Outline of performing arts

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to performing arts:

The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama that are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which produce physical or static objects. Performing arts include a range of disciplines that are performed in front of a live audience, including theatre, music, and dance. Performances may take place in purpose-built buildings, such as theatres and opera houses, as well as in open-air festivals, street settings, and recorded formats like film or television.

What are performing arts?

The performing arts as a whole can be described as all of the following:

Art – aesthetic expression for presentation or performance, and the work produced from this activity.
- One of the arts – an outlet of human expression that is influenced by culture and which in turn helps to change culture. The performing arts are a physical manifestation of the internal human creative impulse.
- A form of storytelling that has been practiced since the beginning of time.

Common performing arts

Acrobatics – performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination.
Baton twirling
- Majorettes
Busking
Circus
- Circus arts
Comedy
Dance – art of movement of the body, usually rhythmically and to music, using prescribed or improvised steps and gestures. "A dance" is any one prescribed sequence of such movements, or the music to which it is performed, or an event at which it takes place.
- Competitive dance
  - Dance squad
- Ice dance
Drama
Erotica
Free skating
Ice show
Juggling
Magic
Marching arts
Music
- Jazz
- Opera – performance where art, architecture, music, theater, text, and cloth designing are put together to present a story to the audience
Pornography
Puppetry
Storytelling – conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values.
- Acting
- Film
- Television
- Theatre
  - Musical theatre
  - Plays
Ventriloquism