe nothing at all but you probably thought of death or mare attached to your furry companion. Those dogs didn’t die so why are you sad or ect. Because the actor was performed in away of shedding the pain and the felling he had felt for those dogs and you are just picking them up and wearing them. I experienced a new way sight of accepting every emotion that comes my way so I can connect with a performer or the audience.
The word has been falling in to a haze of not having to get up and go out for their entertainment they sit down and flip the switch to drain their brain of all thoughts. I have discovered that on January 2013 if the congress dose not veto this law then there will be a cutting of 4.1 million dollars out of the education funding alone (cef.org retreved05/18/12). This is outrageous why would they even just give it a solid number it is like they know how much is going to be gone and that means they must have already spent it. If all school had to cut something they would most likely cut the performing arts because today’s society has forgotten how we connected to the performer and the environment. The thing that makes me really mad is that some people find it to be a lot better financially but it is better to spend money in your community so that it flows around to everyone. The thought that people are getting lazier over this box that sits in front of us and makes us useless. In The Allegory of the Cave they talk about people being chained to a wall and all they can do is watch theses shadows and this some how is similar to our society with television. The funny thing is that Socrates came up with the conclusion that we might come out of the cave and relies how bright the sun is, the ancient Greek had it better made then we have ever gotten. I do not disagree that we have amazing performances and they are about as interesting as the amount of people that visit them.
There really is no reason for why the theaters around America are not striving as well. I believe that it is falling because of the television industry and how easy it is to get. The thing about actors is to see them act, not some recording of one man kicking a fellow man in the nuts. I think that is why we still have concerts cause to try and banish music from the world would be a funny action, cause they would try and that is the limited. You can watch a man on the internet cry and laugh about it but if you saw him in real life crying it might be different and that’s why we need that connection with another person who is not related or is a friend. So we can share our experience our intelligence, to feel a feeling that was shunned upon in societies eyes. So another human say what is on their mind, how that makes them feel and share it with the world. Giving and receiving advice between 7 billion humans, interacting for the sake of having a person to rely on. Only if the human race can see that mother earth gave us our life and we owe it to her and should share our lives with each other. That’s a far ways a way in the future though. We can wait only knowing what’s to come and that alone makes it scary. Or we can embrace the future and just jump into this idea of having a world of arts. I am quiet mad at America right now cause we cant just keep things how they were so we need to better entertainment with TV and all these nick naks that make life a indoor experience.
I have concluded, both in my life, and in this paper, that the world is failing because we cannot find a way to stabilize anything. I also know that performing arts are a very small way to attempt any kind of change, but I know, too, that if we do not do anything, we are as much to blame for the way the world is going as much as anyone.