Ancient Egyptian Sports and Dance

♪ [music playing-- no dialogue]♪♪
>> Dr. Allen Lanham: Good evening all, and
thank you for being here for the finale of the symposium
sponsored by the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences
and the Department of Technology and Booth Library
that's been taking place over the last five weeks.
We've had 24 activities, this is the final one and it looks like
the biggest one, too, by the way.
We wanted to have all of these activities in the library, but
we thought maybe we it would be a good idea to come to the
former home of the library--we lived here before the fine arts
lived here, after Ms. McAfee lived here.
So while the Booth Library is being renovated, this is where
the periodicals room was, so it's [unclear dialogue].
But thank you so much for all of you who have participated--the
class, the professor and the marching band and
director--thank you so much for doing this,
and we hope to see you soon at other events.
I present now Dr. Wafeek Wahby,
who has coordinated the speaker series.
>> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Thank you.
[audience applause]
Good evening and thank you all for being here today to make
really our day.
Not only our day, but our month but really our
[unclear dialogue] was intended to bring us 5,000 years back
and looking hopefully 5,000 years in the future.
"A Futuristic Look Through Ancient Lenses".
And November 2 was in the future back then but not with this
present, and I wish to start with having this
as a present to each of us.
Well, I want to engage everyone in this room in this
introduction, so [unclear dialogue].
First, I want you [unclear dialogue],
to say one word.
So I say "it has been said", so I want you all to say "said".
So I say, it has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: No, bigger one.
It has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: Bigger one--it has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: And I'll say something.
Then after I say this something, I want you to give a round of
applause to [unclear dialogue].
First, someone came to my office some time ago and said 'people
don't like to bleed, but when people bleed they bleed red,
but when Eastern Illinois University bleeds,
they bleed blue', It has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: Give Eastern Illinois a round
of applause.
[audience applause]
It has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: Everything, including good
things, must come to an end.
[unclear dialogue].
So please give a round of applause to everybody who worked
with this symposium, behind the scenes and
in front of the camera.
Round of applause.
[audience applause]
It has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: That music is a gift
of heaven to Earth, and that's exactly what
we're going to have today--music.
Please, thank you to our friend Alan Sullivan and all these
wonderful musicians, so big round of applause.
[audience applause].
Don't say it's been said here, but they say that maybe the
music would be very loud for this building, but if it goes
down then we get some funds from the state to build a bigger one.
It has been said that...
It has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: That education is one of
the noblest things that human beings know, and
that's why we give a round of applause
to our dean of education, because education means
I know something, I teach it somebody else,
so two instead of one, and it multiplies.
So a round of applause for education.
[audience applause].
Before I ask the dean of education to come and introduce
the rest of the [unclear dialogue],
it has been...
>> audience: Said.
>> Dr. Wahby: A good mind lives in good
health, good body.
I don't know who said that, but a round of applause
to all of our athletics and all of our kinesiology people,
a big round of applause.
[audience applause].
It is my great pleasure to introduce the dean of education
to go ahead with the rest of [unclear dialogue].
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Diane Jackman: Well, I too would like to
welcome you tonight on behalf of the faculty and students
of the College of Education and Professional Studies.
I'm delighted that some of our kinesiology education majors are
going to be performing, and I'm interested in seeing what the
hoola hoops do because I used to do those when I was probably so
big, so it's going to be fun.
I'm looking forward to this, although I"m thinking I'm going
to pull my earmuffs out of my coat.
I had them there to keep my ears warm,
I might need them for sound.
We're delighted that you're here in one of--believe it or
not--one of our kinesiology classrooms,
and so some of you spend a lot of time in here,
some of you don't spend quite so much time.
But I think we're in for a real treat tonight between our
marching band, and I was disappointed in you drummers,
because I hear you everyday as you're going over for practice
--that's because my office is in Buzzard--
and coming back from practice and I heard you today
and I'm going 'they were awfully quiet walking in here,
so I don't know what's going on.
You must have told them that they couldn't march in with
their drums going, I don't know.
Anyway, we're excited to listen to you.
We hope you're excited to see what our students have planned.
I know I talked to Dr. Owen who is our department chair
in kinesiology and sports studies--
and Jill, if you want to come on down--
[audience applause]
Yay, Jill.
Yay, Jill.
