In Seattle, a Black-woman led organization is using jump ropes to bring unity to the community.

Double Dutch Divas spend the majority of their week focusing on physical and emotional health in a fun way. At their pop-up sessions around the city, you’ll see children and adults smiling broadly in the sunshine, showing off fancy footwork and hopping between jump ropes. And you’ll likely also hear a confidence boosting chorus of encouragement — “You go, girl!”, “You got this!” or “Ayyy!” — from supporters on the sidelines.

Among those in the crowd will be Angie Mosley, who founded the organization in 2021. She’s easy to spot — she stays rocking Double Dutch Divas swag everywhere she goes. As a 46-year-old mother of two sons, who also works for the school system, wearing the merchandise is her way of representing her organization’s dopeness.

“This is my life. This is my heart, you know?” Mosley said. “Double dutch is a sport, and now with enrichment it’s helping these young kiddos find themselves, reach their goals and everything like that. So I’m really proud of where Double Dutch Divas is going because we started from the bottom now we’re here, you feel me?”

What started as a kickback among friends during the pandemic has turned into a whole health and fitness program. Double Dutch Divas teach children the importance of teamwork while working on their hand-eye coordination and balance. From Monday through Saturday, the kids of Seattle can count on the organization’s 15 coaches to show up with good tunes and good vibes during after school programs through Seattle Public Schools or at the Southwest Boys and Girls Club.

History of Black girl magic in double dutch

Black women and girls perfected the show stopping artform of double dutch. Kyra Gaunt, a University of Albany professor and author of “The Games Black Girls Play,” told The Washington Post that the roots of double dutch aren’t in Egypt or China. They’re in the streets, sidewalks and playgrounds of Black, urban neighborhoods where Black girls filled their free time emulating, and later influencing, African and African American music making through hand clapping, cheering and jump roping games. An example of this can be found in Nelly’s “Country Grammar,” which has a chorus based off of the hand-clapping game “Down Down Baby.” Gaunt stated that when women were exiled from most sports during the post-World War II era, Black girls used jump ropes to create a space where they not only showed off their athleticism but continued the African tradition of using rhythm and chants to connect to one another.

When two Black New York City policemen evolved jump roping into a competitive sport in the ‘70s, Black girls came through and dominated. A Double Dutch team made up of middle school best friends known as the Fantastic Four became an example of the Black girl magic in the sport after becoming World Wide Double Dutch Champions in 1980. The showmanship of the sport pushed double dutching into the spotlight through documentaries like “Pick Up Your Feet.”  McDonald’s sponsored competitions and produced commercials featuring Double Dutch teams.

While double dutch isn’t as mainstream as it was back then, organizations such as the 40+ Double Dutch Club in Chicago and DC Retro Jumpers are keeping the legacy alive. Celebrities still lean into the nostalgia of double dutch for their songs and music videos.

Moseley said over the past few years, Double Dutch Divas has made space to strengthen sisterhood in Seattle. Black women discard their insecurities before hopping into the game — careful not to interrupt the swinging ropes. Thoughts about body image or what someone is wearing are replaced with playful chants and rhythmic skipping.

“It helps Black women be comfortable around other Black women, and take a compliment and sweat in front of other Black women. They know that, ‘She’s not talking about you,’” Mosley said. “If you’re shaking a little bit, she don’t care about you shaking a little bit. Ain’t nobody worried about what your hair looks like or what you got on because we love you how you came.”

Jump as you are

Mosley learned about Double Dutch at the playgrounds of her middle school. While she enjoyed singing rhymes like “Miss Mary Mack,” it wasn’t an activity she enjoyed often at first. As a big-chested young girl, Mosley’s self-consciousness steered her away from the ropes.

Mosley didn’t get into the sport until she was an adult looking to add some fun to her exercise routine. She started getting into programs like Girl Trek, a public health campaign encouraging Black women to walk and exercise together. In her 30s, inspired by her network of Black women who aspire to be healthy together, Mosley started carrying around Double Dutch ropes and playing the game casually with friends. One of Mosley’s friends told her she would be a good coach because of how she patiently taught people how to double dutch.

