The documentation of performing arts by means of databases is a challenging task for several reasons. Primarily, this has to do with the absence of a central, sizeable object that can be described and quantified. Any information collected in a database for performing arts thus seems to be of second order, paraphrasing what cannot be reproduced. Furthermore, for the contingency of database models likewise applies what Michel Foucault said about discourses when he analyzed them as power structures, which predefine what may be said in regard to a specific subject. This has become increasingly relevant since cultural databases are turning into knowledge graphs and loose descriptions are translated into highly structured and machine-readable data in the face of Linked Data and Digital Humanities. The article looks at the evolution of data models for performing arts in regard to how domain-specific representations of agency and shows how this issue is addressed in the emerging database of the Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts based on the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model.