Arts & Creativity - Essay Example

Performing arts as well as visual arts are cultural expressions of people from various parts of the world down the ages, and each of them has distinctive characteristics all their own. Painting, music, theater, and dance have each developed in their own genres with the help of different techniques, and disparate backgrounds.

Painting is a visual art, more static than dynamic, it remains the same over time. It may influence other painters and paintings but itself remains the same, unlike works of performing arts like theater and dance which can be performed in different versions. Painting is a one-time performance, any repeat performances are just copies. More often than not, it is an individual effort,  and in rare cases a group effort that carries out a single person's instructions. 

There is no written way to express a painting like there are notes to music or playwriting for a theater. Paintings do come from different schools and movements, the proponents of which follow similar techniques of expression. The techniques of expression include the use of light, color, and imagery. They also include the use of various mediums from water-soluble to oil, to acrylic, and a host of others as well as methods of wielding instruments like brushes, knives, fingers, and many more.

On the other hand, the techniques that express music lie in the lyrics, the symphony, the rhythm, and the instruments or voices used to produce them. Lyrics are a straightforward way of conveying the concept, but even without them, the music achieves universal communication and conveys emotions irrespective of linguistic and cultural barriers. It claims the auditory senses, and from there goes on to move, inspire and titillate. It can be written down in notations, and performed repeatedly, even in different versions by different people at separate instances but still retains its originality.

Theater as an art form is able to convey its message through dialog and plot as the primary instrument. The histrionic ability of the characters and activities according to the story plot is definitely significant in terms of expression, along with music or dance that contribute to the entire atmosphere. It is through the direction of the whole performance that the director is able to convey certain issues or emotions through significant moments in the play or by the use of objects, actors, and background.

Theater provides a willful suspension of disbelief, whereby the audience can undergo a complete sensory experience, through a synergy between music, dance, and even painting on the backdrops. The theater is dynamic by nature. It is repeatable and can be performed in different versions. It usually involves more than one person and could involve audience participation in cases where a narrator could be seen talking directly to the audience. The audience feels a great degree of empathy.

Dance is a dynamic art as well and works primarily through body movements, gestures, facial expressions, and histrionics. All of this is definitely in tandem with music, and following a certain rhythm. It can be an individual or group effort, can be performed as often as needed, and can also be interpreted into different versions without losing originality. Dance could be a wonderfully communal expression of cultural ethos. The effect is visual but combines with rhythmic audio in order to create the performance. Though dance can be choreographed, it cannot be written down in notations, and can only be passed on through imitation: it is definitely the art demanding the most holistic form of bodily activity.

Modes of expression as well as characteristics of these different art forms may be varied, but all of these are able to inspire, inform and entertain. They have distinctive disciplines, but at least in the case of music, dance, and theater: the three can, and often do, go together.