Mosley didn’t think much of the compliment. It wasn’t a big deal, she said. She just wanted to Double Dutch. When the pandemic slowed the world down in 2020, many people soothed their sense of isolation by investing more time in their hobbies. Mosley was feeling that same itch, so she found herself asking her friends in a group chat if they wanted to go outside and do some Double Dutch. After they agreed, she would pull up at the park early to set things up with jump ropes, water and lawn chairs.

Double Dutch became a way to relax and was a beautiful sight to see: Black friends skipping around, their bodies full of laughter during a time when COVID-19 and police brutality were causing trauma and chaos. Mosley said it didn’t take long for onlookers to start getting in on the fun.

“It was a whole lot of chocolate down there, and we were getting it in for real,” Mosley said, “Then white people, Black people, Asian, whoever would just walk by looking at us and I’m like, ‘You want to jump in there?’ They would be like, ‘Oh, I don’t know how to do that. And I’m like, ‘Come on, man!’ We would get any and everybody in the ropes doing something they’ve never done before.”

A domino-effect of events led to the growth Double Dutch Divas is seeing today. As Mosley started building more camaraderie in the community, donations started trickling in, which prompted her to create Double Dutch Divas LLC. Mosley said a girl who was enjoying their double dutch sessions asked both her parents and her school if Double Dutch Divas could join their after-school program. The school agreed. After that, the organization also started tapping in at community events.

“It wasn’t something that I sat down and I said, ‘I’m gonna teach Double Dutch to kids at the after school program.’ It didn’t happen like that,” Mosley said. “God put this in my lap, but I think he put it in my lap because I have passion for the jump rope, the double dutch, being active and  moving around.”

As a paraprofessional for the school system, Mosley knows many kids who have the potential to grow in extracurriculars like ballet, gymnastics or swimming, but they can’t participate in those activities due to cost, lack of access or clashes with parents’ work schedules. But Double Dutch Divas provides free fun thanks to grants and partnerships with other organizations. Mosley said they are providing an important asset to the community by giving children a space to build a genuine and caring connection with the organization’s 15 coaches.

“There’s kids out here who need mentors. That’s like if a kid needs a little bit of extra help in math, they need a tutor,” Mosley said. “That’s what we do because when we’re double dutching, that’s when the kids want to talk about what happened at school. They want to talk about, ‘This boy who called me out my name.’ And I’m going to coach them to do the right thing.”

While Mosley is the founder, she often expresses her appreciation for the other Black women who form the team behind the dream. All the coaches make it a priority to nurture the children’s emotional well-being. Mosley remembers being a kid watching the old Double Dutch competitions and how coaches would yell at kids when they made a mistake while jump roping. Mosley and her team don’t bring that type of energy at Double Dutch Divas. If someone gets frustrated or starts crying because they messed up, Mosley said they will encourage them to try again. This creates healing moments for the entire family.

“The parents come in and they’re videotaping their kid. When the kid gets done jumping, they go jump on their mom or dad, they wrap their legs around them and hug them tight,” Mosley said. “I said, ‘Man, we’re bringing families together.’”

Mosley said her favorite moments with the organization is watching a child go from an “I can’t” mindset to doing fancy tricks and leaping through the ropes with their friends following behind them.

Watching the kids’ self-esteem grow has helped nurture Mosley’s confidence as well. One day, she saw a child use a single rope while double dutching. Self doubt sunk into Mosley’s psyche as she thought about her age and how she couldn’t jump like she used to back in the day.

But she quickly shut down the limitation she was placing on herself.

“I’m teaching these kids not to say ‘I can’t. ‘So why am I saying I can’t?” Mosley said. “So I got in them ropes and I did it myself. And now it’s poppin’.”