This past February, in the MoMa's All in me: black heroines series , Pick up your feet: the double dutch show, a documentary by Skip Blumberg about the double dutch tournament held in New York in 1981 in which The Fantastic Four, the queens of the moment. Now many don't know anything about double dutch, but there was a time when this street sport was religion, especially among the black community.
They are two players - the double dutch started out as almost strictly female - frantically twisting two ropes in opposite directions and one, two, or more! girls prancing at breakneck speed
What is double dutch? Although its origins are as uncertain as the term it refers to (double dutch refers to an unintelligible English lingo), it seems that it was the Dutch immigrants who brought this game to New Amsterdam, now New York. But it was in the seventies that it became a phenomenon and took the form we know today: two players - the double dutch started out as almost strictly female - frantically twisting two ropes in opposite directions and one, two, or more! girls prancing at breakneck speed. All it takes is two ropes and "a lot of effort," says Toni Veal, coach of world champions Jazzy Jumpers. “If you are willing, it doesn't take long to learn. It's a great cardio workout, it builds character and builds an extensive community. ” Aside from speed (the record is 245 jumps in one minute), extensive dancing skills are also required. Freestyle was, from the beginning, one of the most acclaimed tests by the public: the mixture of jumps with impossible virguerías and hip hop steps made double dutch not only an almost acrobatic sport but, by far, the coolest. . It was cheap, it could be done anywhere, team spirit was the most important thing, and it was African-American girls who did it. Adrienne Nikki Howell, one of the 'Fantastic Four' remembers that for her double dutch meant “to be important, to be someone for the girls in my community”.
Those responsible for this game going from being a school playground entertainment to a sport considered as such were Ulysses Williams and David A. Walker, two New York police officers who, aware that there were only baseball, soccer and basketball on the streets, fixed the rules of a competition designed by and for girls. Kyra Gaunt, author of the book The games black girls play: learning the ropes from double-dutch to hip-hop, stresses: “In the 1950s, it was widespread among girls from segregated black communities in cities like Washington DC, Los Angeles or New York. Black girls and women identified their practice as a key expression of their community and identity. ”
In 1974, the first official competition for this activity took place at Lincoln Center, which, according to Williams, “is the team sport par excellence. You can't practice it unless its three or four members work together like a Swiss watch. ” Or, as De'Shone Goodson, another member of The Fantastic Four, recalls, "one of the values we transmitted was and continues to be: teamwork makes the dream work."
A documentary about the 'double dutch' in which Fantastic Four, the most famous team in history, participate.
In the eighties double dutch exploded and became part of all that street culture based on graffiti, breakdance and hip hop. Not surprisingly, the jumps of the girls fit perfectly with the rhythms of the MCs and the physical skill required by the double rope was identical to that required to batter on the floor dancing breakdance. "All of that made us a part of hip hop history , even if we were only known as The Double Dutch Girls," recalls Robin Watterson, another of the 'Fantastic Four'.
McDonald's commercials starring The Fantastic Four, sponsorships of Mobile Oil or Seven Up, Malcolm McLaren dedicating a song to him in 1983 and the hyper-masculine hip hop scene making room for the powerful feminine energy of double dutch or sampling some of the songs in their songs that were used to jump. Such a pop artifact needed to be exported. In the documentary Black Magic (1984) the journey of the eponymous team, one of the most powerful of the time, to London is narrated. "They had never left Connecticut. It was like going to another planet, ”recalls David Hoffman, its director. “At first it was just a street game and it ended up being something extraordinary. I don't think they were aware of their popularity until they performed before the Queen. "
“If you are willing, it doesn't take long to learn. It's a great cardio workout, it builds character and builds an extensive community. ” (Toni Veal, coach of the world champions Jazzy Jumpers)
Like remote-controlled missiles, these international tours managed to spread fever by jumping. In Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands or Sweden. But especially in Japan and France. The Double Dutch Federation in France marks the origins of this practice in its country in 1982. That year the New York City Rap Tour landed in Europe : graffiti artists, djs, breakdancers, rappers and rope skippers. Afrika Bambaataa, The Rock Steady Crew or The Fantastic Four. "A street sport led four young people of color to present themselves to the world," recalls Delores Finlayson of The Fantastic Four. But, above all, it was a tour designed for hip hop culture to show its credentials to a non-American audience. " Double dutch," says Veal, "will always belong to the black community, but it is still a sport, and as such, it has no borders."
However, when it seemed that the next step was to become an Olympic sport, in the mid-eighties, this sport began to languish, almost falling into oblivion. Separated from the hip hop scene , with fewer and fewer fans and no major sponsors, 1984 will be the year after a fizzling decade, the national championship stops being held.
Although in 2009 he entered schools as a sport, it would be necessary to wait for 2017 for the double dutch to return to the place it should never have left: the street. According to The New York Times, the trigger for the glorious return to Lincoln Center itself was precisely the Blumberg documentary with which the Lincoln programmer accidentally ran into being fascinated. "The Fantastic Four were and continue to be role models for new generations, whether or not they practice this sport," Blumberg explains. Whenever this documentary is shown, the audience applauds throughout the screening, not just at the end. ”
In the eighties double dutch exploded and became part of all that street culture based on graffiti, breakdance and hip hop. Not surprisingly, the jumps of the girls fit perfectly with the rhythms of the MC
Now there seems to be a spectacular effort to recover this sport and restore its luster. According to Hoffman, "there are certain signs that he will return to the city, which is very hopeful: it had a very positive effect on those girls." Gaunt, however, believes that the resurgence of double dutch “is not happening among young people, but in adults. Black women have the highest obesity rates in the United States and we are recovering this sport as a game to transmit to our daughters. ” Along these lines, events like the recent Pretty Girls Jump, organized by Weight no More, with rapper Toya Johnson as one of the invited stars proliferate.
At this point, the most sensible thing is for you to google “double dutch” and see what the human body –some, at least– is capable of doing because, as its creator, Williams said, “to understand what they do, you have to record it and play it in slow motion. "
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