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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I don’t play accurately—anyone can play accurately—but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for life."''
|'''[[Upper Class Wit|Algernon Moncrieff]]''', ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]''}}
A plot common to stories that focus on the arts (such as painting or writing), or on sports that require mixing physical ability with creativity (such as dancing or skating). Basically, it is a contrast between a highly skilled and critically-acclaimed artist, and a crowd-pleaser.
Say
Alice isn't quite as capable. She sleeps in. Her daydreaming drives the teacher up the wall. No matter how hard she tries, there is always one move that she can never quite pull off. But she loves to dance, and her passion comes out in every performance. Even if she lands flat on her tail, she leaves the audience smiling. Unlike Betty, she probably has a close group of friends, a solid family background, and an optimistic outlook on life. If her [[Cavalier Competitor|pastime]] stops being fun, she'll stop doing it.
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Betty's "mistake" is usually that she dances for an impersonal ideal that others expect of her, while Alice dances for the sheer joy of the art. Some people watching won't realize exactly what a "perfect performance" is, but they know when the cast are enjoying themselves...and even those in the audience who ''do'' know what perfection is would rather see originality and entertainment.
[[Red Oni, Blue Oni]] rivalries where the two are rivals in the same field often feature this with the blue oni as the Technician and the red as the Performer. Since blue types are often [[Loners Are Freaks|loners or social misfits]] who put a lot of importance on their one extraordinary ability, having their red counterpart outperform them (even if only in the mind of the audience) [[Rival Turned Evil|can lead to some nasty results]] or [[Freak
Perhaps, if they can reconcile, [[Defeat Means Friendship]] will take hold, and the girls will each learn from each other: Betty will learn to loosen up and rediscover the joy of her art, and Alice will try and emulate Betty's dedication and practice.
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Obviously, the form that Alice's "originality" manifests itself in will depend on the art/sport she's involved in. She might be an imaginative writer who can't spell, or a painter of simplistic, cheerful paintings in an art school full of students who tend to produce Mona Lisa style works. She may be the ice skater who zooms around the ice happily, but can't quite pull off that tricky spin, or a musician that finds classical music boring and likes to jazz them up with their own variations (with varying degrees of success). Whatever the scenario, the individuality that makes her "unperfect" is the same individuality that endears her to anyone watching.
Generally, the narrative will be in favour of the enthusiastic performer (who sometimes has [[The Gift]], but not always) rather than the diligent technician. This can be seen as a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]], since it means undermining the hours of practice the technician has put in to get to that level. At its best, the trope sings the praises of enjoying yourself and [[Be Yourself|being unique]]; at its worst, it implies that superior skill hamstrings individuality.
Differs slightly from (but is related to) [[Hard Work Hardly Works]]. In this trope, there is no denying that the Technician is usually ''better'' at what they do, but the Performer is more fun to watch, while [[Hard Work Hardly Works]] adds insult to injury by giving a cheerful slacker superior ''skill'' than those around them who actually practice now and then. Also similar to [[Weak but Skilled]]; similar in that there is a better trained performer against a stronger or more talented rival, but different in that the one with the best training wins, usually through cleverness and skill. If paired with [[Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training]], then the [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] can get worse as it implies not only is hard work foolish, but harmful. Sometimes the technician might be technicaly better, but the performer can still be superior due to creativity.
{{examples}}
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'': In a way Vegeta is the Technician to Goku's performer. Vegeta trains and fights to be the strongest fighter in the universe, he also never spars, pushes himself waaaay too hard and his pride won't allow him to ask for help. Goku trains and fights because he loves it and is willing to learn from and train with others. In the end Goku is the better fighter despite not taking his training quite as seriously as Vegeta.
▲== [[Anime]] ==
▲* [[Dragonball Z]]: In a way Vegeta is the Technician to Goku's performer. Vegeta trains and fights to be the strongest fighter in the universe, he also never spars, pushes himself waaaay too hard and his pride won't allow him to ask for help. Goku trains and fights because he loves it and is willing to learn from and train with others. In the end Goku is the better fighter despite not taking his training quite as seriously as Vegeta.
** A better example may be Piccolo (post [[Heel Face Turn]] anyway) and Goku... Or, frankly, anyone else in the series that isn't a normal little human. While preternaturally strong, he usually ends up registering about a 7 or 8 while others spike at 10-15. But he's just so damn ''good'' and knows so many techniques (when it doesn't just come down to a planet-busting [[Beam-O-War]]) that he can hold his own with the best of them. [[The Worf Effect|Unless he's the one that gets picked on to prove "how much a threat" the new villain is.]]
* ''[[Kaleido Star]]'': Sora is the Performer; Leon and May are mainly Technicians. Layla, however, has both traits despite her [[Defrosting Ice Queen]] persona. Marion lampshades this when she comments on Sora's incompetence as part of the reason she's such a crowd pleaser: knowing that she might screw up keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Unlike Leon (too racked with guilt and angst to enjoy what he does) and May (too intent on winning to care about the audience), Sora loves her job and plays to the crowd... and sometimes too hard.
