In business, sports and sex, ”to perform” is to do something up to a standard – to succeed, to excel. In the arts, ”to perform” is to put on a show, a play, a dance, a concert. In everyday life, ”to perform” is to show off, to go to extremes, to underline an action for those who are watching. (Schechner, 2013, p28)

After reading the second chapter from Performance Studies, we as a group began to question what constitutes a performance. Each performance is different even when it comes down to a daily routine. The text read that a performance exists as an action, and a performer in ordinary life performs said action. Even sex can be viewed as a performance as you are trying to be perceived as the best you can be in front of another person. Performances ultimately exist as actions and interactions within daily routine and relationships. Most naturalistic performances take inspiration from daily life and routine, which can ultimately be more entertaining to view. This could also deem why reality television shows are so popular because we are genuinely intrigued by other people’s lives.

I found particularly interesting the question of why basketball is deemed a sport and ballet art. They both have a competitive element to them as they involve different levels of competition.  However, ballet is competing to perfect certain technique and achieve a role, whereas basketball is mainly about scoring points. Yet they both can be deemed as artistic in their own way and are both performing. What may seem to please one audience, will not please another.

When it comes to Melati Suryodarmo’s piece which I will attach below, she moves standing in butter with a pair of heels on. She is a normal woman trying to compete an impossible task further pushed by the fact she doesn’t have the typical physique of a dancer. Here, she is discovering how much her body can endure. There is nothing more to the performance other than a woman knowing the rough outcome of the piece, but going ahead and tackling the task anyway. She does not give up and continues to commit to the performance which has a constant sense of danger about it, taken to the next level with the use of tribal music.

Melati Suryodarmo “Exergie – Butter Dance” from Kunstbanken Hedmark Kunstsenter on Vimeo.

After viewing this piece as well as a few others, I began to question how we as performers can experiment throughout our process to create a performance that is either aesthetically pleasing, or something audiences won’t be used to seeing as ‘art’. Is it more interesting to perform a piece where you are striving to complete an impossible task, or something more simplistic where the audience can allow themselves to think and just view.

Works Cited

Schechner, R. (2004) Performance Studies: An Introduction. London: Routledge.

Kunstbanken Hedmark Kunstsenter (2012) Melati Suryodarmo “Exergie – Butter Dance. Accessed: 27.10.13.