Streetmovement in Paris

One of the highlights of the spring semester at Gerlev is the trip that each speciality takes at the end of May.  While the dancers go to NYC, and the cross-fitters go to LA, the students in the parkour speciality go to the birthplace of the sport, Paris.  More specifically, Evry and Lisses.  This is a tradition that is partially inspired by the 2007 trip to Evry that Martin and Mikkel took along with some of other founders of Streetmovement.  During this trip they had the opportunity to meet and train with a number of the Yamakasi, especially Laurent, and the training and ideas that they were exposed to during their visit dramatically changed their entire approach to the sport and many of the ideas that they had about their training. The documentary below explains a lot about the Danish roots in parkour as well as their philosophy today.

City Surfers [ENG version] from Street Movement on Vimeo.

Martin and Mikkel have been taking groups of Gerlev students to Paris since 2009, and the trip is considered to be one of the highlights of the semester for many students.  Since I’ve spent a fair amount of time in that particular part of the world over the past few years the trip was somewhat of a surreal experience for me, especially since in the past I'd been traveling solo, stayed with various friends throughout the area, and immersed myself in the French language and culture.  This time I was part of the “foreign legion” of the invading army of Danes (feel free to conjure up images of Vikings and longboats) so it was a totally different experience- and a lot of fun.

Waiting to catch the bus to the airport in Denmark.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Due to the size of the group (23 students, 4 instructors, and 3-tagalongs) and the fact that we had a budget that was significantly more generous than my typical "globetrotting parkour bum" amount, we stayed at the Hotel Ibis (a 3-minute walk from the Dame du Lac).  This seemed like the lap of luxury compared to most of the hostels that I've stayed in over the last two years, especially since it included an unlimited buffet breakfast that we decimated each morning.  Given my familiarity with Paris/Evry/Lisses and my linguistic expertise, I also became the unofficial tour guide and translator of the trip, which turned out to be a fun way of introducing the Danes to the finer elements of French culture.

Our home for the week in Evry.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

The adventure itself started the moment we left campus because, as anyone that has traveled with traceurs knows, things get interesting the moment you get more than 3 of them together, especially when they are bored/waiting while confined in small spaces like airports, planes, or trains.

Ville, one of the official photographers for the trip.   Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Unlike some of the other Gerlev speciality trips, almost our entire trip was spent training, eating, sleeping, or traveling to training spots.  After flying into Paris, taking the RER to Evry, and dropping off our bags at the hotel we headed out for the first "light" training session by the lake.  Most traceurs will recognize the lake as the one that the Dame du Lac is named for, but there is also a set of stairs and railings that the Yamak have been using for years on the other side of the lake.  While the training was really just to wake up our bodies after spending the day sitting on planes and trains, it also managed to get everyone pretty excited about being in the "Mecca" of parkour.  For me it also felt really good to be training back in France again, in the settings where I had first been introduced to parkour training 3 years before by Laurent.  The group hadn't been by the lake for more than a few minutes before we ran into Ahmed, who I had met during my first visit to Evry, and who has met and trained with Martin and Mikkel regularly since they started bringing the classes here.  Ahmed is one of the best examples of the long-term benefits of parkour training that I have met; he started many years ago after encountering Laurent and the Yamak in one of their early training sessions and he is now over 60 years old.

A chance encounter with Ahmed reminded me of how long it has been since my introduction to parkour.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

After the training we headed to the nearby shopping mall to grab snack material for the week and to have dinner at Flunch.  Having come from Gerlev, most of our meals in France were slightly disappointing, although that was primarily due to the fact that our budget, although better than what I was used to, didn’t really allow for anything special and Evry isn't exactly known for its fabulous culinary offerings.  Flunch, while not an example of fine French cuisine, did offer an interesting perspective on the “typical French meal”, and more importantly, it offered large amounts of food that we could afford.

Andreas was pretty excited about Flunch.  Photo by Ville Leppænen.

