 | The Double Dutch Divas appear every Sunday at 7 pm from the beginning of July thru the 2-3rd week of September. Located just yards downtown beside the skater's circle in Central Park, right beside the skater's after-party.
Website: doubledutchdivas.com
Double Dutch a sport in which one person jumps rope with two ropes and one or more people jumping simultaneously.
Playing Double Dutch involves at least three people total: one or more jumping and two turning the ropes. A person jumping usually does tricks that may involve gymnastics or breakdancing, it can also have fancy foot movements incorporated. Young people, including many boys, do this for fitness and it is competed at world level. Competitions in double-dutch were often seen at block parties.
During the very early years of hip hop culture, double-dutch was an element of the culture (popularized in the song Double Dutch Bus). After hip hop began moving towards the mainstream in the early 1980s, double-dutch fell out of favor as a recognized element of hip hop, although it remains popular with athletes to this day.
Double Dutch Bus was a 1981 funk song by Frankie Smith, made famous for its extensive use of the "izz" infix form of slang. The song title represents a portmanteau of two institutions in Smith's Philadelphia neighborhood: the double dutch game of jump rope played by neighborhood kids, and the SEPTA bus system that was a backbone of the local transportation network (and for which Smith had unsuccessfully applied for a bus driving position). Smith persuaded contacts at WMOT Records to finance the song, and it was recorded in summer 1981, engineered by Gene Leone. The song rocketed to popularity in a matter of weeks, landing on the Billboard Top 40 charts on July 11, 1981.
The language that they use to speak in, is often used by rapper Snoop Dog, and has been referred to as "Double Dutch". Speaking Double Dutch would be to add "izz" or "illz" to the middle of words. Thus the phrase "We all play Double Dutch" becomes "Willze aillzll plizzay Dizzouble Dizzutch" in the song.
This song was famously sampled in Missy Elliot's 2003 single "Gossip Folks."
History:
The Dutch settlers brought the game to the Hudson River trading town of New Amsterdam (now New York City). When the English arrived and saw the children playing their game, they called it Double Dutch. The game has since grown over the years, particularly in urban areas. It became a favorite pastime to sing rhymes while turning and jumping. During World War II, the game was often played on the sidewalks of New York. By the late 1950s the radio music boom dominated urban America and the lack of recreational areas in close proximity to apartment buildings had made the game nearly extinct.
In 1973, David A. Walker, then a New York City Police Community Affairs Detective, joined by his partner Detective Ulysses Williams, developed the street game of Double Dutch into the World Class Sport that it is today. With the assistance of the physical education instructors at IS 10, Walker and Williams revitalized the game by developing it into a competitive team sport. On February 14, 1974, the first Double Dutch tournament was held with nearly 600 fifth, sixth, seventh and eight grade students participating. |