If you can’t bear to stay on the sidelines cheering on the youth, the Soul Line Dance Party at Newark Symphony Hall is the 2 nd Friday of every month. Check out The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-dutch to Hip-hop to learn more! Gaunt argues that discussions of commercial popular music often exclude the communal music making forms that are part of girl culture, and that in fact these traditions and their innovators are a sophisticated transmission of Black musical expression.
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While the league allowed professional recognition of the game as a sport, the songs sung, this aspect of girl culture, was deemphasized. I couldn’t help but wonder what Newark’s young women were up to game wise, around the same time.
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Vintage 1980’s footage shot by artist, documentarian and video freak Skip Blumberg can be seen on YouTube, Google his feature “Pick Up Your Feet.” The young women competing are fantastic, raw and full of life. The league’s origins date to 1970’s NYC, when two police detectives organized a double dutch tournament. Their grace and intensity are inspiring, and the larger public recognition of their gifts as individuals and in community is so welcome! But it’s all real, sweat and grace and skill. The girl’s ropes move so fast that they appear to be bands of light in some technologically augmented reality.
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Then, Lifetime created and aired a documentary series about the team, an invite to perform at the White House Easter celebration and to open up the 2014 BET Awards with Pharrell and Missy Elliot. Founded by Laila Little and Shaquannah Floyd, the team went on to compete in the American Double Dutch League's 40th annual World Invitational Championship, placing first in two categories, second in six and fourth in one.
The young women of FloydLittle Double Dutch Team are young Newark women whose mastery of double dutch is mesmerizing to watch. Kyra Gaunt, PhD, girl’s games like double dutch relate to African-American musical traditions in that they are about “exploring one’s kinetic potential and energy in a significant span of musical time and space.” Chants and the percussive, intricate movements of kicks, flips, and other complicated moves, the urging of the turner to the jumper to keep time, make for a unique art form perfected by urban youth. The rail rattle seemed like a background to their song, their commentary on the world.Īccording to TED speaker, professor, and author Dr. In the rocking train, as we rounded the Passaic river, that curve of water that tells me I’m home, I just had to smile. Will she sing songs? Chorus: (many songs, many songs, so many) Will she ride in a car all day? Chorus: (all day all night) Will she be on TV? Chorus: (TV, TV, TV, TV) Will she be famous? Chorus: (Famous, famous, famous) Recently on the PATH train to Newark I heard two little girls playing a handclapping game and singing