Learn why roller skating ‘never quite goes away’ at this new museum exhibit in Tacoma

A spinning mirrored disco ball marks the entry to a new exhibit on roller skating at the Washington State History Museum in downtown Tacoma. The disco era is just one of the periods in skating history that the show chronicles from the 1800s to present day.

“Skate: Rinks, Derbies & Discos in Washington Skate History” runs through Aug. 20.

Derek Nguyen, the museum’s spokesperson, said the planned exhibit was smaller than the size it now occupies. Public enthusiasm and loans of artifacts prompted museum staff to increase its scope and footprint.

“Roller skating has had a lot of waves,” he said. “It surges in popularity, then it goes down, but never quite goes away.”

The show covers the span of roller skating in Washington and its subcultures from civil rights to square dancing.

Skating origins

Roller skating dates to the 1800s in Washington, one of the few coed activities available, Nguyen said. Wooden-wheeled skates from 1871 are one of the oldest artifacts in the show.

“It was a very controversial and scandalous activity at the time because men and women were allowed to participate together,” he said. “It was often held in dance halls or other places that were looked down upon by a lot of moralists at the time.”

During the Great Depression, endurance competitions featuring pairs of skaters became popular. The 1930s were also when roller derby appeared.

Dockyard Derby Dames

Roller derby, where players circle a track and gain points by passing other players, enjoyed surges and recessions in popularity.

The mostly female sport took off in Tacoma in the mid-2000s, according to Laura Quiett, who was one of the founding members of the Dockyard Derby Dames league.

Along with handbills and helmets, Quiett provided a video to the show of the league’s first bout in 2007.

When the league started up in 2005, it had about 50 members, Quiett said. All the members used nicknames. Quiett’s was Louda Bombs. At the time, Quiett had just ended a verbally abusive marriage.

“I didn’t really have the greatest self esteem,” she said.

She heard about roller derby starting in other cities, including Seattle, and thought Tacoma was ripe for a league.

“We started it up, and it really did just make me feel powerful and important,” Quiett said. “And it kind of made me feel like I was giving to that young little girl or that wife that was in a yucky relationship the opportunity to be bad ass.”

The sport can be rough-and-tumble.

“I was working in customer service for the cable company,” she recalled. “So I was able to take out a lot of aggression on the ring.”

Quiett, now 48, retired from the league in 2011 without any major injuries. That wasn’t the case for Dockyard Dame Aashiyana “Bones” Koreishi. An X-ray of her broken ankle, complete with roller skate still attached, is in the show.

Koreishi’s cape and helmet are also in the show.

Some of the founding members will speak at the museum about the league’s beginnings on April 13.

Skating champ

Gig harbor resident Florence Helliesen, 78, grew up in Bellingham but made frequent visits to Tacoma to skate competitively at the Roller Bowl on South Tacoma Way. The building is now a Hyundai dealership.

Helliesen was a freestyle skater — roller skating’s equivalent to figure skating.

“My passion was the jumping and spinning,” she said. “And then there would be pairs where you’d skate with a partner and then jump up in the air and spin together.”

When the 19-year-old was winning state and regional competitions in 1963, she could spin two and 1/2 times in the air. She also competed in national championships.

Entertainment

The disco era, highlighted by the sparkling ball, was one of skating’s subcultures.

Prior to that, roller skating rinks often featured live entertainment. A poster in the show advertises a 1960 appearance by Fats Domino at Centralia’s Rollerdrome.

The enduring appeal of roller skating might be its ability to adapt to the trends of the day and act as a social focal point, whether it’s a date night or a roller derby bout.

“It’s something that almost everyone has done at some point in their life and has a different relationship with so that’s, I think, one of the reasons we’ve seen people respond so well to it,” Nguyen said.