Changing a Brooklyn Neighborhood ‘One Rope at a Time’
On a chilly Monday evening in October, about two dozen young women and girls spilled into a gym inside a public housing complex in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
After a brief huddle and some warm-ups, they fanned out across the floor. Within minutes, the gymnasium came alive in a kinetic kaleidoscope of motion, sound and youthful exuberance.
Several of the young women picked up pairs of long jump ropes and twirled them — slowly at first — as the youngest girls took turns hopping in. In a corner, two teenagers grabbed a set of ropes and spun them at lightning speed as a third girl hopped in the middle. She lifted her feet at a rapid clip, giving the appearance of sprinting in place as the ropes zipped underfoot and overhead.
This wasn’t just any other after-school activity: This was a practice session of the Jazzy Jumpers, a competitive double Dutch team that was established in the late 1980s.