PERFORMANCE SCENING ~ Performance is a dramatic representation or exhibition of an action, role or character presented to, toward and for an audience. Designed and delivered, a performance expresses the desire or will to cause an effect or response to those external to the performer, director or delivery vehicle of the performance. Performance or exhibition ART has become a popular shock media to display unpleasant, unexpected, repugnant, offensive or difficult material under the broad strokes of 'artistic license'. Many of these performance displays have incorporated aspects or portrayals of the alternative lifestyles communities when the person creating the performance believes that aspect or portrayal will engender the most significant response or level of attention for the creator. Performance scening within the S/m community is a growing phenomenon. Presentation coupled to audience has attracted a new form of scening and brought into the 'public' community public performance 'stars'. Within the community there is a level of craft or recognition of skill that is held in the admiration of others. However, the ability to perform techniques or skills should not be used as a measure of the quality of the individual. A Dominant who performs in public may be scening to or for the audience and not to or for his/her submissive. Public scening adds edges to a scene and can easily accelerate the pace or intensity of a scene. If a Dominants orientation is to receive accolade, admiration, attention and even applause from the audience or those they wish to impress in some manner then the focus of that Dominant is not 'with' their submissive. A submissive who performs in public may also experience a similar detached state or heightened awareness of the audience and a removal of highly focused attention on the Dominant they are scening with. A performance 'may' be a natural expression of the individual or it may be the 'acted' presentation of what that performer wishes to deliver to the audience. For the person in the dominant role within such a public scene the submissive they scene with may become merely a prop or object on which to display their skill or talent. The 'stage' becomes a canvas on which to display their performance or 'art'. The audience becomes the goal. In a sense the Dominant shifts from scening the submissive to scening the audience. If the Dominant can 'draw' the audiences attention and energy on a more personally persuasive level then that Dominant can be seduced by the flow of energy from the audience toward him/herself away from the more intimate energy of the submissive they are supposed to be scening. As performance scening becomes more popular there is a growing trend or concept that those 'not' performing or participating within the public viewpoint of others 'within' the community are suspect as being not 'real' in some manner. In addition, the idea that these performances are representative of the nature of a BDSM relationship is growing especially within newcomers who are discovering this community through the Internet. There is a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment that can be experienced by attending a lifestyle specific function, event or munch including the fetishist voyeuristic pleasures of observing people actively participating or experimenting in techniques and skills which are intriguing and exciting to the viewer. The permissive and acceptance quality of these types of events can welcome the newcomer and invite new friendships and associations. However, scenes created FOR display bear little resemblance to lifestyle interactions and personal private scenes between partners. The vast majority of people enjoying alternative lifestyles do so privately. The existing potentials for damage to reputation, career, family and friends restrain most people from active or open participation in events which may place the participants at risk of recognition by persons outside or disapproving of the lifestyle. In addition a vast majority of people 'actively' living the D/s lifestyle have children. Exposure of their lifestyle choices may place the disposition of those children or custody of those children at great risk. There is no identifiable guidelines to how a person, Dominant, submissive or switch should be, the only guidelines that truly exist are those within the core of the inner self of each individual. The desire to artificially impose such guidelines reflects a level of insecurity about the very open definitions of the variant roles which do exist. Finding fixed 'roles' makes identification or labeling easier, makes the community as a whole easier to get a handle on, easier to control, to understand. Yet, each time we accept a new label, role or limitation we reduce our ability to express the vastness of our innate diversity. Our diversity is our strength, it is an expression of freedom, to be exactly who you are, outside the box and inside the soul.

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