I was asking her, have you seen them practice yet, do you know
what they're going to do and she said that Dr. Ronspies wasn't
letting her know what they were going to do, so at this point I
have no idea what you're doing.
I guess some people got a preview--had I known that I
would've come over for the preview,
but we're glad you're here.
Welcome, and I'll give the microphone over to you.
>> Dr. Jill Owen: Thank you Dean Jackman,
and on behalf of the Department of Kinesiology
and Sports Studies, I would like to welcome all of you.
I have a nice group of, small group--we have a large group--of
faculty that are here from the department.
Stand on up!
[audience applause]
As Dean Jackman said, this is one of our facilities and we do
have some of our majors who are going to do some games.
When Dr. Wahby came into my office--I see him once a year,
and he always asks me for a basketball but he promises
he won't bounce it.
And I'm trying to think, I don't know what he does with this
basketball, we bounce our basketballs, but anyway--so when
he came in I was like 'okay, I'll run down, get you the
basketball,' he's like 'no, no, no, I have something
else I want to ask of you.
So he asked if we would like to be a part of the ancient
Egyptian symposium, and I was so thankful because--
as our kinesiology and sports studies majors know--
we don't just play basketball and volleyball.
There really is a lot more to it.
I know Mrs. McFarland teaches an international expression of
dance, but it's a general education class.
All of her students stand up--let her see you, come on!
[audience applause]
So again, when he asked, I was very very thrilled because
Dr. Hussey and Dr. Ronspies both teach our methods courses,
and our students had been going out into the schools,
and they don't just teach basic skills but they do do games
from other countries, other cultures, etcetera.
So I'm going to, I would like to introduce our kinesiology and
sports studies majors who I am so anxious
to see what you're going to do.
Would you stand up please?
[audience applause]
And then I'd like to introduce Dr. Ronspies who when I offered
this to the faculty, he was very gracious about saying I know
my students can do this--so Dr. Ronspies.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Ronspies: Thank you folks.
Before we get started, we'll have the band and the
cheerleaders, and so forth, do their thing.
Whoa--Pink Panthers, sorry, Pink Panthers.
Oh, I'm going to be in trouble now.
No, I did that on purpose just so you'd catch me
saying something wrong.
So, Pink Panthers and the band will be performing now
and then we will get into my section after that.
>> Dr. Wahby: Sorry, I forgot something.
Will you please stand up?
We want, please, to give thanks to the family and consumer
sciences for designing this and for doing it.
It is made not in USA army, but at Eastern Illinois University.
[audience applause]
[no dialogue].
[band playing]
[audience applause]
[band playing].
[audience applause]
[band playing].
[audience applause]
[band playing].
[audience applause]
[band playing].
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Ronspies: Let's give another round
of applause before they leave.
[audience applause]
Once again let's take this time to welcome everybody to the
grand finale of the ancient Egyptian symposium.
When this was first brought to us in the summer, I was very
excited to get involved with it.
I think this is just another great opportunity to show where,
in my opinion, I think Eastern's the best place to be--because we
have wonderful people like Dr. Wahby, we have wonderful
people in the technology department working on this,
we got John Looby helping us out.
So it's the great people and the great students on campus here
that make an event like this an awesome experience, so let's
give a round of applause to all those people behind the scenes.
[audience applause]
As you know, you've always heard the old saying 'you always save
the best for last,' but that's boring.
That's not how we roll in physical education,
we save the best for first.
So Dr. Wahby, you know this surprise has been coming for a
long time, I've been teasing you [unclear dialogue].
This is the man behind the scenes that has developed all
this, and I think if you get a chance to meet Dr. Wahby or if
you have not yet--I hope you do--this is truly a man that has
a heart of gold, and I think that the community of
Charleston, the Eastern community we're very fortunate
to have a professor like this on campus.
So, Dr. Wahby, it's time to come up and get your surprise now.
[audience applause]
Now, keep in mind this is just one of two because
we like to spoil our folks in PE.
So, on behalf of Dean Jackman and the College of Education and
Professional Studies, Dr. Owen in kinesiology and sports
studies, the best students on campus--my methods
students--and, of course, on behalf of myself, we've got a
certificate for Dr. Wahby for all of his efforts.
So, Dr. Wahby, that's surprise number one.
[audience applause]
Now, of course we've got another surprise.
We don't just give up there, obviously,
so we're going to ask you to close your eyes for this one.
