I was just sitting watching a Disneychannel movie with my kids. "Jump In." The setting is a jumprope competition. Single rope, double dutch, rope-dancing, you name it. It's amazing how Disney can wrap a script around anything.
Of course, my kids get up and start dancing and jumping around. I love it when kids dance. There is nothing better to watch in the whole world. Anyone in the vicinity of a kid-dancer, will always turn to watch and share in the joy of the moment.
The movie jogged my memory to the first time that I saw two girls jumping double dutch at school. I was elementary, probably fourth grade. It was foreign to me, being a "white girl," in the late 70's. Still not much integration even then. Double-dutch, still to this day, is an art form that is specific to urban areas, hence, the African-American community.
Double Dutch got it's name from the English. Originally is was brought from Amsterdam to New York City. It's history is attributed as far back as the Phoenicians. If you want to learn more about the history of this sport, http://www.nationaldoubledutchleague.com/History.htm.
I remember thinking that day at school, "Wow, I want to do that!" As fate would have it, I couldn't even negotiate one rope, let alone two. You had to run in to a rope already rotating. I was used to starting from a dead rope on the ground. Obviously, my body was too old, even at that early age, to be "re-coordinated," at least without more work than I was willing.
So I missed out.
When we segregate ourselves from another people, a different culture, of what are we depriving ourselves?
More than learning to jump rope.
1 comment:
Good blog. It IS sad how much we miss out on because we close ourselves off from other cultures (or our parents do it for us). I wish I knew how to dance better - but being a white girl growing up in a Baptist home the chances of that happening were about as slim as Christ himself returning as a woman.
Post a Comment