** Heavily lampshaded later, when Katie chewed Leon and May out during the ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' rehearsals. She basically tells them, "A selfish Romeo who only cares about his own splendor? A cowardly Juliet who seems scared and diminished? Don't make me laugh you guys, you epically
** Of note: a good part of May's [[Character Development]] comes from her training to become more of a Performer, dropping the flaws that her Technician side brings her.
** Don't forget Rosetta versus Sora early in season one. Rosetta was a stellar technician whose act looked like a "Diavolo machine". According to Kalos, she looks cold and mechanical when performing, that the audience gets bored despite all the skill she develops; therefore, he teams her up with Sora so Rosetta
* ''[[
* Duck, in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', is so inherently clumsy that not even her passion for ballet can land her a leading role, but her performance does inspire a melancholy yet brilliant ballerina to find her own style rather than mimicking others.
* Briefly mentioned in a volume or episode of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', where Winry and Cheska debate over whether cooking is a science or an art.
* The ''[[Swan]]'' manga takes a different approach to this - heroine Masumi's originality and enthusiasm take her quite a long way, true...but it doesn't always triumph against her rivals, who often have superior skill on ''top'' of originality.
* Played in ''[[Skip Beat
* ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'' initially seems to set up this kind of conflict between uptight perfectionist Chiaki and quirky free spirit Nodame, particularly when their mentor Stresemann criticizes Chiaki's performance of
** The trope is deconstructed in ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'', in that neither pure technician nor pure performer is right or better for classical music. A classical musician should have the mix of both. It is also implied that there is no right mix either. Chiaki and Kuroki are more towards the technician part, while Nodame and Jean Donnadieu are more towards the performer part. All of them are celebrated, but just in different ways, and it's difficult to say who is better.
* This trope is brought up in the ''[[Battle Royale]]'' Manga, when the character Toshinori Oda remembers the time that he and the
* Used beautifully in ''[[Beck]]'': In the "Grateful Sound" arc, the band breaks up thanks to internal tensions set off by Ryuske's Deal with the Devil. The rival band, Bell Ame, is set to totally eclipse BECK's set. Refusing to back down, Koyuki, followed by Saku on drums, grabs a acoustic and plays a stunning and spirited cover of <s>the Beatles's "I've Got a Feeling"</s> in-universe band The Dying Breed's song "Fifty Cent Wisdom". The result? The factory-produced sugar-pop rival's set actually bleeds off its audience!
** Belle Ame aren't helped by the fact that their special guest, the [[Bishounen]] [[Soap Opera|soup star]] (and love rival of Kouyuki) they have performing with them can't actually sing.
* ''[[Iron Wok Jan]]'' twists this trope with Kiriko Gobancho and Jan Akiyama. Jan, the [[Jerkass]] [[Anti-Hero]], is an inverted Performer in that he cooks to deliberately earn the hatred and disgust of the
* Inverted in ''[[Captain Tsubasa]]'', Hyuga Koujirou is a Performer who uses raw power and hot blood as he plays, whereas Ohzora Tsubasa is a devoted Technician who focuses on his skills. They quite clash as a result, but later Hyuga finds himself landing in quite the trouble when he plays abroads and sees that his Performer traits are a hindrance on his playing style...
** It could be argued that Hyuga is the technician and Tsubasa the performer in the sense that Hyuga only plays to be the best, to get noticed so to land a contract in a major club to provide his family with money, and spends countless hours in training from hell while Tsubasa plays mainly for fun, is enthusiastic enough to have everyone behind him and seems innately gifted.
** Tsubasa as a performer (albeit a very talented one) pit against technicians happens on a regular basis. It starts with Wakabayashi in their first encounter (thus beating the best goal keeper of all Japan for whom soccer was serious business), Misugi, Hyuga and later Santana.
*** For example between Tsubasa and Carlos Santana in Brazil with Tsubasa being the performer and Santana the technician. The latter is called the "
* ''[[Glass Mask]]'' has heroine Maya Kitajima as a Performer who pours her soul when she acts, with her rival Ayumi Himekawa as a practically perfect Technician. Lampshaded when Maya says she envies Ayumi's technical skills and grace, as well when Ayumi thinks Maya can reach emotional depths that she simply can't equal.
* The [[Long Runner|many many episodes of]] ''[[Pokémon (
** This also happens a lot with Ash in Pokemon battles. Ash is a Performer whose Pokemon are ultimate because of the [[Power of Love]], and often gets paired up with Technician opponents who go for type advantages and such and aren't as inspiring to their Pokemon.
*** Ash does have a certain amount of Technician, especially in Sinnoh (taking Dawn's Spin Dodge and Ice Aqua Jet ideas, meant for
** One other episode features a Hitmontop trainer who relies too much on being a Performer and has to tone it down and balance it with being a Technician.
** Being a
* Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
** Not necessarily. Those were losses in his professional career. And Jack's specialty, akin to Kaiba in the original, is that he favors beatdown. Yusei counters this with strategies often centered around weaker monsters with protective abilities.