This is--not that this one isn't cool--but this one's going to
blow your mind, so you might want to close your eyes.
In fact, you have to because if you don't you're going to see it
right away and I can't give out the secret yet,
so close your eyes please.
And on behalf of everybody of the KSS department and College
of Education and Professional Studies, you can now put your
hands out and you can open your eyes.
And this is for you.
[audience applause]
[unclear dialogue],
you've got your own so now you're set.
>> Dr. Wahby: I had to promise that it
will never touch the ground, but now I can make it.
Thank you.
>> Dr. Ronspies: Thank you, appreciate it.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Wahby: I'd like to ask Dean Lanham
to be with me because [unclear dialogue],
so really when I had this crazy idea
two years ago, I didn't even tell my [unclear dialogue]
[no audio]
I didn't tell my dean either, I kept it secret.
I wasn't sure what was going on, so I went to the speakers,
to my colleagues and chairs and so forth--
other than my chair-- [unclear dialogue].
And as Jill remembers, she didn't see that even I saw it.
The glow in her eyes said 'wow, it's a wonderful idea' and these
kind of responses really made this, but I needed somebody to
talk to, so before I went to my dean and my chair I went to
Dean Lanham, 'This is the crazy idea I have'
and [unclear dialogue].
Thank you very much.
[audience applause]
We can share this, we can give him half of this.
>> Dr. Ronspies: You guys can both share, right.
Now the reason why you showed up, obviously.
Tonight's more than just about a presentation, it's more than
just about a bunch of PowerPoint slides.
It's an opportunity to really showcase the efforts of multiple
disciplines and departments together, coming together as one
and turning into a pretty significant symposium on campus.
With that said, I'd like to welcome you again
to our presentation tonight.
You've got two screens to look at here,
so whichever works best for you.
Our topic tonight is "Ancient Egyptian Sport and Dance"
and as you go through the presentation tonight,
I want you to think about two things.
One, you've always heard this common theme--the more things
change, the more they stay the same.
And as we go through this journey tonight and these
presentation slides, I want you to think about that theme--
the more things change, the more they stay the same--
because you're going to see that theme over and over again
in the slides.
Also, at any point, if you feel like getting up and walking like
an Egyptian, or you feel want to come out and dance with us--and
I've got a really cool finale at the end that's going to make you
want to move--you're more than welcome to get up and dance.
You know what, I've got two left feet, too,
so don't feel embarrassed if you want to get up and
move like an Egyptian, alright.
Let's go ahead and get started.
Folks, I know we think we're a superpower, we think we're
special, we think that we're the most dominant country in the
world, but in all actuality, when we look at ourselves
compared to ancient Egyptians, they were involved in
physical activity for almost the identical reasons that we are.
I mean just think about it--how intense in our society is
football on Sundays?
If you live down in the South, it's almost like a religion.
They live and bleed sports.
Ancient Egyptians compared to us was very similar.
They got involved in it for the same reasons that we do.
It's for enjoyment, it's for improving our fitness, it's for
competition--which, fortunately or unfortunately nowadays we
see that as a pretty important thing in our society--
but they also got involved with it for celebration
and religious rituals, similar to us.
How many of you've been to a wedding recently?
What do you do there--you dance.
So Egyptians danced for the same reason also
in terms of physical activity.
It was also a way to express yourself, and as you see with a
lot of the popular reality shows now today, there's a lot of
expression through dance, so they're very similar to us
in terms of why they chose to participate
in physical activity.
Just like with us, sports was a very
intrical part of their culture.
A lot of it was for competition, which we also still see today.
As you can see here in this slide, they also recognized
winners and losers.
Now they may have done it a little more indignantly than we
do nowadays, but they also acknowledged the fact that
winners were typically winners because of their strength and
prowess over the opponent, but the opponent was also held in
high regards for their spirit and their vigor in the activity.
As you can see here in today's society, we do the same thing.
The winner is always highly regarded, isn't it?
It's always about being number one.
Unfortunately, maybe we should take some tips from
the ancient Egyptians and hold more respect for those people
who maybe don't always finish first as well.
So as you can see, this is kind of the start of the winning and
losing aspect in their culture you now have started to
see in this culture, and folks we're talking a long time ago--
1500, 2000 BC.
