Performance and performativity

Performance and performativity are, however, equivocal words and concepts, with diverse connotations in different fields and contexts. Performance, on the other hand, can include theater but also encompasses devised performance, physical theater, live art, performance art, movement-based practices, and post-dramatic theater. The most prevalent form of performance used in museum and heritage-site/event reenactment is first-person interpretation. Historical reenactment has also been used in other forms of performance, particularly performance art, often to revisit or reconsider events and issues. Dancing with the performed nature of history, Diana Taylor asserts the importance of what she refers to as the repertoire—history in and as performance, performance as an alternative or complementary form of archive. Recognizing the capacity of performance to function historiographically—to record and relate aspects of the past in, on, and through the body—carries significance for and beyond reenactment. The centrality of performance is not particular to reenactment or even public history; it is at the core of all historical inquiry.