The next day we met Laurent at "la Terrasse" behind the shopping center for a morning training session.  The last time I had trained in this spot was for the ADD Experience in 2010 so coming back with 2 years of experience under my belt was a good feeling and I felt like I was looking at it with fresh eyes.  Laurent was accompanied by Francois, one of the "next generation" who is now teaching at the Yamakasi's ADD Academy and is one of the faces of the future of Majestic Force/ADD Academy.  After spending the morning exploring the spot we broke for a quick lunch and then met up at the "clos du cathedral" for the second training session of the day in one of Laurent's favorite spots.

As Lisses and Evry are considered to be the "birthplace" of parkour, one can be almost guaranteed that if you spend any length of time in them you are bound to run into other traceurs, usually from any number of foreign countries.  During the session, Yann dropped by to train, say hi, and share some wisdom with the Danish students.

While it is impossible to recap all of the events from the week in one article I'll give some of the highlights from the week:

Parkour Walking Tour

Since parkour has been banned by the City of Lisses, and Laurent had specifically asked us not to train there to avoid hindering the efforts and negotiations by the Yamakasi and the ADD Academy to reconcile the sport with the city, Martin and Mikkel decided that it was best to do a “walking tour” of the area so that we could see the spots while also honoring Laurent's request.  We managed to hit most of the spots that are well-known around the world from the "old-school" videos, and even managed to see a few that are off the typical “parkour pilgrimage” track.  The tour ended at one of the most iconic locations in parkour lore, the Dame du Lac, which, although we didn't have the opportunity to train on, is still pretty impressive..

The Dame du Lac.  Photo by Ville Leppænen.

Training at Bercy

We took the RER into central Paris early Saturday morning, and despite spending the entire day there, we didn't participate in any of the typical "tourist in Paris" activities   Laurent met us at the Bercy Stadium where he led us through one of the classic Yamak workouts on the stairs and surrounding park.  In all of my visits I have never actually been inside the stadium, but the exterior of the building and the surrounding parks are one of the favorite training spots for the Yamak and the location for some of their most grueling workouts (I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a number of them).  As per tradition, the session lasted much longer than most people would consider reasonable and by the end of it we were all pretty shattered.

The stairs.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Arriving at the stadium.   Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Martin tackling a large cat leap with Laurent and Mikkel spotting.  Photo by Ville Leppænen.

Andreas weighing a jump.  Photo by Ville Leppænen.

Josephine practicing vaults on the railings.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen..

After re-hydrating and grabbing some food we headed into the city to take full advantage of the one-day unlimited travel cards that we had purchased to get to Bercy to see some of the rest of Paris.  There were two things in particular that most of the group wanted to visit during the course of the afternoon, neither of which included the Louvre, Eiffel Tour, Sacre Couer, or Notre Dame de Paris.  Instead we headed straight for the 2WS (WorldWild Souls) shop where a number of the students took advantage of the opportunity to check out and purchase some of the clothing from the shop started by the Yamakasi.

After hanging out at the store for a bit we headed to the next stop of the tour, Decathlon.  While most traceurs know of Decathlon and it’s abundance of cheap shoes and training gear, only a few (16) countries around the world are blessed by having the stores nearby.  So for most Danish traceurs, new or veteran, any opportunity to travel to the store is a treat, as evidenced by the mountain of shoes, clothing, and gear that the group purchased.  After Decathlon I introduced the group to the delicious crepes and galettes of my favorite creperie near Place Monge, and then headed down to the Seine to chill out for a bit and recover from the day with a case of (French) beers (Note: beer is actually a great recovery drink- minus the alcohol).

Noisy-le-Grande

Another morning we met Laurent and Francois at Noisy-le-Grande and spent the morning training with them at a spot located just outside the train station.  Similar to many of the best spots around the world, the spot there is tough to explain and many of the architectural elements leave the visitor with the distinct feeling that the architect was under the influence of something unusual when designing it (or they had a lot of concrete that needed to be used up in the construction of the seemingly random walls, staircases and "art" forms that were all over).  After a few hours of training and exploring the spot we had a late lunch and then a few of us headed into the city to explore some spots and to do a brief bit of tourism that we hadn't had an opportunity to do on our previous expedition into the center of Paris.