Now you start to see the first infusion of rules and
regulations, which we still use those today.
That's what governs our sport.
Everything has a rule, has a regulation,
has a boundary, etcetera.
Could you imagine if there were no rules for tennis?
No rules and regulations for basketball or football?
It would be chaotic.
So we can owe a lot of what we still use today, in terms of how
rules and boundaries and regulations were formed.
And folks, let's be honest, almost all of our modern-day
Olympic activities and events come from the Egyptians,
so we owe a lot to them.
How many of you watch the Olympics?
When they come on, it's a pretty big deal.
You train for 4 years, 5, 6 years out of your life,
and you do it all over again the next cycle
to compete for your country.
And as you look at this list--I won't belabor that whole list
because we recognize these--these are things we still
do today, minus maybe the fencing with wooden swords,
but fencing is an Olympic sport.
So if you take a look at this list-archery, hockey,
gymnastics, which you'll see some of that in our
dance tonight as well.
Tug of war--I always see the fraternities out there by the
pond tugging on the rope with each other.
This is where it came from originally,
so we're still doing the same things--high jump, etcetera.
So we owe a lot, in terms of our Olympic arena
and how that's structured, to the ancient Egyptians.
These are some murals that have been depicted in the tombs and
so forth, in the pyramids, and as you see, you can start to
recognize how it's going to look a little bit different but you
can also start to recognize now that we've got archery,
we've got javelin throw.
What do you think this is?
What do you think that third picture is?
What's that in the first four months?
It's hockey.
That's the first form of hockey that we know it today.
Now, obviously it looks a little bit different, okay.
What do you think the first picture on the bottom left is?
That's boxing, okay, so now you're starting to see
boxing come into play.
And we've also got equestrian activities,
swimming and so forth.
So as you see it, the more things change, the more they
really stay the same with respect to our sport culture.
We're doing the same things that they did in the past.
One particular sport in general which holds a big emphasis
for us in our hearts, especially in physical education.
We just got done teaching a handball unit at Charleston High
School, and overall the students there had a good response to it.
They enjoyed it, it was something different
and it was something for them they could honestly engage in
and have a good time and learn something as well.
The first origins of this sport were depicted on various tombs,
murals, etcetera.
This is where handball got its start.
As you see up here, how many of you are familiar with playing
handball whether it was in secondary physical education,
intramurals or just recreational play?
If you're not familiar with it, we'll talk about it more in
detail, but as you look at that top right picture, the first
signs of hand games originated about 1500 BC in ancient Egypt.
That's a long time ago, folks, and as you see,
the game doesn't necessarily look like it does currently.
Basically what you had was you had a person standing,
you had a person on their back kind of piggy-back ride
and then you had another team and the object was to throw the
ball back and forth.
Whoever dropped it then lost a point
or the other team gained a point.
Now as this sport started to transfuse into Europe, then it
started to evolve into the games that we see today,
and that was roughly in the 1890s is when that started.
And it was actually modified and created by
a physical education teacher.
If you still type it in Google, you'll see it called
"European team handball" still to this day,
and that's where it kind of progressed into itself.
So it's a pretty important game--I think we still see it
widely used in not only the Olympics, but you also see it
used in a lot of physical education curriculums as well.
Now obviously their ball was much different than ours, they
didn't have Sportime and Gopher and all these expensive places
that build these gator balls, but they used a ball too
and it was stuffed with either hay or plant fiber,
so it was soft as well.
It was a very soft ball and that's how they used it to play
the game because they knew that if the ball is too hard,
there would be lots of injuries.
Any questions so far about just the game in general?
We're going to model it here in just a second,
and we're going to show a video of it as well.
It's very similar to soccer, it has some components of
basketball, etcetera.
It's another form of what we call an invasion game,
so it's got some of those premises.
I'd like my group to come up now, my six people.
We're going to model just a modified game for you.
We're going to go right here on the stage.
[unclear dialogue]
We're not going to play full speed obviously because
we don't want to injure any of this wonderful equipment,
alright, but here's the object of the game.
You have two goalies, okay.
Kyle is going to be one goalie, here and Wade's going to be the
goalie over there.
Now obviously the number of players can be anywhere up to
66, whatever you decide.
The object of the game is to try to score the ball
into the opponent's goal.
You can only take three steps with the ball,
or you can only hold the ball for three seconds.
