coded by Paula Ortiz. Not responsive 15" screen
Roller skating originated in the performing arts. In the United States, roller skating as a hobby began to gain popularity in the 1930s. In the 1970s it was associated with disco music and roller discos. During the 1990s, inline outdoor roller skating became popular.
A resurgence? Yes. A trend? That’s tricky. There’s a danger that labelling it as one overlooks its existing vibrant community for whom it’s not a passing way to take their mind off the pandemic. “If you ask a skater what does skating mean to them, they’ll say it’s more than a physical activity – it becomes a part of your soul, you eat, sleep, breathe, live the lifestyle that revolve around finding your new flat space,” says Blackwood, noting that as a genre it has with no fewer than 10 different iterations, including the Roller Derby contact sport which boasts over 1,000 leagues worldwide. - BY SCARLETT CONLON
Besides Instagram stars like Janta, and the Hackney-based model Cheyenne Carty (90.6k followers at last count), TikTok’s kaleidoscopic, algorithm-driven feed has helped drive the trend this summer: there, you’ll find video after video of acrobatic skaters weaving through cones and dancing to disco, wheels spinning beneath their balletic bodies. And duly, from Victoria Park to Brockwell Park, Hyde Park to Regents Park, on peachy, sun-drenched summer evenings, you’ll find the amateur in-line skaters on the move, too: weaving in and out of cones set on the tarmac, trying to moonwalk in reverse, and getting in the way of the cyclists and scooters who have also hit the roads this summer. - BY PHOEBE LUCKHURST