![]() ![]() Women in their 70s and 80s have joined in the Bronzeville meetups, Elmore said, and rope can be purchased for cheap at a hardware or sporting goods store. There’s little barrier to entry in terms of age, cost and skill for local women, Bronzeville club co-captain Ericka Elmore said. We’re like the forgotten demographic, because a lot of people don’t consider us a target market.” “That’s part of the need I think this group has filled for women. “It’s very hard to find groups or organizations that are solely focused on women over 40,” Robinson said. She’s found few social gatherings for her women her age that aren’t centered around dining, grabbing drinks or otherwise spending money on each hangout, she said. The double dutch club rolls solo, with no official partner organizations, Robinson said. Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago An attendee smiles after blowing a whistle during a dance to Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle” at Tuesday’s meetup. “I just got back from New York and met the ladies of the Fantastic 4 - they’re now part of our New York group,” Robinson said of the legendary double dutch crew from Manhattan. As a couple dozen women met Tuesday evening in Mandrake Park, sessions simultaneously took place in Schaumburg, St. Now, meetups take place seven days a week throughout Chicagoland, while the club’s Facebook page has nearly 22,000 members from around the world. “This has become something so much more than double dutch - we laugh together, we play together, we pray together.” ![]() “We started with about 10 or so members,” Dyer-Taylor said. The effort gradually grew from a weekly outing to twice a week. Seeking to jump more regularly, Robinson posted a call for participants on her Facebook page, which drew several attendees for the first club meeting. The club traces its roots to Robinson and Catrina Dyer-Taylor’s infrequent meetups at Dyer-Taylor’s house to jump rope, which started in May 2016. Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago An attendee jumps rope during a double dutch session at Tuesday’s meetup in Mandrake Park. Sessions end with a cooldown dance, a group picture and a prayer circle. Open play leads into African hopscotch, an advanced version of hopscotch that’s a good cardio workout, Robinson said. “If they can’t turn, they can just move their feet to the music.” That’s followed by an hour of open play, where women play as they please and listen to old-school music like Frankie Smith’s “ Double Dutch Bus” or George Kranz’s “ Din Daa Daa.”įor double dutch, “some people - if they can’t jump - they can turn” the ropes, Robinson said. Meetups are loosely structured, starting with temperature checks since the pandemic began and 10 minutes of stretching. ![]() ![]() Saturdays in Pullman at the Pullman Community Center parking lot, 10355 S. Wednesdays just south of Ashburn at Yukich Field, 8900 S. Tuesdays in Bronzeville at Mandrake Park, 3858 S. An official membership requires purchasing a club t-shirt. “Anybody who joins our Facebook group page can come out,” Robinson said. “It’s a club for women to come out and play outside again.” “When we jump double dutch, it takes us back in time to a place where we didn’t have to worry about kids, jobs, bills, any of those things,” Robinson said. The club incorporates “all the things we did when we were little girls,” co-founder and South Shore resident Pamela Robinson said. The 40+ Double Dutch Club brings the titular rope jumping, hopscotch, hula hooping, hand games and other outdoor activities every day to parks and parking lots across the South Side and suburbs. SOUTH SHORE - Women 40 and older are reviving their schoolyard skills and playing outside together like they did when they were kids, thanks to a double dutch club founded by two South Siders. ![]()
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