Warming up.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Mikkel leading "follow the leader".  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Laurent taking one of the groups.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Handstand work.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

To the left is a 3+story drop and a busy street.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe .

Peter working on cat passes/kongs.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Ida "getting aquainted" with Noisy-le-Grand. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Fontainebleau

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the day that we spent at Fontainebleau, a short train ride from Evry.  After arriving at the station we jogged 8km to meet Martin and Mikkel (and the car loaded with food and water) at the spot in the forest that would be our homebase for the day.  After a brief water break and dropping our bags off we divided into groups for a 2 hour training session in the forest.  For those that have never trained in a “natural environment” I would highly recommend it, as it offers a wide variety of obstacles that are hard to find or mimic in an urban setting and there is something very different about jumping and moving on natural surfaces.  Fontainebleau itself is like a giant natural parkour playground and the hill where we were was covered in large boulders, trees, and rock faces that offer endless possibilities for movement.  The session passed in a flash and we reconvened for a lesisurely lunch before heading out again.  After a second training session, we were given free reign to explore the park, and we ended up staying there until the early evening.  We decided as a group to walk the 8km back to the station since most of our legs were pretty dead by then and we wanted to be able to break jumps the next day, which would be our last full day in Evry.

The "campsite".   Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Fontainebleau.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Mikkel working some bouldering challenges.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Training in nature.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Martin.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

The ever-pertinent question of "who has a bigger log"?   Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Relaxing after lunch.   Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Rose resting up for the long walk back.  Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Cathedrale d'Évry

Our last full day in Evry was mostly spent at the CathedralE where Martin and Mikkel gave us the option to divide up for the last sessions based on energy level, since many people were beginning to fade after the long days of training and limited sleep.  Those of us with higher energy levels were given a route to run that incorporated a number of techniques and then told that we should complete said route a certain amount of times (reflective of energy level/ambition).  The route itself included a few challenging bits that became much more challenging when combined with increasing lactic acid levels and lower energy reserves.

Claus.  Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.. 

Going for the max.  Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Things are starting to get tougher.  Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Finishing the route.  Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Feeling "the pump".  Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

The Final Challenge
The last day of the trip we woke up early for one last training sessions before we went home.  This was a time-honored tradition that each class of students had done at the end of their trip and included a ~1000m quadrepedie section (without standing up or getting off of all fours) followed by a number lamppost climbs on very tired arms.  While it was tough, it wasn’t as bad as many of us had feared and yet again, I think that is more a testament to how high our fitness levels were as opposed to how much the difficulty rating wasn’t as high as we feared.

The start.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Halfway there.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Right after the finish.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Done.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Part 2 of the challenge.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Tired but done.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

A tired by happy group after completing the final challenge.  Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Reflections on the trip

For me it was really interesting to see the way that many of the students reacted to the training with the Yamakasi.  Many of the students had been introduced to parkour at Gerlev and there were only about 5 or 6 of the group of 23 students that had been training previous to starting at Gerlev.  During my travels over the past 2 years I have been repeatedly been surprised to find that while almost all traceurs know the name David Belle, and are usually familiar with Sebastien Foucan, many have never heard of the Yamakasi.  While I have a special attachment to them due to my beginnings I am often shocked by how little known they are in many parkour communities around the world.  Over the course of the semester at Gerlev, Martin and Mikkel often make references to the Yamak style of training and the history of the sport, so by the time we had gotten to Paris most of the students had a basic background on the guys and could recognize them from YouTube videos or the “Yamakasi” films.

Laurent.   Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

To say that everyone grew during the trip would be an understatement.  The difference that one trip could have in someones training is huge, and as I have effectively been traveling my entire parkour "career" I have found that I often take this for granted.  The change was immediately apparent as soon as we all arrived back at Gerlev at the end of the week and found that the structure seemed to have shrunk in many ways in our absence and people seemed to have a new determination and motivation in their training.

