P Possible in Performance and Performing Arts Tatiana Chemi Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark Abstract What is possible in performance and performing arts emerges exclusively through relational, bodily, and performative exchanges. Performative experiences occur in the work of ensembles, be it the preparation and experimentation within the group or the outer performance for audiences. Keywords Ensemble · Performance · Creativity · Activism · Performativity · Theatre Definition and History Ensembles can be defined as “a group of supporting [performers]” “producing a single effect” together (from French ensemble = together) (Merriam-Webster, Ensemble. Retrieved 20 Aug 2019. www.merriam-webster. com/dictionary/ensemble#h1, 2019). In this entry, ensemble is intended as a group whose partici- pants share interest in and commitment to collab- orative art-experiences that are performed, embodied, and transformative (Conquergood, TDR 39(4):137–142, 1995). Performance is here broadly defined as the act of shaping action by means of repetition and/or negation. Etymologically, performance is the co- presence of repetition and/or destruction (per), creation or shaping (form), and action or move- ment (-ance, suffix shared in words like dance) (Fels, A dead Man’ s sweater: performative inquiry embodied and recognized. In Schonmann S (ed) Key concepts in theatre/drama education. Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, pp 339–343, 2011). Performativity theories (Barad, Meeting the uni- verse halfway: quantum physics and the entangle- ment of matter and meaning. Duke University Press, Durham/London, 2007; Butler, Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of sex. Routledge, New York/London, 1993; Haraway, Staying with the trouble: making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, Durham/ London, 2016) draw from performance and performing arts the understanding of reality as per-form-ed. However, too often the practical, embodied, en-fleshed origin of these reflections is forgotten or ignored. Looking at ensembles as working group and as metaphor can contribute to hold on to the tangibility of social performativity (Goffman, The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth, London, 1978) and of par- ticipatory creativity (Clapp, Participatory creativ- ity: introducing access and equity to the creative classroom. Routledge, London/New York, 2016). This perspective can contribute to extend the understanding on what performance and performing arts can make possible in society. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. P. Glăveanu (ed.), , The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_79-1