** And take into account the definition of 'technician' in [[The Verse|the Yugiverse]]:For example: Yusei's combos for summoning Stardust Dragon, his level 8 Ace [[Mons
* ''[[
** The trope is still mostly played straight, since Eiji's work (especially Crow) consistently outperforms every other named character's manga, including the main pair's. But they're much closer to Eiji's level than most instances of this trope.
*** Lately in manga Eiji also came closer to Technician side, especially with {{spoiler|his new series, "Zombie Gun"}}, that is far more plotted than previous.
* One episode of ''[[
* This is oddly inverted in ''[[The Cherry Project]]'', a pre-[[Sailor Moon]] [[Naoko Takeuchi]] manga. The protagonist and newcomer figure skater Chieri learns everything she knows by copying others' technical moves, but doesn't have the "artistic grace" that semi-pro Canty has.
* The Manga ''Piano no Mori'' exemplifies this trope in the relation between friends and competing pianists Shuhei (the technician) and Kai (the performer).
* Played with in ''[[Hikaru no Go]]'', with Hikaru (Performer) and Akira (Technician). The twist is that while Akira thinks Hikaru is good enough to play at his level from the start, that's actually not true, and it takes Hikaru years to reach a level where he can compete with him. Even then
* ''[[
* ''[[Macross Plus]]'' features a literal chart graphing the performances of test pilots Guld (the Technician) and Isamu (the Performer), with Isamu's wildly inconstant numbers nonetheless surpassing (most of) Guld's steady and even progression.
* ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' features Mugen the performer, and Jin the technician. Mugen's style is entirely self-taught, and relies on creativity and unpredictability, while Jin's style is disciplined, relying on traditional moves. Played with a bit as Mugen and Jin both learn from each other. Most evident in their respective final fights.
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* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has the Negi and Kotaro. Negi is the technician, Kotaro is the performer. Several of Negi's teachers try to show him the value of being a performer.
* Barnaby and Kotetsu in ''[[Tiger and Bunny]].'' Barnaby is the Technician who calculates his actions to win him the most points and garner the most fame. Kotetsu is the Performer who just goes by his instincts and puts his all into being a [[Superhero|Hero]] because [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|he wants to help people.]] {{spoiler|In the second half of the series, Barnaby admits that he admires Kotetsu's sincerity and dedication to the job, though he wouldn't necessarily adopt Kotetsu's methods as his own.}}
* The partnership between [[Keet|Eiji Kikumaru]] and [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Shuuichiro Oishi]] in ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]'' is this through and through. Eiji is the Performer: crowd-pleasing, flashy, acrobatic. Meanwhile, Oishi is the Technician: reliable,
** Actually, almost all partnerships have elements of this (though [[In-Series Nickname|the Golden Pair]] is the most blatant example). [[Samurai|Sanada]] and [[Magnificent Bastard|Atobe]] are good examples as well: Sanada is the Technician through and through, Atobe is both Performer ''and'' Technician, and it takes them a while to work well together.
* ''[[Yuri!!! on Ice]]'' gives a thorough examination on this duality, given that it revolves around figure skating, a sport that has both artistic and technical feat components:
** One of the first things we learn about Yuuri Katsuki is that he got to his current level because he practices constantly, making people inside and out of universe initially believe that he has a Technician-type of skater... except that, actually, Yuuri's actual strengths are in ''performer-like'' type of moves, like step sequence and figures, as he tends to choke while doing jumps and other highly technical moves, with only his presentation points to save his score. As Victor points out, Yuuri is "capable to create music while skating" but is held back on his potential by his comparatively lacking technical points, so when Victor coaches Yuuri he specifically goes into ironing those kinks (read, improve his jumps and make his performing anxiety under control) to increase his chances to medal.
** Victor Nikiforov is so incredibly skilled (he regularly gets technical scores that in real life would give anyone who gets them a world record), that we could peg him immediately as a Technician. His actual mentality, however, is of a Performer, constantly pushing himself to give more surprising performances each year. But after years of this, he has become extremely tired of the mental effort of speculating what could surprise the public this time and fears that he is getting [[Creative Sterility]], which, along with him getting old for competitive skating standards, factors on his retirement decision at the beginning of the series.
** This also becomes the problem with Yuri Plisetki. Despite being naturally a Performer, he was so accustomed in his Junior days to act as a Technician and steamroll his competition with his physical abilities, he wasn't really prepared for the increase in physical exigences and performing abilities he needs for making the jump to the Seniors category. Most of his [[Character Development]] consists of him finally getting in the mental state to give a performance that can get to the public's hearts instead of merely skating very well, proved when {{Spoiler|he breaks records and bags a gold medal with the very performance-oriented routine "On Love -Agape" Victor choreographed for him}}.
