Play, Sport, Dance, Ball Games: Categories in Motion

This chapter addresses a stark distinction between two forms of physical activity,
play and sport, and then discusses how two other categories of bodily movement
—ball games and dance— make a bridge between them. Two unanswered questions
are raised. First, why do ball games never appear in the programs of ancient Greek
athletic festivals? Second, why is the competition in pyrrhic dancing at the Panathenaea
a noteworthy exception to the absence of similar competitions in dance at these
festivals?