Now there's multiple versions of the rules and regulations,
but those seem to be the most common [unclear dialogue]
rules and regulations that are used today.
So basically, what's going to happen is this.
Kyle's going to start the game, he's got his two partners here,
which are Matt and Al, and they're going to try to transfer
the ball down the court and try to score against Wade.
Now, I've told them obviously not to throw the ball as hard as
they can, so there might not be any goals but this will give you
an idea of kind of how it looks, then we'll show it
on video as well.
So, players, get ready to rock and roll!
Alright, here we go, go!
So they throw it down the court, the defense is trying to get a
hold of that, they're trying to intercept it.
Al's going to go ahead and shoot a goal.
Oh, he doesn't make it.
Okay, immediately goes again.
It never stops, so as you can see there's a lot of wonderful
benefits to the game just versus, you know,
there's a fitness component, etcetera.
Now obviously the game looks a little more intense when you
play it full speed, alright.
So, any questions so far about the game?
It's no different than hockey, soccer, basketball--
you're trying to invade the territory which is
the opponent's territory, to score a goal.
Thanks folks [unclear dialogue].
[audience applause]
Now if you would please, we can look here at the screen
and this is obviously a professional version game.
So games always look different depending on who the player
ability levels are, but here's just a snapshot of what the game
would look like.
>> handball announcer: Throws come from that
broken line at 9 meters.
Caiz, Mustafa.
New York gets it to the wing and it's a great save by
Alexander Voronov, the ageless goalkeeper for
the Houston Firehawks.
Ivan Paz scores!
They'll take this free throw, looking to
cut into four-goal deficit.
Again off the woodwork.
[unclear dialogue].
On a fast break goes Houston.
Palacios will score, and he takes a dive.
Rodrigo Palcios with his fourth of the half.
Caiz to Mustafa, Mustafa scores!
>> Dr. Ronspies: I won't show the
whole 6-minute video, obviously that's not
necessary, but are there any questions about the game?
Did you notice that around the goal, right in front of the
goalie, was a very large arch.
A very large arch, and what that's called is,
sometimes they'll call it the forbidden zone.
[unclear dialogue] dead zone, whatever
name that you want to use.
You can't go into that zone if you're a player.
Now the goalie can move around in there,
but players cannot go in there to score.
Now you can jump outside of the line and shoot and then land in
there, but then you have to come right back out,
and that's how you ultimately score a goal.
As you see, these folks do jump shots and are very aggressive,
they throw the ball extremely hard, but they also don't have
to worry about nice audio and digital equipment in their way
either, so we don't want to do that.
Are there any questions up to this point about
ancient Egyptian sport?
Would you agree or disagree-- the more things change
the more they stay the same?
Could you see a lot of things that have been done in the past
in their time compared to what we do now?
Very similar, just with a few modifications and tweaks.
Now for our next piece, we'll go into our dance section now.
Unfortunately folks--I hate to tell you this--
but we don't know a lot about ancient Egyptian dance.
Why do you think that?
What would be some rationale as to why do you think we wouldn't
know a lot about their dancing?
Go ahead, anybody can say it out loud.
What do you think?
>> male speaker: It's hard to depict movement
in stone.
>> Dr. Ronspies: Absolutely, it's hard to
depict it and have a hard copy, evidence of it.
And so as you see right here, yeah there were millions of
depictions and paintings-- that we know--but folks,
a painting does not tell you much about
what the dance means, how it was constructed, etcetera.
So unfortunately, I hate to tell you, but we know little about
ancient Egyptian dance but we know some and
we're going to share that with you tonight.
As you see here, something very different to current times.
Boys and girls, or men and women,
never danced together in ancient Egyptian times.
That came further along in the evolution of dancing as it got
into Western civilization, but any depictions that you see,
you never see a male and female dancing together as a pair.
Now you may see groups dancing, male-female,
but never as a pair,
so I think that's of significant importance.
Secondly, a lot of the dances were depicted in large groups.
We're going to model that tonight.
You're going to see about two groups of
seven or eight people roughly.
Oftentimes, it was done with large groups and to be honest
the number one focus of most of the dancing was for religious or
ceremonial purposes.
That's what most of the dancing entailed.
We don't know anything about the choreographic
nature of the dances though.
How did they train, how did they prepare for these ceremonies?
We just don't know because, like you said,
you can't decipher that just off of that painting on stone.
