Chapter Five reflection question

Reading chapter five gave me a lot more insight to performance. I never have put a lot of deep thought into this topic. After reading the chapter I never considered myself a performer. According to the chapter, I technically perform several times a day. I was extremely interested learning that when I have a conversation with a friend I’m performing in front of them. Also a big performance in my life is what I do several times a day. When I got to wrestling practice or a wrestling tournament I’m performing In front of thousands. I guess I always realized I was performing, but never really considered it performing. Several times a weekend, when I wrestle like five matches, I am wrestling my opponent in front of a bunch of people. On page 137 the chapter talks about context, “The physical setting and social situation in which members of folk groups share folklore, as well as the relationship among audience members and performers”, which is what take place with me every weekend. Every weekend I perform in front of my audience, who for the most part also wrestle, wrestled, or in some way has been submerged in wrestling in one form or another. Also when I practice everyday, I am performing in front my fellow wrestlers, coaching staff, trainers, and academic staff. Anyone who comes into that room has some relationship with wrestling.

What this chapter did was directed my thinking from the everyday performances that we think of such as, movies, concerts, theater, and plays. I started to think of all the things that could be considered performance and I learned from the book, everyday conversation is performance. Then I thought of all the conversations I have had as well, as answering questions in class, or speaking in public, as well as speaking in front of my team. I then thought of some more performance such as, all the sports that I watch. I never considered my self watching performances every Saturday and Sunday, when I watch my football. This chapter got me thinking on a deeper level about performance.