Theatre or theater (from French "théâtre", from Greek "theatron", θÎατÏον, meaning "place of seeing") is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, mime, puppets, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. Bernard Beckerman, head of Hofstra University's department of drama, in his book, Dynamics of Drama, defines theatre as what "occurs when one or more human beings, isolated in time and/or space, present themselves to another or others." In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, puppetry, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera, mummers' plays, Performance Improvisation and pantomime.