It's just too hard to figure out where all that training and
expertise came from, but as we know, they were very good
dancers and, let's be honest, which gender do you think
typically dominated most of the dancing at ceremonies,
religious purposes, etcetera?
Men or women?
Women, it's women and you still see that stereotype today.
We see it a lot in physical education.
Guys don't do pirouettes, guys don't do headstands.
Guess what?
Our guys do.
Our guys do and they do it well.
Yes I commend them for that,
but as you'll see, in this picture up here too,
this is the first signs of gymnastic movements.
Now you start to see pirouettes, backbends, cartwheels, etcetera.
This is the first sign in times of people incorporating
gymnastic movements, and that's still pretty popular today,
don't you think?
Gymnastics is huge in the Olympics, gymnastics is huge
with the younger generation in certain regions of the country.
We're still doing the same things today.
Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out
how to do a cartwheel yet.
I think I could teach it pretty well, I just can't do it.
There's different forms of dance and, as we know folks, most of
the dancing was for religious or ceremonial purposes, just like
when we go to the clubs on the weekends, students,
and we want to express ourselves through dance,
however that may look.
We might go to a wedding and dance,
we might go to a theatric performance.
Dance is very important in our lives today too, and as you see
here on the screen, there were different types of dances.
Some they just wanted to release energy.
They just wanted to move around.
Others had more of a gymnastic twist to it.
They had cartwheels, backbends, pirouettes, etcetera.
You've also seen some imitating type dances of animals.
We still do that today when we teach physical education
at the elementary level.
When I say go, I want you to pretend like you're a turtle,
I want you to walk really slow.
So we still do these same things too in education, especially in
the physical education arena.
Obviously [unclear dialogue].
Now we don't necessarily dance at funerals, but we do dance at
weddings and other celebrations etcetera.
We do a different form of mourning or celebrating at a
funeral versus the Egyptians.
Lyrical dances told stories.
You still see that today--dance telling a story.
It's a way of expressing some kind of a story
or some kind of a theme.
Funeral dancing we already talked about, and probably the
most prevalent one you'll see, which we will model tonight--
dancing to the gods, worshipping gods.
Any questions about the different types of dances?
Can we relate to most of these?
Sure, we can, we can relate to a lot of those,
we still do them today.
Now you start to see the development of instruments, same
ones you saw here a little bit ago, only in a modified form.
You saw a lot of wind instruments--flutes, clarinets.
I saw some clarinets out here just a little bit ago.
Still using them today folks, nothing's changed a whole lot.
You also saw some string instruments--harps, guitars.
How many of you've seen that commercial with the boy in
Japan, he's playing his guitar, his dad takes
the plug and unplugs it.
Guitars are very popular still, especially with
the younger generation and some of the middle
and older-aged people as well.
Percussion instruments-- who doesn't love the
sound of a drum?
Who doesn't just get excited when you hear that?
You heard it here, we all were afraid that our eardrums were
going to blow out, but the drum dominates the rhythm
and it feels good, it makes you want to move.
Ancient Egyptians were no different, this was the first
start of instruments as we know it today.
How many of you were in band--high school, junior high?
And you probably played some of these.
They're the most popular instruments--trumpets,
clarinets, drums, etcetera.
The more things change, the more they still stay the same.
Arguably the most important god in ancient Egyptian times was
the sun god, Ra.
[unclear dialogue], you'll see it spelled R-A, R-E,
either is okay.
This was arguably the most important god to the Egyptians.
He represented light, growth and warmth.
The sun's pretty important to us today, don't you think?
I mean geez, 20 minutes of sun a day is all the vitamin B
you need for all day if you're outside.
How many of you've noticed on campus, when it's winter time
you don't see a lot of students walking around,
everybody's kind of bummed out, would rather be sleep in bed
instead of going to class?
But oh boy, the minute spring comes and the sun starts
shining, the campus changes.
I know for me personally, my dad is a farmer in Nebraska.
The sun is very important to us.
That's how we make our living.
And for those people here in Illinois too,
the sun is a very important part of our daily lives.
We thrive on sunshine for various things.
Ra was typically represented as a hawk, had a hawk head,
just a normal body but was always typically
seen as a hawk.
The most important god, keep reading over and over again--
this was the most important god to the ancient Egyptians.