Souvenirs from a successful invasion.  Photo courtesy of Ville Leppænen. 

The video of the trip that Ville put together: 

The "Parkour Pilgrimage" Documentary

While hanging out with Duncan he told me about the documentary "Parkour Pilgrimage" that he made in 2008 documenting his trip to Europe to train and "pay homage" to the parkour legacy there and to experience parkour in a part of the world that was years ahead of the American parkour scene at the time.  While minor elements of the film may seem a bit outdated today, the work as a whole is still very relevant and I'd highly recommend it for anyone that is interested in parkour, especially those looking to understand more about the sport outside their own communities.

Visit to France - Training with the Yamakasi

After a few weeks in London I headed to Paris for a few days to go back to where I had first been exposed to parkour and to catch up with a number of old friends there. 

My plane arrived in Paris late at night so I crashed at a friend’s house and took the RER to Evry the next morning.  My visit just happened to overlap with Laurent being in town as well so I joined him at the cathedral for a “handstand block” followed by a light 45-min jog around Evry/Lisses.  The run ended up being an unofficial tour of parkour’s early days and he “unconsciously” managed to take us by most of the buildings that are seen in the earliest parkour videos.

  

My visit also happened to overlap with Jun Sato’s visit before he headed back to Japan, and we were both generously hosted by Philippe.  We were also joined by Valentin, Philippe’s best friend, who had recently come over to Europe as parkour of a Réunionese exodus of parkour talent to Europe (more about his countrymen Axel and Kevin later).  This made for a very entertaining train rides in the mornings as we made the long journey from Philippe’s house to civilization every morning.

Jun found a good way to pass the time on the long rides to and from Philippe's house.

The next day we headed back to Evry to check out the new training facility that the ADD Academy had recently completed.  While not yet open to the public due to some bureaucratic nonsense about the maximum number of people allowed in the space at one time, the facility is pretty good and offers a lot of potential for winter and bad-weather training as well as providing a good location to work on flips and acrobatics. 

The entrance, which is located in the middle of the mall in Evry.

The interior.

Lots of space, lots of mats...

 After hanging around at the gym, where we were joined by some of the other ADD Academy guys that had come by to train for a bit, we headed to Paris to join in the ADD Academy class that night.  The class was much bigger than I expected (40+ people) and it was really great to see that the academy was growing strong.  The class itself was well-run and featured instruction by Chau and Ben (who I hadn't met before, but who definitely fits in with the Yamak spirit).  I was also surprised to find that, like the Parkour Generations classes in London, the vast majority of the participants at the class were working professionals who were using it as an alternative to going to a “normal gym”.  The class felt significantly easier than the last time I had been to one of the ADD Academy Parisian classes (during a research trip in 2009), although I suspect that this was because my training has come a long way since then.  I guess that Chau noticed that I wasn't feeling too tired by the end as he invited me to the “team training” the next morning at Bercy.

We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning to get to Bercy and we arrived to find the guys ready and raring to go.  In typical Yamak fashion we spent the first hour and a half running, crawling, and jumping up the stairs of the Bercy stadium.  After absolutely shattering our legs Chau brought us to the next part of the training, which turned out to be plyometric strides and jumps along the bollards by the fountain.  By the two-hour mark our legs were starting to cramp and give out so Chau decided that enough was enough and it was time to move on to the second half of the training- arms.  He picked what seemed like a small and non-descript white guard railing by the skate park but an hour later I knew every intimate inch of that railing.  The arm workout turned out to be even more brutal than the leg portion and by the end of it almost all of us had forearms that felt as if they had swollen to the size of our quads.

Once we had “gotten to know” the railing we moved over to one of the ping-pong tables in the park.  Normally a very non-aggressive and demure object, by the end of the exercises going over, under, up, and down the rough concrete edges of the table we had all left significant quantities of blood and sweat behind.

