Read the text “Performing Arts”and answer the following questions:

1. How do people entertain themselves?
2. Why do many creatures use performances today? Give some examples.
3. What famous cinematographic centres do you know?
4, Why do people enjoy watching the performing arts?
5. What kinds of performance do you prefer live or recorded? Why? Give your reasons.
6. How is contemporary technology influencing the development of the performing arts and even its very existence?

Text Performing Arts

Science tells us that humans began to talk and communicate from about ten thousand years ago — at least, that’s as far back as it can be proved that we have used language. But it seems probable that we have communicated not only with speech for very much longer than that, but also with song, dance and stories. Today’s performing arts are the evolved ways in which we entertain ourselves watching talented people sing, dance and tell us stories as actors.

Nature shows us how so many creatures use performances for many reasons. Not only is there communication through simple sounds but other forms such as expressions (watch the face of a chimpanzee), colour change (see the ‘light shows’ given by cuttlefish and squid as they communicate), songs (listen to a whale cruising through the ocean or just a bird on a branch) or dances (watch impala or gazelles dancing as part of courtship).

Nobody who has seen one of the many species of Birds of Paradise prepare a stage and conduct an elaborate dance while showing off their startling plumes and highly-coloured feathers can have any doubt that aesthetics are more important than strength or muscle in choosing a mate and furthering the species for some creatures.

Humans use song, dance and theatre to not only tell stories but also convey mood, emotion and many abstract notions. They also use the performing arts to dream, to live another life — if only temporarily. Triggering the imagination and helping us live our dreams is what Hollywood, Bollywood and other cinematographic centres do for a living, and so many authors have aimed to do over the centuries. Song, dance and music may be aimed more at our emotions than at our imaginations — when combined in a musical show, such as those of Andrew Lloyd-Webber they can leave us shattered at the end of a performance, our senses bombarded which excitement. Regions of the biggest capitals of the world, such as London’s West End and New York’s Broadway, each have a very large number of theatres to cater for such demands.

In such musical shows, or the circus, or all events in the past, the performers and the audience were physically close together and the emotion of the performer could be clearly sensed by the viewer. Today there has been a major shift in that most of our time is spent watching television or a computer screen to see song, dance and stories brought to us. This takes us so much further away from the performer and the song or the dance. The violinist or saxophonist or ballet dancer or actor in a tragedy becomes an image on a screen or sound from a loudspeaker.

Are we any the poorer for this distancing? Certainly, a live performance is so much more acute and vivid than many remote equivalents, but recorded performances give us the chance to see and hear very much more, and more frequently, than if we had to wait for a live performer. Choice and availability of digital and recorded entertainment have replaced the travel-
ling minstrel and the repertory company.

Our technology is constantly trying to re-enact for us the experience of a live performance. Hi-fi sound, large-screen high-definition televisions and home cinema are steps in that direction. It is expected that in not many years’ time we will be able to watch 3-D projected images of performers at the same time as making the equivalent of a virtual reality conference call to hold “virtual meetings” for business people and politicians. It is anticipated that it is the domestic entertainment market that will drive such technology, while business will pay for much of its development. But do we really want to think that we see Madonna singing and dancing in our living rooms?