In her daily life, she goes by Katie Holste, but on the track, she’s Sandra Slay O’Connor. The name, a clear reference to the first female Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, bears similarities to the league Holste skates in: O’Connor is native to Arizona and unapologetically female.
Arizona Derby Dames (AzDD) is a women-only roller derby league that operates out of the downtown Phoenix area. Although it is far from the only derby league in the state, the Derby Dames is the only league in Arizona to play on a banked track.
The Derby Dames skaters come from a variety of places and experience levels. Some have been roller skating their whole lives while others are new to the skill. Holste began skating with the Arizona State University roller derby club dubbed the Derby Devils.
“I joined the Derby Devils when I was a senior,” said Holste. “It was something I wanted to do for a really long time but I only got to participate in the club for a year … so then I ended up trying out for the Derby Dames.”
Derby Dames photographer Bruce Charles talked about coming home to learn his wife had decided to become a roller derby player, without any experience in the sport prior to joining.
“I just remember coming home one day and she was sitting there, waiting to tell me,” Charles said. “I was happy for her.”
Because derby players come from a variety of backgrounds, the skill difference between AzDD skaters is leveled out through the league’s training program for new members: “Rookies.” It consists of 24 weeks of practicing on and off skates before members are finally drafted into one of eight teams, each with its own theme, captains, and coaches.
“I’m on the Bombshells,” Derby Dames Skater Katrina Lewis said, “The theme is very fast and loose… like a USO (United Service Organizations) girl (or) vintage 50s pin-up.”
A sport with flash
The theme of each team plays into one of the more eccentric aspects of roller derby — the flashy makeup and costumes.
“They created a world for themselves — it was created by the women for the women. They do wear these flashy, risqué costumes, but done with this sort of individual, tongue-in-cheek spin on it,” said Carly Giesler, a professor at the City University of New York.
According to an article by Giesler, the costumes in combination with a derby name function in a similar way to drag — as a “canvas of expression” for the skater.
In the Derby Dames, there is no shortage of expression on any of the teams. For their team photos, the Brutal Beauties are a collage of pink, posing with tiaras, flower crowns and bows, while the Runaway Brides don tuxedo t-shirts, bridal veils and champagne bottles. Both are on roller skates.
“Some people really go ham with it, some people just wear their jersey and skates,” said Lewis. “As long as what you’re wearing isn’t gonna be a safety hazard, you can kind of go all out.”
The tradition of loud costumes and makeup is not necessarily unique to roller derby. It has roots as a method of attracting audiences to games in many sports leagues where women seek the same level of popularity as their male-dominated counterparts, such as the Lingerie Football League.
“If you were to go and look at some old documentaries about gender or about roller derby, there are these males in the audiences that are all cheering on the way that the skaters look,” Giesler said, “But the women are really there to skate.”
Because of this room for misinterpretation, the flashier parts of roller derby can be controversial, even to its own participants.
Lewis said, “There’s a whole other side of the sport to where there are some people who don’t even want to use Derby names, because they want to be athletes first and they want this to go to the Olympics.”
A physically demanding sport
Though the accessorizing aspect is iconic of the sport, roller derby is still a feat of athleticism first and foremost. The sport is high-speed and aggressive by nature.
“It’s fast and you can hit people, which is, at least to me, appealing,” said Holste.
Roller derby is a full-contact sport, according to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Though there are limitations on where this contact can take place for safety reasons, during a game, derby players can expect to hit and be hit. These impacts can occur at speeds of about 13 seconds per lap, according to the WFTDA’s minimum skills requirement for skaters. This is a difficult feat, considering the tilted track that the Derby Dames skate on.
“You have to be able to skate a certain amount to make it into the league at all, but skating on a banked track is a very specific set of skills,” said Holste.
The skill required to participate in roller derby is one of the few things that is consistent between many leagues across the country, and it has only increased since the sport’s creation in the 20th century.
“It started out as a race, but then eventually developed into having a point score and blockers and to be a contact sport in the 70s,” Lewis said.
A roller derby match, called a ‘bout,’ consists of five players from each team taking to the track, according to the New York Times. One member of each team, called the jammer, is tasked with completing as many laps around the track as possible, gaining points for each opposing team member that they pass on the way. In the meantime, the other four team members act as obstacles to slow the other team’s jammer.
“It’s low-light, high-speed… coupled with the costumes, uniforms and the makeup and the players and just everything basically involved with roller derby makes it fun to photograph,” said Bruce Charles.
Interest lags but fan base strong
Still, despite the sport’s entertaining, high-speed theatricality, roller derby has fallen out of public popularity in recent years.
“I don’t know if it’s gone back to being local, or if it’s just that the cultural attention span is so short that it got taken away,” said Giesler. “It could also be a direct result of the pandemic where people weren’t able to go to these events.”
Giesler said the sport was “re-imagined and re-invigorated in the 90s,” driven by “popular cultural references, movies and documentaries.” But the popularity of roller derby in the cultural zeitgeist most likely peaked with the 2009 movie “Whip It,” featuring actors Elliot Page and Drew Barrymore. It featured a roller derby-centric plot taking place in Austin, Texas. Many Derby Dames skaters attribute their initial interest in the sport to seeing the movie.
“I watched the movie ‘Whip It,’” said Holste, “and I’m like, ‘That looks really cool. I want to do that!’ And so then I did.”
Despite the declining public popularity of the sport, it has maintained a base of players, fans and supporters that keep leagues like the Derby Dames rolling across the country.
“Everyone I text, everyone I call, everyone I hang out with is involved in roller derby or the league in some way,” said Holste. “I think that it’s just such a really nice community and a great environment.”
Contact the reporter at lfinley2@asu.edu
