This engaging text introduces the burgeoning and interdisciplinary field of cultural performance, offering ethnographic approaches to performance as well as looking at the aesthetics of experience and performance theory. Examining cultural performance from anthropological, geographical and corporeal standpoints, this book offers many examples of the ways in which performance art and entertainment utilize cultural methods to deepen and enrich the practice. Featuring case studies from a rich cross-section of academics, chapters explore performances from regions as far flung as Bhutan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand and the USA. With cultural performances as varied as Catholic rituals, Maori ceremonies, Monster Truck rallies, musicals, theatre and singing performances, this fascinating text compares performance as art and performance as cultural expression.
Core reading for introductory and interdisciplinary modules on performance, this is also an ideal text for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students of performance, visual arts, cultural studies or ethnography.
Introduction; Kevin Landis and Suzanne MacAulay, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA SECTION I: AESTHETICS AND EXPERIENCE 1. Performing Tradition; Kevin Landis, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA Case Study: Trickster's Double-ness: Performance, Ideology and Anansesem Storytelling; David Afryie Donkor, Texas A&M University, USA 2. Experiencing Community; Suzanne MacAulay, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA Case Study: Arenas of Sense-Monster Truck Rallies as Cultural Performance; Tomie Hahn, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA SECTION II: PLACE/SPACE 3. The Architecture of Performance Space; Kevin Landis, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA Case Study: Architecting Queer Space: Charles Ludlam's Bluebeard in the West Village; Sean F. Edgecomb, College of Staten Island, CUNY, USA 4. The Topography of Performance; Suzanne MacAulay, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA Case Study: Utah! America's Most Spectacular Outdoor Musical Drama; Callie Oppedisano, Independent Scholar, USA SECTION III: THE BODY 5. The Somatic Experience; Kevin Landis, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA Case Study: The Singing Body as a Fieldwork Site; Sean Williams, Evergreen State College, USA 6. Bodies in Nature; Suzanne MacAulay, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA Case Study: How to Build a Forest; Interviw with PearlDamour (theatre company) and Shawn Hall (visual artist) Bibliography.
Suzanne MacAulay is Professor and Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA. Kevin Landis is Associate Professor of Theatre in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.