Gabby Brezovsky Ritual vs Performance

A ritual is not simply a repeated action. Ritual is a conscious action carried out repetitively intended to bring about some sort of favorable outcome. Ritual is acted out to benefit oneself or one’s community. Performance on the other hand is a public presentation meant for an audience. When one engages in a performance one does so to entertain and connect with others. While ritual and performance are generally thought to be two distinct actions, they can (and do) flow together at times. For example, earlier in the semester we watched a video clip from the film “Bounty.” In the scene we watched, the Polynesian tribe was engaging in a religious ritual. For the Polynesians the dance was a sacrament, but for the sailors it was simple a performance. The sailors were mere spectators; they did not participate in the dance. While the sailors may have understood (at some level) that the dance was a ritual, but they were experiencing it as spectacle.