** On the extremes on Performer and Technician mindsets among the rest of the skaters, we have Pitchit Chulanont, which is described as "a natural crowd-pleaser" and deliberately chose a popular song from a famous movie because he wanted to overwrite every other skater that previously skate to that, and Lee Seung-gil, whose mental dialogue while skating is him calculating his score with each move he does.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Drumline]]''. Played with, as the only reason the main character and [[The Rival]] manage to work together is through a compromise of styles.
* ''Center Stage'': Maureen is the technician, Jodie the performer. The movie also adds a third element with Eva, who has [[The Gift]] like Jodie but also the technical potential of Maureen, but is hampered by her rebellious attitude. {{spoiler|Eva is the only one of the three main girls to find success in the American Ballet Company--Maureen realizes she's destroying herself and quits, Jodie goes to a new company that values her performance skills over her ability to technically conform.}}
* This will often be part of the dynamic of a [[Buddy Cop]] duo. One's uptight and [[By-The-Book Cop|goes by the rules]], skilled and
* ''[[Blades of Glory]]'' has rival figure skaters, John Heder's Technician and Will Ferrell's Performer, forced to skate together in the pairs event.
* If one extends this to teams, any movie with a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] versus an [[Opposing Sports Team]] with a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] coach qualifies.
* ''The Cutting Edge'' is a love story between harmony and discipline. The boy was a hockey player who was disqualified and got a new career as a figure skater. A weird example of harmony as hockey is associated with brawling but he was a bit of a [[Blood Knight]], and had an almost mystical love of ice. The girl had no love for ice despite being a beautiful ice dancer: she learned it by years of [[Training From Hell|getting slammed on the ice]]. She was a definite [[Tsundere]] and intolerant of any skating partner who she felt wasn't worthy of her and had every right to be for she had tortured herself enough to get where she was. In this movie sympathy is with both of them.
* ''Rollbounce''
* In ''[[Amadeus]]'', Salieri interprets his nemesis's (who is Wolfgang frickin' Mozart) personal style and thus believes he is a performer while Mozart is both.
* In ''[[The Prestige]]'', Angier is the showman in love with the audience and Borden is the technician in love with the gadgets needed to perform a trick. Unique in that in this case, both the technician and the performer have their sympathetic moments. {{spoiler|The Borden twins follow along this line as well in a more subtle way: the one who dies is a performer and the one who lives is a technician.}}
* In ''[[Chariots of Fire]]'' Harold is more a technician and Eric more a performer.
* The film ''Strictly Ballroom'' is all about the conflict between highly technical rulesy dancing and "crowd-pleasing" moves. Differs somewhat from the pure form of the trope in that it hints that the technical rules are don't really represent dancing skill but rather a conspiracy to keep the person who makes the rules in the money and also in that the main character is excellent at the technical style but choses to do "crowd pleasing" because he likes it.
* ''[[Stick It]]'', about gymnastics, deals with the dichotomy of focusing on perfection and "sticking" everything versus going all out and "flooring it" and doing things that are more impressive even if you can't guarantee you'll nail the technical elements perfectly. The end message seems to be that it's not about what you know, but who you know, so if you don't know the right people you may as well say screw the rules and have fun with it.
* ''[[Sister Act
* In ''[[Top Gun]]'' Iceman and Maverick are basically [[Exactly What It Says
{{quote|
''(on Maverick) "You are dangerous. I don't like you because every time you fly you're unsafe." (later) "You are still dangerous. ([[Beat]]) You can be my wingman anytime."'' }}
* Deconstructed in ''[[
* Referenced and played out somewhat in ''[[Inception]]'' while making the actual inception plan. Arthur is the technician and Eames is the performer.
* In ''[[
* Bethany Hamilton is definitely a performer in ''[[Soul Surfer]]''. Her rival's technician qualities are not made explicit, but she does carry that vibe.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In Piers Anthony's ''[[Apprentice Adept|Blue Adept]]'' this is played straight and then averted. Protagonist Stile, during his run through the tournament, is matched against a talented musician by the name of Clef, and has a harmonica duel with him. Stile quickly sees that Clef is far more technically skilled, so he plays for a tie (and therefore a return to the computer to select a different category) by winning over the audience. Instead of getting a tie, however, the competitors are instructed to play a tie-breaker round... as a duet. After a little coaching from Stile, Clef quickly picks up Stile's tricks and also begins drawing in the audience, resulting in him becoming an even better musician.
** And then the trope played straight when the judges, fellow musicians who '''know''' Clef, award the victory to Stile, on the grounds that if Clef's improvement was due to Stile's instruction, then Stile was the better musician; he contributed more to the duet. Becomes more than a little heartwarming when
* Played with a bit in ''Ballet Shoes'', where it's mentioned at one point that the sister who hates dancing ends up being one of the most technically proficient dancers in the school ''because'' she hates dancing, so she ends up taking basic classes year after year and gets all the core moves completely ground into her mind. But her performer sisters are the ones who always get major roles in ballets and plays, while she's always (gladly) stuck in the background. Although in this case her sisters aren't ''bad'' at technique they just never learn it by rote the way she does (and when one of them does end up stuck in that same situation, her performer side comes out more strongly than it does at any other time in the book).
