50 Examples of a Performing Art

John Spacey, December 11, 2021

Performance art is a live creative expression. This has been a valuable part of culture since antiquity. Performance art is a large and lively industry that produces revenue, attracts visitors, improves quality of life and establishes cultural heritage that can be passed down to future generations. It is also an element of education, a pastime, shared experience and category of profession. The following are examples of performance arts.

Acrobatics	Ballet
Big Band	Burlesque
Cheerleading	Choir
Circuses	Classical Music
Comedy	Contemporary Dance
Country Music	Culinary Theatre
Dance	Drama / Tragedy
Electronic Music	Fashion Show
Figure Skating / Ice Dance	Flash Mobs
Gymnastics	Hip Hop Music
Improvisational Theatre	Jazz Music / Jazz Dance
Kabuki	Latin Dance
Magic & Illusion	Marching Band
Metal Music	Mime
Musical Theatre	Opera
Plays	Pop Music
Postmodern Dance	Public Speaking
Punk Music	Puppetry
Reggae Music	Rock Music
Social Dance	Spoken Word
Stand-up Comedy	Storytelling
Tap Dance	Theatre
Theatrical Dance	Traditional Dance
Traditional Theatre	Ventriloquism
Voguing	Yosakoi

Art vs Performing Art

Art is creative expression. Performing art is live creative expression in front of an audience. This has a time and place aspect whereby a performance is unique, intangible and impermanent.

Performing Art vs Entertainment

Performing art implies significant creative expression that is unconcerned about meeting the expectations of the audience. Entertainment implies media, performances or experiences that are crafted and optimized to be crowd-pleasing. Both performing art and entertainment can be highly commercial.

High Culture

High culture is any culture, including performing arts, that are controlled by high status institutions. This is associated with the cultural capital of the upper class whereby involvement in high culture is a type of social status and social event. In many cases, high culture is borrowed from avant-garde movements that challenge its unimaginative and static institutional tendencies. In other cases, high culture stems from traditional culture or popular culture.