Now, it was thought that every night Ra was swallowed up by
the sky goddess Nut, and every morning he was reborn again and
the sun would shine.
That makes a lot of sense, don't you think?
Look now, it's dark and all of a sudden the sun comes back up
in the morning and does it all over again.
So you can see where this culture started to believe in
that, that these gods were that important.
And that's how we get night and day, is through these two gods.
The moment you've been waiting for, okay, here it is.
We will now perform a tribute to the sun god Ra.
We have--I should say they-have created a dance that they would
like to share with you, and it is our depiction
of celebrating the sun god.
And with that said, I'll stop rambling and we're going to
start dancing, so dancers let's get ready.
[audience applause]
Okay, just give us a second.
[unclear dialogue]
Alright, once again, you want to get up and you want to move a
little bit--it's boring sitting on a hard bleacher all day,
it's like sitting in a class all day in a hard desk,
that's no fun.
If you want to get up and move around while we dance,
you're more than welcome to come out here or you can stay
where you are, but I promise you I have a surprise for you
if you're sitting in the bleachers.
Alright dancers, are you ready?
The dance is about 2 minutes, 20 seconds, so it's not super long
but I think it's a good representation of just creative
movement and expressing our words up to a god,
which is the sun god Ra.
So with that said, dancers are you ready to rock and roll?
Audience, are you ready to rock and roll?
[audience responds, applause].
Okay, dancers, music starts now.
♪ [music playing-- no dialogue] ♪♪
[audience applause]
Well what did you think?
Was it a good rendition to the ancient sun god?
Did we do it justice?
I think a pretty good job, well done teachers.
That's not an easy thing to do, to dance in front of your peers
and audience and as you see, guys can do pirouettes too.
Guys can do headstands and cartwheels and etcetera.
It's an acceptable form of creative movement.
Now, as I said before, the more things change,
the more they stay the same.
I'd like you to take a look at this clip that I have here now.
[no dialogue].
>> Kevin Bacon: Class, I just wanted to say a
few words about this motion so that you wouldn't think
we were encouraging destruction with this idea.
From the oldest of times peopled danced for a number of reasons.
They danced in prayer or so that their crops would be plentiful,
or so that their hunt would be good.
And they danced to stay physically fit
and show their community spirit.
And they danced to celebrate".
And that is the dancing that we're talking about.
Aren't we told in Psalm 149?
"Praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song.
Let them praise his name in a dance".
>> class members: Amen.
>> Kevin Bacon: And it was King David--
King David who we read about in Samuel.
And what did David do?
What did David do?
What did David do?
"David danced before the Lord with all his might,
leaping and dancing before the Lord".
Leaping and dancing.
Ecclesiastes assures us that there is a time for
every purpose under heaven.
A time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to mourn,
and there is a time to dance.
And there was a time for this law,
but not anymore.
See this is our time to dance.
It is our way of celebrating life.
It's the way it was in the beginning.
It's the way it's always been.
It's the way it should be now.
>> Dr. Ronspies: How many of you
recognize that clip?
[audience applause]
As you see folks, it hasn't changed.
Nothing has changed in terms of the way that we
express ourselves through sport, physical activity,
dance, etcetera.
It's still the same.
We still do it for the same reaons, and we owe a lot of that
to our ancient Egyptian culture and our friends there.
We see this slide here,
but you have no idea what it's talking about.
And now is your moment folks, if you've got to get up,
you've got to do it now.
If you want to come out here and just let loose for the partner
and dance with your husband or wife or
your friend, it doesn't matter.
You've got to get up.
Now is your time because it's going to
be rocking here in a second.
I'm just preparing you, I'm not forcing you to come out here.
Just like [unclear dialogue], we always give people choice,
but if you want to get up where you are and just let loose,
you got about 5 seconds to get ready.
Alright, [unclear dialogue].
Alright, are you ready?
>> Kevin Bacon: Hey, what's this I see?
I thought this was a party.
Let's dance!
♪ [music playing] ♪♪
>> male speaker: Just watch, alright?
>> Dr. Ronspies: Those kids want to
dance for celebration, too.
You saw some similar movements in their dance
in comparison to ours.
You saw the gentleman wave his arms like this, you saw some of
the girls raise their hands in the air, you saw some kicks,
you saw some rolls, etcetera.
Folks, nothing has changed.
