ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author reports on what she learned in Warwick at the meeting of the International Federation for Theatre Research Performance as Research Working Group. She tackles the question: What can performance as research teach to other academic fields? Her answer is that performance as research (PAR) opens new paths in the field of live presentation and may play a crucial role in the development of a rhetoric for artistic research – namely in that specific component of classical rhetoric called "actio". In classical rhetoric, analysis of the context of the speech was essential. Learning the speech by heart was an essential step in classical rhetorical training. Rhetoric is known as the art of persuading the audience. The author believes that documentation can today play a similar role to that played by the development of writing at the origin of classical rhetoric.