Christina Leary - Sports: Ritual vs Art

October 21st, 2017

Christina Leary - Sports: Ritual vs Art

In Van Der Leeuw’s chapter on dance he gives us a picture of what a dance performance might look like as a ritual or as an art . In class we discussed how the “dancing place” is in the middle, there are nearby spectators who are generally standing and seemed to be more involved or engaged with the ritual then further out you might find some people sitting, and even further out a half circle begins to form and this space is even more designated seating area. The further out one moves the further they are from the dance and ritual. Today we see this same sort of structure with the stage being the dancing place, the pit being the standing area, and the arena being the more designated or assigned seating area. The differentiating factor between ritual and art that we talked about in class was that ritual desires a practical end through action and art is cut loose from immediate action; it is an end in itself.

All day today I was at the Penn State vs. Michigan college football game. For those of you who are not familiar with college football or football in general let me explain some things. Penn State and Michigan are huge rivals, they are both in the Big Ten Conference, and today was Penn State’s biggest home game of the year, the white out. In addition to this Penn State had a scandal back in 2011 that severely hurt their reputation, culture, and their football program because of a series of punishments put on their program. The football program is now ranked number two in the country, for the first time since 1999, right behind the college football powerhouse, Alabama. Lastly, College Gameday, made its return to Happy Valley (Penn State) for the first time since 2009 i.e. post scandal. College Gameday goes to a different college every saturday and fans camp out, get up early, and even travel across the country (Washington) so that their signs might be seen on TV. So contextually, this game today was the height of ritual and melodrama in college football.

I’m a huge football fan, it is basically a requirement in my family. Both my parents went to Penn State and both sides of the family grew up in Pennsylvania. As a child we watched Penn State games, I wore a cheerleading outfit for every game, and sang the same chants the actual cheerleaders would sing. My brother went to a lot of games with my dad and I always wanted to go with them. Even though I didn't on friday nights we would all make signs for College Gameday and pretend that we were going. So this year my brother got me tickets for my birthday. To the biggest game of the year and I was PUMPED. The day was perfect. We got so close to College Gameday, ate food at all of my father’s nostalgic restaurants and bars, tailgated, went to the campus creamery, and finally we watched Penn State crush michigan. The reason I keep emphasizing all of the background is to give you a true insight to how it felt when I was swaying and looking at all the other 110,822 singing “Sweet Caroline” then looking at myself the 110,823rd person in the arena and literally thinking that I was one of the people Van Der Leeuw talks about. The person in the designating seating. The spectator who was watching, feeling, thinking, but not doing.  

In class we have talked about the earliest rituals and when distinguishing between art and ritual there is something about ritual desiring a practical end and art being cut loose from that immediate action. However, when I have participated in this American ritual of college football in the past I’ve never really said to myself that it was ritualistic. It wasn’t until this class that I began to think of it as a ritual. Another possible aspect of ritual that I saw today was that for participants the ritual is not generally looked at as a ritual. I’m wondering if most contemporary rituals are looked at as a spiritual or religious practice or in my case a cultural activity. While looking back on the day I feel like I've taken part in a ritual. Football in a way wants a practical end through action. They want to win the game through the action of playing the game and in return they might get fame, money, glory etc. Things that can very well be seen as practical of beneficial in our everyday lives. But is the game an end in itself? Is it an art? I would say no but I also just ran a google search and it doesn't feel like a completely foreign idea. Do you think football can be considered an art? Think of things like martial arts and gymnastics, what separates them? I think that is a question worth exploring.