This course investigates "performance" in relation to the performing arts (especially music and theatre), as well as to the anthropological/ethnographic method. Although the concept of performance (and other related concepts, like "performativity") gets different meanings within different academic disciplines (e.g. cultural studies, performance studies, theatre studies, music studies), in anthropology it is mainly understood as expression of culture in specific actions and behaviours or as action and behaviour that transforms the world. As a result, performance as both, a field of research and a tool of analysis, is inherently connected to the construction and knowledge of reality itself. Through the study of specific examples, we investigate the ways in which ethnographic research, that is, participant observation and active engagement of the researcher in his/her field of research, contributes to an understanding of various theatrical and musical traditions, as well as the ways in which performance theories affect theory and practice of ethnographic research.