*Prof Henry Jenkins, your paradigm is wanted on line one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jun/08/art-collaboration-dance-theatre-music
"These are strange days for purists. In almost every area of the arts, genres are spilling into each other, cross-pollinating, refusing to remain in neat boxes. You go to the theatre expecting actors under a proscenium arch, and you get videos, animation, and intricate dance routines. Go to the opera expecting corsets and coloratura, and you get electric guitars and costumes designed by Viktor & Rolf.
"Rock musicians are penning operas (Damon Albarn, Rufus Wainwright), performing with orchestras (Metallica, Elbow) and learning the lute (Sting). Theatre companies such as Punchdrunk are staging strange shows that feel more like exhibitions, or dismembered film sets, than plays. Film actors are learning to dance (Juliette Binoche); choreographers are acting (Akram Khan). In between judging TV talent shows, pop impresario Simon Cowell is hothousing classical acts (the Armani-clad quartet Il Divo and their pre-teen equivalents, Angelis). In fact, "classical crossover" is now so big, the US magazine Billboard has given the category its own chart.
"Of course, the arts have a distinguished history when it comes to collaborations: Diaghilev's ground-breaking Ballets Russes worked with artists and composers such as Picasso, Joan Miró and Stravinsky, while the 1970s saw rock acts like Deep Purple and Rick Wakeman experimenting with classical.
"But the distinctions between genres have never felt quite so blurred as they do now. (((Disciplinary silos blowing out, ladies and gentlemen. This is the art-world's equivalent of "virtual intelligentsia" and its signature object is not the paintbrush but the Leatherman Tool))) In theatre director Katie Mitchell's words, the world is no longer "neat and organised and tidy"; it is fractured, multicultural, multimedia - and artists want to capture this. They know their audiences move easily between "high" and "low" culture, and that their attention shifts with the click of a mouse. (((What? Huh? Sorry, I was on Twitter again)))
"Call it crossover, call it fusion - the fact remains that it can be challenging, these days, to leave the theatre, concert hall, or art gallery with any idea as to how you might categorise what you saw...."
