What does “The Performing Arts” mean? Does is mean “the arts of performing”, or “the arts that are performed”? Or is it that the inference is that Performing is an Art?
Suppose I suggest that performing is a craft as distinct from an art.
“Nonsense!”, you might say, “Where would music be if it were not performed?”
“Nowhere”, I would agree, “But it’s still the music that’s the art: and the performing of it – however expressive – or mechanical – or finely crafted – or badly executed – it might be – is still a performance.”
“Well,” you might opine (hoping to bludgeon me into submission with your dialectic), “there is art in performance, why else would singers be called “Artistes”?.” Why, indeed? Well, I might rank the term “performing artist” almost on the same level as “music industry” (my favourite oxymoron) in the sense that common usage is no guarantee of its, well, common sense.
There is craft and guile aplenty in performing, but… Art?
Debate.
