It's called "martial arts" because originally these were skills used in warfare. "Art" here does not mean "dance and performance"; that is a more modern definition. Sun Tzu's The Art of War is not a theatre guide.
On a semi-related note, "liberal arts" refers to the skills that would be required to participate in a free society, particularly to participate in informed discussions on social and political matters. That's why liberal arts includes subjects such as math, science, geology, and public speaking. It feels like many people are not aware of that, which ironically is due to a want of proper liberal arts education.
It really depends on the style and the gym, and whether you're doing it for fun/fitness or competitively.
I've spent years doing no contact karate, and years more doing full contact (but not full force) sparring in Thai and Western kickboxing. For the latter, there's not really a performative aspect to it. Nobody is watching, there's no forms, no real room for fancy flourishes that waste time. I get punched in the face a lot (I'm not very good), and have had the wind knocked out of me many times. I've also spent significant time doing the song and dance (literally) kickboxing at the local YMCA, which was more like Zumba than traditional martial arts.
All of it is great fun and exercise. There's nothing wrong with any of those approaches as long as it fits what you're looking for. There are a LOT of gyms and styles and teachers out there!
Yes and no. There is a lot of performance in demonstrations and movies, still it is quite effective for a very well trained practician. But the most effective techniques don't look impressive on screen.
It depends on the particular martial art. A lot of very famous martial art styles are purely performative, and are basically no use in any fight with a non-cooperative opponent or at least one not practicing the same restricted move set. Some of this was quickly demonstrated when a few famed practitioners made the mistake of participating in MMA tournaments. Some examples of such purely artisitic/ritualistic/sporty arts are sumo, aikido, capoeira, Krav Maga, and quite a few others.
Lyoto Machida uses Sumo as part of his MMA. At our school we've found it's pushing techniques useful once your get an opponent off balance.
The locks in Aikido are useful as pain compliance techniques used by people like law enforcement or bouncers. Compared to an art like Judo, the "throws" in Aikido generally don't throw your opponent to the ground and do damage. Instead they tend to cause your opponent to stumble away from you. Therefore, they aren't very useful in competition but they are useful in self defense where they can create an opening to get a weapon or escape.
Dance and performance has been part of almost every warrior tradition that I'm aware of. The Spartans had Gymnopaedia, Europe (along with many other areas) has numerous sword dances, the Maori have haka, Muay Thai has wai kru, modern militaries have drill, etc.
Dance appears to be a very natural and primal form of human ritual, so it's not surprising that most cultures have utilized it as a way for warriors to build confidence and demonstrate their attributes & skills.
>A lot of it is essentially dance and performance.
While it may look like a dance when a single practitioner is doing a kata or “form”, it’s anything but a performance or a dance. There’s full contact, pit, octagon, Bellator, K1, and various other avenues to “practice” your martial art on someone’s face.
> A lot of it is essentially dance and performance.
The "dance and performance" (kata?) is essentially slow-motion practice of moves and responses. You are muscle-memorizing moves that you would deploy at full speed in a non-pratice scenario. It certainly looks like dance, and it feels a bit like dance too.
Because it's slowed-down continuous motion, you have to concentrate on keeping your balance. When that's translated to a non-practice scenario, it results in greater precision both in terms of motion and of force-delivery. Performing katas also develops strength; I gave up tai-chi because after every class, my whole body would ache.
That tends to be a translation of Japanese "bugei", where the latter part also translates as craft or technique. "War(rior)craft" or "warrior techniques" would be valid translations too; generally modern society wants to de-emphasize the war part. And Japanese society historically saw poetry in death..
Hell, that's why instead of saying "warrior" or "war", the English term is a euphemistic reference to an old god -- god of war, sure, but an indirect reference, suitable for polite society.
So you're saying it's all for show, like some 10 kilo barbell weights being ridiculously oversized just to soothe the ego?