Camp Fete-Fete offers summer camp activities exclusively for adults — typical childhood activities and events that folks may not have had access to, but they can experience now.
It’s never too late.
The camp’s most recent activity included an evening of double Dutch at Highland Park taught by the founders of the Double Dutch Swing Squad.
“Camp Fete-Fete is all about bringing joy, playfulness and ease, but also making sure we move our bodies. I feel like we laughed so hard — that is the general vibe,” said Jacquelin Walker, founder of Camp Fete-Fete.
Coming up, Camp Fete-Fete has kayaking in Sharpsburg on Aug. 16, a water battle on Aug. 21 and horseback riding on Aug. 28.
The camp will culminate with a talent show on Aug. 30. Walker chose double Dutch for the lineup because it is something people tend to watch but are not always comfortable jumping into, she said.
“It’s something that when you see people do it, you feel like, ‘Wow, they are so good.’ There is an instant need to compare yourself while you are admiring, so I wanted to create a space where people could learn something or have the opportunity to relearn something that really connects people,” Walker said. “Jump rope has an integral place in young Black girlhood, a huge part of how girls come to create social bonds with each other and create community. I wanted to learn and create the opportunity for other people to do it too.”
As they swung the ropes, the person jumping had to get closer to the person turning the ropes. Community builds with the intimacy of getting closer, said Walker and the founders of Double Dutch Swing Squad.
“There is a community-oriented feeling, no matter the age or background, staying connected to our history,” said Shawnte Knox, founder of Double Dutch Swing Squad, along with Arista Hunter. The two met in college at Slippery Rock University. They didn’t see a consistent space for fun fitness through jump roping and double Dutch, so they decided to start something themselves.
They met at Highland Park, invited people via social media and have been doing it for the past three years.
“Just being able to exercise and move our bodies … double Dutch brings us more joy than just being in the routine of going to the gym,” Hunter said.
“It helps us to be creative and think outside the box when working out or trying new tricks in the ropes, even when turning. It’s a partnership, teamwork,” Knox said.
At Camp Fete-Fete, attendees learned to jump inside the ropes and turn the ropes. They also reminisced on nostalgic double Dutch rhymes like “Police Lady, Police Lady” and “Blackbirds, Blackbirds.”
“It’s all about encouragement,” Knox said.
Hunter and Knox grew up double Dutching in their neighborhoods, but they stopped doing it as they grew up and got busy, Hunter said. The environment that double Dutch necessitates is one that is not always available.
Both women said that as you come of age, you need the free space, the available time and also the comfort and trust of the people you are doing it with. These aspects become more elusive as people in adulthood become siloed into their own worlds.
Knox remembers her first time double Dutching as a child in Penn Hills. Doing it on a hill, she fell and scraped her knee. She was scared to do it to begin with because she hadn’t been taught, but her friends were pushing her to go in.
“But I kept trying and kept trying,” Knox said.
For Hunter, double Dutching was often a bonding experience with her cousins growing up in Braddock.
The Double Dutch Swing Squad founders say the fundamentals of double Dutching are stretching, staying hydrated, having fun, having an open mind and not taking yourself too seriously.
“It’s all about rhythm and trusting yourself. Even if you don’t have rhythm, you can still learn,” Hunter said.
“Healing is happening here,” Knox said.
To learn more about Camp Fete-Fete, click here.