** Dulcie (Technician) and Hilary (Performer) in ''Dancing Shoes'' play out the above description almost to the letter.
** In ''White Boots'' (known as ''Skating Shoes'' in the US), Lalla is the Performer, Harriet is the Technician. Slight subversion in that it's Harriet, the newcomer to ice skating, who's the more precise skater (usually, the Performer is the rookie) and that the book comes out on her side - Lalla is sympathetic and charming, but also a bit of a spoiled brat, while Harriet is modest and loyal.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' stories involving the Witch Trials: Granny Weatherwax is the Technician and she always wins. But Nanny Ogg is the Performer, and people buy her drinks and say "It was a good try". Both of them are happy with this.
** It should also be noted that Terry Pratchett [[Word of God|stated]] in one of the Discworld art books that he "always believed, deep down, that Nanny Ogg is the most powerful of the witches."
* In ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', both protagonist Elizabeth and her bookish younger sister Mary play the piano and sing. Mary is a technically accomplished musician (with a terrible singing voice) who practices hard and works for accomplishments. Elizabeth isn't as skilled technically and often makes mistakes in her playing, but her performances are cheerful and pleasing, and on the whole people much prefer to listen to her.
* In ''Virtuosity'' by Jessica Martinez, Grammy-winning [[Child Prodigy]] violinist Carmen is the technician while her opponent in the Guarneri competition, Jeremy, is the performer. Jeremy does an act in his performances, whereas Carmen just plays. Carmen is envious of how comfortable he is, while she relies on drugs to keep from getting nervous before concerts. It is somewhat of a subversion, however, since Jeremy has his own problems.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Show examples, ''[[The Wire]]'' is the technician, removed, objective, and uninflected. ''[[The Shield]]'' is the performer immediate, subjective, and emotional.
* Tends to show up in ''[[Strictly Come Dancing]]'' and similar series - some of the competitors will be technically skilled, but not really able to sell a dance and perform - they tend to sail through the early stages. Others will struggle on technical skill early on, but be able to perform really well - as their technical skill increases through practice, they start to provide serious challenges to the technical dancers, whose skill has plateaued, and who still can't act. The case in point this season is Chris Hollins compared with Ali Bastian.
** John Sergeant in the 2008 series of ''Strictly'' was a Performer who eventually left the show because his popularity wasn't fair on the Technicians.
{{quote|
* ''[[Glee]]'' makes Vocal Adrenaline out to be the "technically-perfect team with no soul" whereas New Directions are the plucky underdogs who make up for their lack of polish with their bleeding hearts. {{spoiler|But the Regionals judges don't see it that way.}}
** {{spoiler|Neither did the Nationals judges a season later.}}
** [[Your Mileage May Vary|For some viewers of the series]],
* Often happens on ''[[So You Think You Can Dance]]'', especially with breakdancers. While technically wonderful dancers are often competent enough to stay on the show for a while even if their performance isn't too amazing, dancers like season 7's Jose sail through because they're fun to watch even if they don't dance very well.
** It also has a major part in deciding who wins- there's a reason the winner is '[Country's] ''Favourite'' Dancer'. People with bright personalities may well win over more technically gifted dancers.
* ''Top Chef'' is a strange case, since there's so many sides to it, but it qualifies. It's why people like Fabio and Carla were so well liked, since they more qualified as performers than technicians (while Carla was classically trained, her food was more soulful than anything else).
** Occasionally, competitions will play out where one side chooses to make food that isn't terribly suited for the occasion, but showcases some culinary skills, while the other makes food the audience will enjoy. The judges tend to prefer the former.
* Can happen on ''[[Project Runway]]'', too; the people with the most skill at sewing or the most experience in the fashion business aren't always the ones with the most creativity and innovation. Again can go both ways; a creative person who can't sew at all will probably be [[Elimination Catchphrase|auf'd]], but so will an impeccable seamstress whose designs are boring.
** The two frontrunners of Season 9, Anya Ayoung-Chee and Viktor Luna, are a textbook example of the trope. Anya is badly inexperienced at sewing but often turns out very striking outfits, while Viktor is an extremely skilled garment-maker most often criticized for lacking "the wow factor."
* Some of the weapons on ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]'' can fall into this. Oftentimes, a debate between two similar weapons (cannon, crossbow, older guns) will boil down to one of them performing better (better accuracy and more power) versus a technician (faster reload time, less likely to misfire.) Often, the Performer wins under the defense of "it doesn't have to reload fast if you kill them the first time."
* The whole point of ''[[Smash]]''.
== [[Music]] ==
* One word, Rap. From the technical geniuses that dominate the underground but don't have the charisma to achieve superstar status (Talib Kweli, [[
*
* [[Robbie Williams]] (performer) and Gary Barlow (technician) from [[Take That (band)|Take That]], and more notably their solo careers. Most people agreed Gary was the better
* ''Pyromania''- and ''Hysteria''-era [[Def Leppard]] had co-lead guitarists Phil Collen (technician) and Steve Clark (performer). Collen has stated that, after Clark died, he almost wanted to quit the group over his frustration at the problems he was having with replicating Steve's guitar playing.
