Performing Matters

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.
—United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (i)

Performing Matters is an international association devoted to the preservation of dance and performance in its diverse forms, and to the promotion of the freedoms of expression and association for performers worldwide. Performing Matters is dedicated to plurality and inclusiveness in the art and cultural expression of dance and performance— from traditional to avant-garde, ritualistic to vernacular, indigenous to global. Membership is open to supporters of “intangible culture,” particularly the culture and art of performance, regardless of nationality, race, color, religion, or sexual orientation. Performing Matters is in the process of applying for status as a non-political, non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with relevant national and international organizations.

Just as preservation of the natural heritage and biodiversity are vital for the future of the human race and the planet, so it is also indispensable to preserve the cultural heritage in all its forms, in particular the oral and intangible cultural heritage, in order to enhance, enrich and transmit to future generations the diversity of forms of cultural expression, traditions and ways of life.
—Draft Article 6(a): 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (ii)

Performing Matters acts to preserve “intangible culture,” particularly the culture and art of dance and performance, in order to advance intercultural understanding and universal values. The most ethereal of the arts, performance lives only in the moment of its embodiment. Inextricably tied to natural habitat, dance, music, theater, social and ritual performance are themselves, endangered. Instability resulting from political, sectarian, environmental, and ethnic strife imperils the diverse lexicon of ancient and traditional performance. Urgent action is necessary to preserve these forms of “intangible cultural heritage” as defined by UNESCO. Applying standards established by the Dance Heritage Coalition, Performing Matters documents endangered dance and performance through video recordings, Laban Movement Analysis and notation, and field notes, resulting in a digital archive for posterity. (iii)

Performing Matters draws its inspiration from Em Theay, one of two Khmer temple dancers to survive the killing of artists by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, who mentally “rehearsed” the ancient dances over a period of ten years while working the fields, and returned to Phnom Penh to teach them to a new generation of Cambodian women; from the dancers and musicians of Mingora in the Swat Valley of Pakistan who, in defiance of Taliban orders, refused to cease performing their ancient Pashtun song and dance, and suffered the torching of their homes and studios, banishment, and murder of their renowned teacher Shabana; from the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufis of Iran whose places of ritual worship have been destroyed, who have been subjected to severe prison sentences and denial of fundamental rights, and are now outlawed as a “mystical, satanic cult”; from the Middle Eastern dancers of Egypt whose performance and media venues have been shuttered due to repressive sectarian ideology; from numerous indigenous first peoples, such as those of the Pacific Islands who, despite being forbidden to dance, sing or engage in native ritual by zealous missionaries and colonial powers, whose sacred spaces were razed and built over with churches, continued to secretly teach their dance traditions to the young; and from the Dongria Kondh, the last indigenous tribe of India, who defended their mountains, home of their god Niyam Raja, against the encroachment of a mining company, saving their culture and rare sacred dances.

Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
—Article 27, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (iv)

Performing Matters advances awareness of the rights of performers to freely engage in unencumbered artistic and cultural expression. Censorship, prevention of use of place, denial of freedom of association, arbitrary arrest, and other forms of repression and persecution have impacted the rights of contemporary performers worldwide. Examples include harsh sentences meted out to Russia’s Pussy Riot; Iranian performers in a “Happy” Pharrell Williams video arrested, forced to publicly confess to “embarrassing the chastity of the nation,” and sentenced to lashings and fines; and dancers and musicians of both traditional and contemporary forms of performance throughout the Middle East censored by media, arbitrarily arrested, and subjected to beatings for performing “unsanctioned” forms of art, or art related to peaceful and legitimate protest. Performing Matters intends to develop a database of “performers/dancers at risk” for the purpose of gaining international support for their rights to perform, to freely associate, and to be free of persecution.

The “intangible cultural heritage” means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity....

The “intangible cultural heritage”, as defined in paragraph 1 above, is manifested...in the following domains:
(a) oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;
(b) performing arts;
(c) social practices, rituals and festive events;
(d) knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe;
(e) traditional craftsmanship.
—Article 2: 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (v)

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(i) “What Is Intangible Cultural Heritage?” UNESCO Culture Sector http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00002

(ii) Draft Article 6(a): 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. http://www.esil-sedi.eu/sites/default/files/Vrdoljak09-05.pdf

(iii) “Documenting Dance: A Practical Guide” Dance Heritage Coalition, 2006. http://www .danceheritage.org/DocumentingDance.pdf

(iv) The Universal Declaration for Human Rights. http://www .un.org/en/documents/udhr/#atop

(v) Article 2: 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00022#art2