From: Janet on Chp. 4 & 5

Chp.4: The art of performance
"The history of performance art in the 20th century is the history of a permissive, open-ended medium with endless variables, executed by artists impatient with the limitations of more established art forms". The three forms of poetry are epic, lyric and dramatic. Glee-men: a term which includes dancers, posturers, jugglers, tumblers, and exhibitors. The cabaret was the earliest podium for the expressionists, the DADAists and the futurists. Fisicofollia: body-madness. John Cage's revolutionary ideas on music and aesthetics have influenced modern experimentation in all the arts. 
Chp.5: Performance Art
Performance and performance art emerged during the 1970's and 1980's as major cultural activities in the U.S, Western Europe and Japan. Performance art was largely and often very specifically concerned with the operations of the body. Performance has a close relationship to conceptual art. Almost any sort of physical activity was explored by the body artists of the 1970's. An important part of the 1970's performance were those pieces that went beyond everyday activity. Theatre was probably the most common "other" against which the new art could be defined. New Vaudevillians: eclectic group of mostly solo performers; during the 1980's they were some of the most publicized experimental performers in the country. Robert Wilson is one of the leading experimental theatre artists of his generation-a position he still maintains. Bill Irwin is an ex. of the "New Vaudeville" or of modern clown performance.