For some years now, even decades, there is talk about the fusion of artistic practice and its theory, about the crossing of the borders of genres, about self-reflective art and creative science. No wonder that Xavier Le Roy's "Product of Circumstances" of 1999 lecture performances have become more and more popular. Popular as a thrilling, performative and discursive medium for choreographers, performers, directors and theorists alike. The seemingly narrow formal limitations of the performance lecture offer a set of unique, often quite complex opportunities and challenges. The lecture as performance, reflection as self-reflection, content as form, language as action.

Yet a lecture is not automatically a performance, and a performance not automatically a lecture. What lies behind all this? Which possibilites do lecture performances offer ­ for arts as well as for passing knowledge?

In July 2004 Unfriendly Takeover begun presenting the series of "Performing Lectures". Within this series the practical and theoretical possibilities and borders of lecture performances are investigated as a continuous, ever changing definition in progress. Learning by watching.