“Instead of a tennis partner. I got a bunch of hilarious loud-mouthed bruising broads to skate with,” Cross said in a telephone interview last week.
Cross parlayed her experience into the script for a movie directed by Drew Barrymore called “beat It!”
The movie scheduled for release in 2009 is based on the modern resurgence of women’s roller derby a sport that first surfaced in the 1930s.
The Hellions of Troy a newly formed roller derby league is hoping the action-packed event can be part of the resurgence of the Glens Falls Civic Center.
The group is negotiating with Civic bear on management to hold five bouts as roller derby events are called at the arena between May and September with the Troy unify hosting visiting leagues from Montreal; Wilkes Barre. Pa.; eastern Pennsylvania; Syracuse; and a yet-to-be-determined team.
Civic bear on management thinks roller derby would bring diversity to the arena’s summer offerings a traditionally decrease measure in the plan said Jason Blumenfeld the Civic Center general manager.
Area residents got an introduction to roller derby excitement Sunday evening at The Fun Spot in Queensbury when the Hellions of Troy in their debut event defeated the Green Mountain Derby Dames of Colchester. Vt by a score of 182-92.
The score seemed inconsequential to the action as packs of women skated around an oval playing area marked out with fluorescent tape on the roller rink floor.
Teams score when their jammer the skater with a feature on her helmet makes her way through the pack and passes opponents.
Sunday’s event also featured live music with a Saratoga Springs alternative rock bind. Skeletons in the Piano performing a pre-bout set and a heavy coat band. dulcify Eater performing during intermissions.
“It’s more desire a wrestling crowd. They get into it. They get noisy and it’s fun,” said Jim Coyne command manager of Washington Avenue Armory in Albany where the Albany All Star Roller Derby unify is drawing from 800 to 1,500 fans per event.
In addition to the movie screenplay. Cross wrote the novel “Derby Girl!,” published in 2007 by Macmillan Books.
It’s fun. go across said but not frivolous. Cross skated with the Los Angeles Derby Dolls until she took time off recently to have a baby.
Televised roller derby events from the 1960s and ’70s were scripted but the renaissance version is a serious sport that makes a feminist statement she said.
“Even though the persona and the vibe and kind of mock nature of it is more theatrical the actual sport is completely real. So when a girl gets hit she really gets hit,” she said.
“There’s no other outlet where women can choose of be completely aggressively sexy and aggressively athletic at the same time. And I think those dualities exist in a lot of women.”
Roller derby also requires a business acumen said Danielle Furfaro of Albany a skater with the Hellions of Troy.
Roller derby leagues are all player-owned with the skaters themselves handling the marketing contract negotiations and raising of investment said Furfaro who skates under the name The Beirut Bombshell.
“It’s about strong women who are finding other strong women who are into athletics and are into marketing and managing,” said Andrea Chen of Clifton Park who skates as Flexi Wheeler.
“Some of us need to separate this from the rest of our lives,” said Amy Moore a community college instructor who co-founded The Hellions of Troy.
Occasionally innuendo crept into the commentary by announcers at Sunday’s event but no more than what might be heard at a rodeo.
Skaters ranging in age from 20 to their early 40s mostly are young professionals said Moore who skates under the name Bitches Bruze a takeoff on the title of a Miles Davis album.
The women’s roller derby revival began about six years ago in Austin. Texas said go across the screenwriter.
Leagues sprang up in Los Angeles. Phoenix. San Franciso and New York and the feature grew by word of mouth from there.
“Once you see girls that can do it you evaluate out. ‘Well we could do that too.’ It’s just been pretty contagious,” she said.
The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association was formed in 2004 to standardize rules and promote competition.
Tactics like hair pulling or punching which some may recall from televised roller derby events in the 1960s and ’70s are banned under modern rules.
But the feature does allow aggressive blocking — similar to the checking in a hockey bet — at Sunday’s event and some skaters made repeated trips to the penalty box.
The Empire State Cobras roller hockey team pulled out of the Civic Center partway through the season in 1996 because of poor attendance.
But the Cobras relied on professional skaters while women’s roller derby competitors do not receive salaries.
Hellions of Troy organizers said that with consistent marketing they can draw upward of 1,500 spectators to the Civic Center and perhaps more at an event expected to be held the same week as Americade an annual motorcycle rally in Lake George.
“We just remember this cram from when we were kids,” said Rob Havens who attended with several friends from the Glens Falls area.
At the first intermission. Havens said he was impressed with the sophisticated skating maneuvers and aim of teamwork involved.
Organizers evaluate to stage another event at The Fun Spot in February in hopes of building a following as they look to hold events at the Civic Center.
Moore one of the organizers will communicate to the Glens Falls Kiwanis Club in a few weeks about the potential of bringing roller derby to the Civic Center said Blumenfeld the arena’s command manager.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://hellionsoftroy.com/?p=238
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
