n recent years, the post structuralist theories seem to have created a split in theatrological research. But, as André Helbo analyses in this book , a dialectic theory of the semiotic and the symbolic exchange bring to light a specific paradigm. From his wide experience as a semiotician and a theatrologist, the author has developed an analysis for the theory of spectacle. Focusing his study on a critical theory of the performing arts, and examining the fundamental controversies, he then offers new perspectives and new instruments of analysis: the social aspects, readability/visibility, coherence, the spectacle contract.

This finely illustrated book offers a simple yet comprehensive 'grammar' of a new discipline. Performance Art first became popular in the fifties when artists began creating 'happenings'. Since then the artist as a performer has challenged many of the accepted rules of the theatre and radically altered our notion of what constitutes visual art. This is the first publication to outline the essential characteristics of the field and to put forward a method for teaching the subject as a discipline distinct from dance, drama, painting or sculpture. Taking the theory of primary and secondary colours as his model, Anthony Howell posits three primaries of action and shows how these may be mixed to obtain a secondary range of actions. Based on a taught course, the system is designed for practical use in the studio and is also entertaining to explore. Examples are cited from leading performance groups and practitioners such as Bobbie Baker, Orlan, Stelarc, Annie Sprinkle, Robert Wilson, Goat Island, and Station House Opera. This volume, however, is not just an illustrated grammar of action - it also shows how the syntax of that grammar has psychoanalytic repercussions. This enables the performer to relate the system to lived experience, ensuring a realisation that meaning is being dealt with through these actions and that the stystem set forth is more than a dry structuring of the characteristics of movement. Freud's notion of 'transference' and Lacan's understanding of 'repetition' are compared to a performer's usage of the same terms. Thus the book provides a psychoanalytic critique of performance at the same time as it outlines an efficient method for creating live work on both fine art and theatre courses.

Updated and enlarged, this groundbreaking collection surveys the major critical currents and approaches in drama, theater, and performance

Creativity and the Performing Artist: Behind the Mask synthesizes and integrates research in the field of creativity and the performing arts. Within the performing arts there are multiple specific domains of expertise, with domain-specific demands. This book examines the psychological nature of creativity in the performing arts. The book is organized into five sections. Section I discusses different forms of performing arts, the domains and talents of performers, and the experience of creativity within performing artists. Section II explores the neurobiology of physiology of creativity and flow. Section III covers the developmental trajectory of performing artists, including early attachment, parenting, play theories, personality, motivation, and training. Section IV examines emotional regulation and psychopathology in performing artists. Section V closes with issues of burnout, injury, and rehabilitation in performing artists. Discusses domain specificity within the performing arts Encompasses dance, theatre, music, and comedy performance art Reviews the biology behind performance, from thinking to movement Identifies how an artist develops over time, from childhood through adult training Summarizes the effect of personality, mood, and psychopathology on performance Explores career concerns of performing artists, from injury to burn out

First Published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PERFORMING ARTS “David Davies’s Philosophy of the Performing Arts is long-awaited. Not since Paul Thom’s For an Audience has a book in the Anglo-American philosophical tradition focused so clearly, exclusively, informatively, and fairly on all the performing arts. I will use this book in my classes.” James Hamilton, Kansas State University, author of The Art of Theater “In this outstanding philosophical study, David Davies subjects the different, conflicting literatures characterizing works, performances, and their relationships to critical review en route to developing his own integrated theory. Covering classical music to jazz, Shakespeare to Brecht, dance to performance art, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the performing arts.” Stephen Davies, University of Auckland, author of The Philosophy of Art Philosophical inquiry concerning the performing arts has tended to focus on music – specifically classical music – which is assumed to provide a model for understanding the performing arts as a whole. This book engages with this belief and critically explores how the “classical paradigm” might be extended to other musical genres, to theater, and to dance. Taking in key components of artistic performance – improvisation, rehearsal, the role of the audience, the embodied nature of the artistic performer – the book examines similarities and differences between the performing art forms and presents the key philosophical issues that they bring into play. These reflections are then applied to the disputed issue of those contemporary artworks usually classified as “performance art.” Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject matter, this book provides an accessible, yet sophisticated, introduction to the field and a comprehensive framework for thinking about the performing arts.

How can performing be transformed into cognition? Knowing in Performing describes dynamic processes of artistic knowledge production in music and the performing arts. Knowing refers to how processual, embodied, and tacit knowledge can be developed from performative practices in music, dance, theatre, and film. By exploring the field of artistic research as a constantly transforming space for participatory and experimental artistic practices, this anthology points the way forward for researchers, artists, and decision-makers inside and outside universities of the arts.