Comments on: The art of Double Dutch

The art of Double Dutch

Viomeda — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 18:35:37 -0800

The art of Double Dutch: Whatever happened to the that tricky urban past time Double Dutch? The savvy dames from Harlem made it famous and continue to keep it competitive. How about the Double Duchess' jumping in schoolgirl plaids and kitty suits? Even Fat Albert can keep the legacy hip. Video's galore.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 18:58:43 -0800

Fun! Thanks for reminding me of some of my favorite double dutch rhymes - I had most of the ones on this page memorized. Even though they say "Down By the Rollercoaster" is a hand game, hardcore ropers know it's really a double dutch rhyme. and best use of the phrase double dutch in a song: "New Amsterdam it's become much too much Till I have the possession of everything she touches Till I step on the brakes to get out of her clutches Till I speak double dutch to a real double duchess"

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 19:00:22 -0800

Thanks, Vio. This Friday has been sadly flash-free; great stuff! Also, I love you. I'll see you at the airport tomorrow.

By: furtive

furtive — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 19:04:06 -0800

Give me a HO! if you've got your funky bus fare.

By: hellbient

hellbient — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:17:08 -0800

HO!

By: airguitar

airguitar — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:18:47 -0800

By: airguitar

airguitar — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:25:36 -0800

♫

By: Viomeda

Viomeda — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:38:29 -0800

Oh thank you thank you thank you airguitar, I have been killing myself looking for a clip of that video. I have a copy of it that i recorded from MTV oh so long ago. The song it great and the video is the best with skinny little Malcom hanging out with a bunch of talented black ladies two-stepping in overdrive. Can you do the double dutch (because the time is running out)?!!

By: tozturk

tozturk — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:38:52 -0800

They still play it in my neighborhood of younger days in South Philadelphia.

By: Viomeda

Viomeda — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:39:51 -0800

You rock, now the post is complete.

By: gnutron

gnutron — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:02:39 -0800

i went to college with one of these girls....

By: Kloryne

Kloryne — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:25:36 -0800

Oh, I love this post! As a little white girl in Oklahoma, I envied all those cool Double Dutch-ing girls we would see on various educational programs from the East Coast. They had style (and cool barettes). We tried like hell to get our own Double Dutch thing going, but we failed miserably. We finally got to where we could jump through two ropes at a time, but we couldn't get the speed up. Plus the rhymes. 2 of the 3 black girls in our school were in it with us, but they eventually got sick of our suck-itude and stopped playing with us. (So we decided to pretend we were "Valley Girls" instead.) *And that's the report from Like Wobegon...

By: Kloryne

Kloryne — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:27:28 -0800

or "Lake" Wobegon, rather -- But "Like, Wobegon" goes better with the Valley Girl thing, I guess.

By: Captaintripps

Captaintripps — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:42:24 -0800

Is this the new white girl college fad? It has trendnik written all over it.

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 22:18:46 -0800

More (not enough) in this video. (Quicktime, click on "Super 8"). Those hipster girls are cute and I like their carefully selected outfits, but in terms of skills they can't touch what I remember seeing on the playground, back in the day. Or in this short video.

By: Vervain

Vervain — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 22:35:38 -0800

Excellent link, iconomy, but now I'm sitting in front of the computer doing half of the little hand jive that went with the McDonalds rhyme. So...thanks, I guess. It was also a surprise to discover that the only other one I remembered was actually a hybrid of two or three rhymes as they appeared on that page...plus some other random stuff. There's some kind of whacked-out anthropological study there, I'm sure. Miss Sue (clap clap) Miss Sue (clap clap) Miss Sue from Alabama Hey little girl with the strawberry curls Mama's got the measles, Papa's got the mumps Take an A-B-C-D-E-F-G Take an H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P Take a booster shot, take a booster shot Uno, dos, tres Down down baby down by the roller coaster Sweet sweet baby I don't wanna let you go Shimmy shimmy cocoa pop, shimmy shimmy pow! Shimmy shimmy cocoa pop, shimmy shimmy POW! (punch other person in the arm)

By: Viomeda

Viomeda — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 22:55:52 -0800

Hydo: Very, extremely, and most definitely, Hot Stuff! Those where the good ol' days for sure. No one can do it like the originals. The white girls do go for the fashion award over the strict badassness. Try downloading the McLaren video its got all those moves.

By: vporter

vporter — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 23:22:52 -0800

Double duchess have been putting it out in San Francisco for a while and even got a random writeup last year in the NY Times (no SF Chronicle coverage tho)! Those ladies are the best, just having some fun. Check out the DVD, it's hilarious (parody of a workout video). They have the best themes too: *ravers in a k-hole *out-of-control, belligerent mothers (this one was on flag day with coachwhips 2 years ago - they did a tour of SF - financial dist, ocean beach, twin peaks & 16th/mission bart stop). *Industrial Goth, mad at the world

By: Miko

Miko — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 07:26:10 -0800

Whatever happened to Double Dutch? It's still done. There are national competitions for it, but you can observe it still in urban schoolyards. I think it's just been a while since pop culture celebrated it.

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 10:01:52 -0800

In my mom's west side Detroit neighborhood (late 1940s), all the black girls jumped Double Dutch. My mom said they tried to teach her, but it just went too fast for her. She and her sisters had to content themselves with "High Water - Low Water" and "High-Low-Jolly-Pepper" type of jump rope.

By: Tomatillo

Tomatillo — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 21:30:06 -0800

Double Dutch is the new Burlesque.

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 04:06:25 -0800

vio, i think the go team video posted by hydro is actually current...look close... i love that band...'junior kickstart' is my new favorite tune...

By: rachelpapers

rachelpapers — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 14:56:19 -0800

You hipsters! No one has posted the obligatory Doom lyric? As follows in the text: "That's the difference between sissy-pissy rappers that's double-dutch How come I hold the microphone double-clutch?"

By: rafter

rafter — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:08:50 -0800

It doesn't get better than All for Swinging You Around. (.mov)

By: rafter

rafter — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:11:29 -0800

By the way, the link content is entirely safe for work, but be warned that the URL itself might get you in trouble if someone is looking just at the logs.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 18:56:38 -0800

The Chicago Bulls have an Acrobatic Team consisting of kids from the neighborhood near the United Center (I think), and they do all sorts of cool jumprope tricks, including the double dutch. I remember seeing this done on Sesame Street years ago. : ) I never had the coordination required to do it.