* Britney Spears (Performer) vs. Christina Aguilera (Technician). This had also factored on how their careers have developed: Christina, known as the best voice of her generation, seeks to prove her vocal capacity and as such she strays into different musical genres, which has given her acclaim for her experimental forays but have alienated her from the pop-loving fanbase she initially attracted; meanwhile, Britney had tried to be a more rounded pop performer by keeping with the trends, which has maintained her popularity and saved her career from the many personal life blunders that could have killed it.
* The [[They Might Be Giants]] song "[[XTC]] versus [[Adam Ant]]" asserts that the two bands represent "content versus form," ie technical performance versus style.
* An unusually common situation: An actor-who-sings tends to be much more successful than the reverse. Though both fields are demanding, singing is also [[Crippling Overspecialization|extremely focused]]; singers (Technicians) often lack the physical presence needed to connect to the audience, while actors (Performers) may not be the best singers, but know how to get reactions from audiences. Underlining the differences, many actors already ''are'' decent
** Similarly, the animosity between career singers (particularly the [[Singer-songwriter]] type) and [[Idol Singer]]s is a variant of this trope. Idols, specially in Asia, are expected to not only sing and/or rap, but also dance (while singing, even!), act, model and keep a fan-pleasing persona, and as such they are seen as [[Jack of All Trades]], not particularly capable in a single area but all-rounder Performers, while career singers (even those in the pop spectrum) are seen as Technicians that only focus on developing their singing, with the spectacle merely as a support of their vocal abilities and not needing to add "gimmicks" to their art.
* This trope is the main reason why it's generally [[Internet Backdraft|not a good idea]] to try to discuss either [[Garage Rock]] or [[Progressive Rock]] with fans of the other.
* Despite his clear technical skills, [[Jimi Hendrix]] was closer to the Performer end of the spectrum. Had virtually no formal musical training, could barely even read music, but was blessed with natural talent and near-perfect pitch. Nobody taught Jimi how to play;
▲* Lionel Ritchie's 'Ballerina Girl' is a perfect depiction of this trope.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
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** Technicians: Dean Malenko, Lance Storm, Furnas and Lafon. Startling degree of talent, wide knowledge of moves and countermoves but usually never really catch on with the casual fans at-large.
** Performer: The ur-example here is probably [[Hulk Hogan]]. Never a solid performer, but he knew how to put on a show and the fans adored him. More modern examples would be [[Mick Foley]], [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], [[Triple H]] (who is a pretty incredible technician to boot), [[The Undertaker]] (who can pull off some amazing stunts when it's called for) and [[John Cena]]. Comedy wrestlers, like The Honky Tonk Man and Santino Marella (amusingly enough, the guy has extensive [[MMA]] training, and was a fighter in Japan), fit here also.
** There are the rare wrestlers who bridge the gap, and they are usually regarded among the elites: [[Ric Flair]], Shawn Michaels, [[Chris Jericho]], [[Chris Benoit]], and [[Kurt Angle]] come to mind immediately.
** Steve Austin was both at different points of his career: As one-half of the Hollywood Blondes in WCW, he was known as a good technical wrestler. When he became "Stone Cold", he changed his style to highly entertaining brawler.
** The [[Bret Hart]] / [[Shawn Michaels]] rivalry is arguably the quintessential example. You can practically rename this trope "Excellence of Execution vs The Showstopper".
** [[Daniel Bryan]] and The Miz's feud over the United States Championship in WWE - Bryan widely considered the flat-out best in-ring technician in North America (winning the Wrestling Observer awards for "Best Technical Wrestler" five years in a row, "Most Outstanding Wrestler" four years in a row) pitted against The Miz, a charismatic [[Heel]] who got his start on reality shows.
* Some people says that two main WWE
** Similarly we had the old WCW (technician) vs. WWF (performer) rivalry, epitomized by the two companies' top stars, [[Ric Flair]] and [[Hulk Hogan]] respectively.
* Some even blame WWE's current [[Insistent Terminology|reluctance]] to use the phrase "[[Professional Wrestling]]" on this trope.
== Sports ==
* In the past, tennis had Andre Agassi (performer) vs. Pete Sampras (Technician).
* Steve Nash shows his passion every second of every basketball game. Steve is not a good rebounder or defender, but his passing game and scoring is beautiful to watch. Jason Kidd is more reserved, he is not a terrific scorer, but otherwise in his prime he was perfect in every way, not nearly as flashy as Nash but a deadly passer, defender and rebounder.
* Karl Malone (Technician, no flash at all) vs. Charles Barkley (Performer, polarizing on and off the court)
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* In [[Formula One]], Ayrton Senna (performer) vs Alain Prost (technician).
* In [[The World Cup]], historically the South American teams are the Performers and the European ones the Technicians, with Brazil and Germany being the best examples of each respectively.
