Nepedia
Back to Discover
Fluent Reader
🎨

Performing arts

arts Maturity 7-9 Vital Level 2 Next article →

Performing arts are special ways people share stories and feelings through live action.

Mckenna Theater Stage; SUNY @ New Paltz
Mckenna Theater Stage; SUNY @ New Paltz

Unlike visual arts that use paint or clay, performing arts use the human body and sound. This includes many different skills like music, dance, and theatre. Performers are the artists who do these shows in front of an audience. They might be actors, singers, or even magicians and circus artists.

Dancing girls in concert
Dancing girls in concert

To help tell the story, performers often use costumes, makeup, and bright stage lights. These shows can happen in big opera houses or even on the street.

Each type of performing art works in its own unique way. Theatre is about acting out stories using speech, gestures, and music.

Kabuki play
Kabuki play

Music combines pitch and rhythm to create sounds that can change how we feel. Dance uses rhythmic body movements, often to a beat.

Chopiniana Baku
Chopiniana Baku

A choreographer is the person who plans and creates these dances. Some artists even practice performance art, which is a special kind of fine art. They might use props or other materials to help their live performance.

People have been performing for a very long time. In Ancient Egypt, ceremonial plays about the god Osiris were performed as early as 2000 BC.

Hand shadow drama 3
Hand shadow drama 3

In Greece, tragic poets like Sophocles wrote plays starting in the 6th century BC. During the Renaissance in Italy, the term "ballet" began to grow from the word "ballo."

Jan Miel – Actors from the Commedia dell’Arte on a Wagon in a Town Square
Jan Miel – Actors from the Commedia dell’Arte on a Wagon in a Town Square

By the 17th century, opera became a very popular way for people in European cities to be entertained. These traditions show how much humans love to gather and watch stories unfold.

History has seen many big changes in how we perform. In the 18th century, composers like Mozart and Haydn brought order to music.

Sophocles pushkin
Sophocles pushkin

Later, the Romantic movement led to grand operas by people like Giuseppe Verdi. In the early 20th century, the invention of motion pictures changed everything.

Vaslav Nijinsky, 1912
Vaslav Nijinsky, 1912

Film became a huge way for people to see performances all over the world. Even stage lighting changed when Jean Rosenthal introduced modern styles in the 1930s. These inventions helped make performing arts reach more people than ever before.

Performing arts are found in every culture around the world. In West Africa, a Griot is a storyteller who uses poetry and instruments like the kora.

These performers hold important roles in their communities. In West Asia, people have used puppet theatre and shadow plays for a long time.

Hand shadow drama 3
Hand shadow drama 3

Some traditions, like the African call and response, involve the audience in the performance. Whether it is a professional ballet or a street show, these arts connect us all.

422 words

Where will your curiosity go next?

Keep exploring at your chosen reading level.

🖼️ Images & Media (16)
File:Noun-theatre-2089429.svg
Noun-theatre-2089429.svg
File:Bharatanatyam is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in the state of Tamil Nadu.jpg
Bharatanatyam is a major form of Indian...
File:Dancing girls in concert.jpg
Dancing girls in concert.jpg
File:Gotikua dance.jpg
Gotikua dance.jpg
File:Performance 1 (in Kagoshima).jpg
Performance 1 (in Kagoshima).jpg
File:Kabuki play.jpg
Kabuki play.jpg
File:Hand shadow drama 3.jpg
Hand shadow drama 3.jpg
File:WatPhraKeaw Ramayana Chariot.JPG
WatPhraKeaw Ramayana Chariot.JPG
File:Chopiniana Baku.jpg
Chopiniana Baku.jpg
File:Valiollah Torabi.jpg
Valiollah Torabi.jpg
File:Jan Miel – Actors from the Commedia dell’Arte on a Wagon in a Town Square.jpg
Jan Miel – Actors from the Commedia...
File:Labudovo jezero, Balet SNP-a, Jelena Lečić, Andrej Kolčeriju, foto M. Polzović.jpg
Labudovo jezero, Balet SNP-a, Jelena...

+ 4 more

More to explore

🔗 What's this?

Concepts mentioned in this article

🔬 Go deeper

More advanced topics to explore

🪜 Step back

Simpler topics to build understanding

What is Nepedia?

A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.