A performance is not only what is sung, danced or told — it is who is doing it, who is watching, and what it is supposed to accomplish. Set those two dials and the room itself changes shape. Drag the sliders to rebuild the floor, or tap any of twelve traditions in music, dance and oral tradition to see where it actually sits.
A room with two dials
Who performs—
a few, for the resteveryone present
What it is for—
to be enjoyedto make something happen
Twelve traditions, one field
musicdanceoral tradition
Tap any dot to load that tradition. Nothing here is a ranking — the axes describe social arrangement and purpose, not quality, complexity or age. Richard Schechner calls the sweep from one end to the other the efficacy–entertainment braid, and insists no performance is purely one strand: traditions slide along it, and the same event can be worship in the morning and a show by evening.