* Partially true in modern roller derby; while it is very much a sport, and if you can't keep up technically you will be cut from the team, rollergirls are also strongly encouraged to play to the crowd.
* In the English [[Equestrian Sports|equestrian world]]: Showjumpers (performers) versus Hunter-Jumpers (technicians). The rivalry is - intense, as showjumpers yell that hunters are robotic and too focused on minutiae, while hunters wail that jumpers care more about leaping ridiculously high fences than they do about correct equitation. (From someone who has ridden both - both sides have a point.)
* In Alpine Ski Racing, Bode Miller, despite having cleaned up his 'rockstar' behaviour from a couple of years ago, still skis with a far less pretty and orthodox technique compared to other giants such as Didier Cuche. But *my god* the man is fast...
* Boxing: Roy Jones Jr. (performer) vs. Bernard Hopkins (technician)
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* 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the controversy over men's singles figure skating gold medal. Charismatic performer Evgeni Plushenko skated higher risk program which is filled with small errors [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtY1CuAbLgs\], versus collected technician Evan Lysacek who skated clean on a lower risk program [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmJgGHIoawU\].
** This is true of figure skating in general. The best can find a balence between crowd-pleasing performance and technical precision, but many struggle and veer too far one way or the other. In the worst cases, it either becomes just an entertaining show and not a sport, or it's technically perfect but emotionless and boring to watch.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons
* ''[[Magic:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Street Fighter]]'': [[Ryu and Ken]]. To elaborate, Ryu is something of a [[Blood Knight]]-[[Spirited Competitor]] mixture whose main purpose in life is to perfect his fighting skill and have the perfect match. In that sense his fighting style is at its purest form and therefore does more damage without the focus on flash. Ken, on the other hand, is a showy combatant with a focus on fast kicks and punches and only cares about winning and putting on a good show. In this sense, he is more combo oriented and therefore, while not as damaging as Ryu's, his move do
* ''[[Sakura Wars]]'' plays it straight in the fifth act of ''So Long, My Love'' when the protagonist has to take Subaru's place on stage after losing a contest to them. Subaru is the ultimate technician, while Shinjiro is the ultimate performer. Subaru also has a similar moment when she first tries to play Jazz music at a club. While she is technically proficient, it takes her a while to understand the performance aspect of the genre.
* ''[[Fatal Fury]]''{{'}}s Kim Kaphwan and ''[[King of Fighters]]''{{'}} Jhun Hoon. Kim is a very traditional Tae Kwon Do practitioner and his moves, while pretty flashy themselves, are fairly traditional and get the job done. Jhun Hoon, Kim's rival since childhood, is very much pure flash: he fights with [[Extremity Extremist|only his feet]] and kicks out ki phoenix talons (someting Kim doesn't do). He also has a very flamboyant aura about himself and is obviously very showy with his moveset.
* Used in a subplot in ''[[
** Shooter and Yammer are parodies, they parody this trope along with other cliche'd [[Shonen]] [[Serious Business]] tropes.
* ''[[Street Fighter]]'' vs ''[[Tekken]]''. ''Street Fighter'' is the 'technician' role, a game largely focused on trying to balance characters, but its very difficult to get into 'casually' vs ''Tekken'', the performer, a fighter game which is easy to play but has fewer special moves. Though considering that the 'Technician' here has spectacular special attacks and characters shoot fireballs, while the performer is focused largely on hand to hand combat, the lines can be blurred. There's going to be a [[Intercontinuity Crossover|two-game crossover series]] according to the other wiki, with one game built on each engine.
** ''Tekken'' is more realistic in terms of the way the characters fight. Although fireballs are present, they haven't been that common in recent years. Many people believe ''Street Fighter''{{'}}s retro appeal is the only reason it remains so popular, as it has not made use of technology like ''Tekken'' has. They did try with the ''Ex'' series, but it didn't work that well.
* For a game as wacky, stylized, and generally amusing as ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''Hero 108'', episode "Camel Castle", {{spoiler|Lin Chung's drawing of Ape Trully turns out to impress the Camels by being considered unique}}.
* Rainbow Dash (performer) vs. Applejack (technician) in ''[[My Little Pony:
** The most explicit Technician vs Performer argument in the series though would be [[Miles Gloriosus|The Great and Powerful Trixie]] (performer) vs [[Badass Bookworm|Twilight Sparkle]] (technician). Twilight has the natural talent and ability of the Performer, but with a slant of constantly learning new spells and being trained by [[Physical God|Celestia]]. Trixie has a natural affinity to magic as well, and is about as Performer as they come when it comes to desire and charisma, but while she has a more limited bag of tricks than Twilight, she seems to have them more adapt and flexible with her spell craft, getting through her complex spells about as fast as Twilight can go through a TK cantrip. While Twilight is a main character, and Trixie is a [[Jerkass]] [[Fake Ultimate Hero]] in her one episode, the two have an interesting dynamic in fanon when all other things are equal.
