This chapter sets out the aims and structure of the book. While it foregoes much of the conventional "setting the table" work of such chapters (that job being largely accommodated by Chapter  2 in this volume), it does offer some grounding thoughts on the need for a book such as this and on the importance of tracing the multiple types of relationship between phenomenology and performance. It also offers brief descriptions of each chapter, placing them in the context of the book's structure and providing a sense of some of the links between them.