Hopscotch

Hopscotch is a game we've all definitely played. It's so universal and age friendly (if you can still jump that is).

As kids we used to take chalks and draw on the concrete grounds or roads. I remember that there was no fixed way to draw it. Sometimes we started with 1, then 2 and 3, 4 other times it was 1, 2, 3 and 4. Our jumps used to be different each time.

When we drew it on the park ground, it stayed there for days. Other kids used to play on our board too. I got introduced to the stone version by my mother when I went to my hometown.

I never knew that hopscotch could be played with a twist until then. We take a stone, throw it on the numbers in order, and skip over that number. So the jump over 1 directly to 2 used be a big one for my little legs. The challenge came for the bigger numbers. Getting the stone to land directly on 6 or 7 was a task. Sometimes we were lucky enough to get it on the first try. And then bending down to retrieve it on one leg was equally as fun.

There's a reason hopscotch has so much nostalgia. It was the way we grew up and the people we grew up with. There's something so childish about jumping on squares in an order.

Another twist to hopscotch came in the form of dance for me. For my end of year dance production, our storyline was a 9-5 job where we slowly realise how important childhood games are for us. We interpreted these games in the form of dance.

Hopscotch was one of the games we played. We combined it with folk and classical to induce the nostalgic feel. Choreographing it was so much fun as we could tap back into our childhood and the freedom we had.

There were a lot of jumping and hopping steps. In the end, it came out beautifully. I started getting emotional on the stage as we finished that part of the set.

https://youtu.be/0VMyW_K-jkk?si=leX8ppzBFXwT1mN0

Since then, I've also associated hopscotch with dance. I miss those days when I used to be a happy carefree kid jumping on numbered blocks that we drew.

One can never outgrow hopscotch.