Introduction to field of performance studies, with examples drawn from music, dance, theatre, performance art, protests, rituals, and everyday life. Through comparative study of global performance, we explore the usefulness of concepts of ritual, play, and performativity as they relate to performance and technology; intercultural performance and implications and ethics of appropriation and borrowing; originality and imitation; archive and repertoire; performative writing; and the performative dimensions of gender, race, and sexuality.