* ''[[Chowder]]'' has the Baker vs Cook duality seen in the real life section; Endive is the Baker/Technician and Mung Daal is the Cook/Performer. Many episodes, however, show that they're both equally competent, just different in their style and temperaments.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Columnist John Derbyshire once said that the [[Chess
** Except that analogy is almost entirely backwards. Anyone who knows anything about chess will tell you that becoming grandmaster level requires not only raw analytical talent, but also obscene amounts of training and memorizing tens of thousands of maneuvers and responses by heart. The computer, meanwhile, needs only to know only the rules, and basically improvises in response to the human player. If anything, Deep Blue was the Performer, and Kasparov the Technician.
*** Only if you choose to disregard the opening and endgame databases usually used in computer chess (Deep Blue had those too) - which is one factor contributing to the fact that chess programmes are often weakest in the middle game.
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** The subversion here is that Napoleon simply did not act as his usual Performer self and instead 'phoned in' most of the battle by letting his subordinates run most of it. Not only was his technique weak but his performance was lackluster.
* US Navy (Technician) vs Imperial Japanese Navy (Performer) in [[World War II]]. Subverted in that the technicians won, largely because of better strategic intelligence and battle-action, even during the early years of the war when they were often outnumbered. Meanwhile, the Japanese's most audacious attacks, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor (which inflicted little lasting harm, while provoking an overwhelming response from the US) or the use of ''Kamikaze'' suicide missions (which sacrificed planes and experienced pilots at exactly the moment they were both in shortest supply), backfired.
* The El Alamein campaigns stands out: Rommel (performer) versus Montgomery (technician). Rommel was a tactical genius with a penchant for risky but brilliant maneuver warfare, conducted on a shoestring logistical line; Montgomery was excellent at organization and attention to detail, arranging for every shell to reach its destination. In a subversion, Montgomery won. Second El Alamein was not known for British maneuver genius but for meticulously-planned attacks that smashed through Rommel's depleted lines; Rommel had no fuel to maneuver with thanks to British air attacks, while Montgomery had even
* The entire chain of political events which ended in [[World War Two]] could be understood as the battle between the logic of a Technician and that of a Performer, while the former was the Soviet Union and the latter the community of Fascist states. If anything, the Communists were absolute maniacs of [[Charles Atlas Superpower|discipline and gain by struggle]]: they won the Russian Civil War by the skin of their teeth, developed the heavy industry and military forces of the USSR by iron hand, oppression, death and poverty, won [[World War Two]] [[Zerg Rush|by the force of numbers]],
* The [[Three Chords and
* Director-writer Franco Dragone, who handled most of ''[[Cirque Du Soleil]]''{{'}}s shows through 1998, arranged for extensive creative workshops with the gymnasts, acrobats, dancers, etc. hired for each show from ''[[Nouvelle Experience]]'' onward. He was confident in their technical skills, so in the workshops he focused on getting them in touch with their creative sides. From these, the quirky characters of the shows
* Karaoke singers tend to fall into one of these two extremes, and audiences tend to respond equally well to both the guy singing off-key and flubbing the lines while jumping wildly around the stage and the guy nailing the song flawlessly. Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary]]...a lot.
* Many people who audition for ''[[The X Factor]]'' or ''[[American Idol]]'' are either overconfident people with no singing ability, or people with good singing ability who are too nervous to sing well in front of people. People who pass their auditions are usually humble people with good singing ability who can take criticism. They are usually attractive as well, but this isn't always the case.
* At some culinary schools, this is described as Baker Versus Cook - the former are generally considered to be much more precise in their directions and timing, while the latter improvise a considerable amount more (in part due to the comparative uniformity of baking ingredients versus the different shapes and quality cooking ingredients, although neither side is without the other's concerns). The differing skillsets are why many larger upscale kitchens will have a dessert chef completely distinct from the executive chef handling appetizers and entrees.
* Many technicians work hard to get a performalist appearance. Dancers are a good example, but holds for musicians as well.
* The rivalry between skaters Robin Cousins and Jan Hoffman boiled down to could Hoffman win by more on the technical figure tracing than Cousins could on the free program.
* In Spain, at [[The Cavalier Years]], Cervantes was a technician, [[Hard Work Hardly Works|mediocre playwright and poet
* Beauty: Technician Dayanara Torres (may have won the beauty pageant) vs. Performer Jennifer Lopez (actually hailed as the world's most beautiful woman over and over again).
* Modeling: Technician Gisele Bundchen vs. Performer Heidi Klum.
* Whenever they work together, [[George Lucas]] (technician) and [[Steven Spielberg]] (performer).
* In general, [[Beauty Contest]]s at national levels are very technician-minded environments, with coaches, trainers, and plastic surgeons engineering dozens of beauties every year, which often brings the complaint in several countries that most of the national pageant contestants tend to look too alike. But once on international contest categories, the requirements become more in the performer side, particularly on contests like Miss World that have [[Talent Contest]]s and the like. It can be noticed that, if an ex-miss becomes an entertainer, she was either among the disqualified, or she went into international contests with more emphasis on performing over mere beauty.
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