How Black Roller Skaters Are Carrying Forward LA's Iconic Scene | If Cities Could Dance

In Los Angeles, roller skaters draw from a community and culture built over generations at Venice Beach and at rinks across the city. Over the past year, roller skating hit the mainstream as a safe and relatively accessible pandemic-era pastime, its international popularity bolstered by people recording their shaky progress on social media. Skates were sold out for months, and skaters have become major influencers on Instagram and TikTok. But longtime skaters are quick to remind everyone: This isn’t a fad.

Dating back to the ‘80s, OG jam skaters with boom boxes in hand, claimed the boardwalk as their outdoor roller rink, showing off acrobatic freestyle moves, flips and choreographed routines. Today many of them still skate, passing down the scene’s history and moves to younger skaters. While outdoor skating is a spectacle for anyone to watch, LA’s local rinks are known for their tight-knit community and high-paced action, with skaters zipping around the rink’s edge, doing tricks, flips, slides, and dips.

Paradoxically, skating’s newfound popularity comes against a backdrop of rink closures as skate communities struggle to exist. In Los Angeles County, popular rinks like Skate Depot and Flippers are shells of their former glory. In Nov. 2020, World on Wheels, the iconic rink that rapper Nipsey Hussle helped reopen in 2017 after its first closing, was closed for good.

In this episode of #IfCitiesCouldDance, meet some of LA’s Black skaters who are pushing the culture forward amidst a pandemic and economic downturn -- from TikTok stars raising the profile of BIPOC skaters to a rink skaters using parking lots for skate boogies and opportunities to support Black businesses.

📌Editor’s note: This episode was filmed under strict guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic. Safety parameters were followed to protect the health of the dancers and video production team.

📺WATCH this jam skating tutorial with pro skater Alicia Reason: http://bit.ly/HowToJamSkate

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📖 Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/ICCDxLosAngeles
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⬇ Download English transcript here: https://bit.ly/ICCDxLAxTranscript

📖​ Chapters:

00:00 Meet Alicia Reason, Roller Skater
00:14 What Roller Skating Means to Alicia
00:58 The Scene in Venice Beach and Los Angeles
01:17 Kamry Lorin, Jam Skater and Founder of SISTA Skate
02:11 Alicia's Personal History and Roller Skating
02:35 The OGs of Roller Skating
03:10 Roller Skating at Mar Vista
03:59 Raquel "Roxy" Young, Rink Skater and Founder of ROXY's Backyard Sk8Boogie
04:40 Importance of DJs
04:57 Legendary Skate Rinks: Skate Depot and World on Wheels
06:02 Roller Skaring is Resistance

👟Featured dancers:
Kamry Lorin, Founder of SISTA Skate
Alicia Reason
Raquel “Roxy” Young, Founder, ROXY’s Backyard Sk8Boogie
Liliana Ruiz
Frances “Abominatrix” McGee
Kelsey Guy
Wendy Peralta
Cierra Chérie,
Cree Thompson
James “BuckWild” Rich
Dee Upshaw
Ahmber Azali

🎨Featured murals:
Mural by J-Cup
"Never Stop Playing" by DjLu / Juegasiempre (2018)
"The Marathon Continues" by Danny Mateo, Carlos Gomez. Spray paint provided by Loop Colors.

#ifcitiescoulddance #rollerskating #losangeles