We're still dancing and playing sport and being
physically active for the same reasons that we were in 1500 BC.
Nothing really has changed.
So now you're sitting here--so what, I had to show up to this,
it wasn't really that exciting, I'm here.
This is what I call the "so what slide".
Implications for us--what can you, the audience member,
take away from this experience,
and this is what I hope you can gain from it.
One, folks, we're not that different.
The more things have changed, it's really all the same still
with respect to sport dance and the two cultures that
we're talking about.
Secondly, how may physical activity--sport or dance--
fit into your life?
We know what the ancient Egyptians did these things for,
but let's share some ideas--you don't have to say it out loud
if you don't want.
How do you incorporate sport, dance, etcetera
into your life currently?
Anyone, what do you do on a daily basis?
I bet you I can guess one--you pay for it every semester.
The rec center--do you go there to exercise, to socialize,
to work on fitness, etcetera?
Well there's one, let's get the ball rolling now,
let's get the snowball going.
How do you incorporate these things into your life?
Anyone--come on now, there's lots of people here,
there's got to be somebody thinking about something.
>> female audience member: Dance at bars.
>> Dr. Ronspies: Okay, dance at bars or clubs.
You do it to socialize, to meet people, etcetera.
That's a very important aspect of a young adult's life.
How else do you incorporate these things--physical activity,
sport, dance?
Intramurals, okay.
Anybody else, a few more.
Anybody else?
>> male audience member: You walk.
>> Dr. Ronspies: You walk.
You might walk to class, you might walk back home,
you may walk to a friend's house.
I see lots of people walking on Thursday nights, okay.
I'm sure that's not their number one objective is
physical fitness but they're walking at least--upright.
Next--we have a lot of opportunities available to us.
We have intramurals, we have competitive sport and dance.
Dr. Hussey and I just love to watch those crews that do the
step practice in the gym on Tuesday, Thursday nights--
they're highly skilled movers.
And they do competitions for fraternities and so forth,
and they go up to Chicago and dance in competitions.
Folks, we have no excuse to not be physically active
in some form or another.
We've got lots of opportunities available to us and I encourage
you to explore those and find what works for you, not just
what some trainer says, but what do you enjoy doing--
and try to stick with it the best you can.
Share these opportunities with others.
We just talked about this in methods today.
When you ask kids to pick a partner, who do they pick first?
Their friend.
Encourage a mom, a dad, a roommate, a brother, a sister,
etcetera, to go for a walk, go to the rec center.
Who wants to work out alone?
That's why you see a lot of people with ear buds
in their ears, because it distracts them from that.
Invite people to go do things.
Go play frisbee golf, use the facilities that we
have here on campus.
Folks, you pay for them, you might as well use them.
Select what you enjoy doing and try to stick with it.
And last but not least, maybe the most important thing is
you've got to have fun with it.
I don't like walking on a treadmill, so that's why
I don't do it, but if that's your gig then go for it.
Or if you like to go hike trails, etcetera--
pick what works for you.
There's no secret formula.
So that's what I hope you take away from this experience.
And last but not least, just a quote to
think about before you go.
As you can see, the past has brought us a lot of things we
still use today.
We've got to learn from it, grasp it and then move on and
try to make it better, and that should be the goal of anybody
who's trying to grow in goals personally or professionally.
Questions?
[audience applause]
Real quick before I let you loose--
and we did pretty good time, Kyle, 7:08.
Boy, I tell you what, we're sharp, aren't we, in PE.
Thanks again.
If I missed anybody, I do apologize.
We want to thank Dr. Wahby for everything that he's done for us
and Dean Lanham as well.
[unclear dialogue]
We also want to thank methods students
for their efforts as well.
We got Wes up there.
Thanks Wes, for staying awake.
We got Pete Grant over here who, you can't imagine what he did
for us, so we want to thank him.
And ultimately, obviously anybody that I've missed,
we want to thank.
And Bev, too--she's all over the place taking pictures.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Wahby: [unclear dialogue]
Dr. Ronspies: Thank you, we appreciate it.
Dr. Wahby: [unclear dialogue].
>> Dr. Ronspies: Yes, for the scarves,
for the scarves.
We appreciate those as well, thank you.
Folks thank you for coming, that's all we got.
You're more than welcome to stick around
if you have any questions.
Thank you.
[no dialogue].