After the training we all headed over to a local Vietnamese restaurant for a delicious lunch “en famille”.  Basking in that feeling that comes after an extended punishing workout I realized that this was perhaps one of the things that I missed most about the Yamak style of training- spending a few hours pushing the limits of strength and endurance, with few breaks or time spent fooling around, and then taking time to hang out with new and old friends that were forged with the blood sweat and tears from the workout- preferably in a venue with copious quantities of good food.  While I had pushed myself to my limits on the other two occasions that I had spent time with the guys in Paris (2009, 2010), this was the first time that I was able to properly to join in the training and I finally felt like I had earned my place at the table, both as a friend and now as a traceur.  While it was great to see the progress that I have made over the past year and a half, training with the guys that day also reminded me of how much I have yet to learn, and not just in terms of techniques and movements, but also in life.

Pre-Watson Adventure: "Paris"

So how do I sum up the last two and half weeks? In relation to the project, it has certainly been everything that I was hoping for (and then some). I guess that I should start from the beginning.

After a long and sleepless flight to Paris by way of Reykjavik, Iceland, a rather sleepless one I might add because, as usual, I spent the entire flight trying to watch every movie available. This meant that when I arrived in Paris, I was both jetlagged and cross-eyed from watching the small screen for so long. I spent a day recovering and hanging out with a friend that had recently moved to Paris to work for an American company selling advertising. He was kind enough to let me crash on his floor for a few nights, and we spent the evening people watching and hanging out at the only Argentinean bar in Paris while watching their World Cup match.

The day after my arrival in France I took the train out to Evry and met with the Yamakasi/Majestic Force. To preface what happened next I think that a brief bit of history/background is in order.

Parkour was started by a group of young men in the 1990s in the banlieue of Evry/Lisses/Courcourronnes outside of Paris. The group of 9 young men were known as the Yamakasi, a name that means “esprit fort/home fort” (strong mind/strong body) in zingala, the ancient language of Zaire. Their discipline/sport/movement emerged as a combination of different athletic interests and was heavily influenced by the architectural “uniqueness” of this particular region of France, which was a “planned city” that incorporated many of the ideas of Corbusier in the post-WWII era. After devoting themselves to making what had started as childhood games into a “mode de vie” (way of life), various members of the group split off to pursue their own styles of the sport.

Perhaps one of the best know members, and the man whom some call the “godfather of parkour”, David Belle went on to do a number of successful movies using his unique skills, the first of which was “Banlieue 13” (released internationally as District B13). His name is associated with the sport of “parkour”, and his definition for the movement is the one that is used around the world of the “movement from Point A to Point B in the most efficient and fluid way bodily possible, going over, under through, or around obstacles”. He recently worked with the choreography of the “Prince of Persia” video game and subsequent movie, but has been relatively absent from the media/general parkour community.

David Belle


Sébastien Foucan went on to Great Britain where he started the “Freerunning” movement. This particular style is considered by many to be much more superfluous and showy, with an abundance of flips and jumps that many “parkour purists” claim are not true parkour. He is best known for his part in James Bond: Casino Royale (the opening scene features him being chased across the city, up a crane, and through a construction site by a much less agile Daniel Craig). The freerunning movement really took off after the release of the “Jump London” documentary released in 2003. This was followed by the sequal, “Jump Britian” in 2005, and by “Jump Westminster” in 2007 (a great documentary, this film was actually one of the inspirations behind this project. You can find it here.

Sébastien in Casino Royale


In 2005, four of the original Yamakasi; Châu Belle, Yann Hnautra, Williams Belle, and Laurent Piemontesi, started the label Majestic Force with the aid of long-time friend Bruno Girard. They were later joined by Guylian N’Guba Boyeke. This group has been the primary force for the discipline in France, and their style, known as “l’art du deplacement” can essentially be called “the art of movement”. They opened an “Art Du Déplacement Academy” (ADD Academy- not the same thing as one would imagine in English) in 2008, and ever since they have been steadily working to expand and improve their organization. The Academy is based in Evry, the birthplace of parkour, and through the cooperation of the city government, which has embraced the discipline; they recently started construction on an indoor training facility in the center of town, as well as a number of modifications to several outdoor public areas to make them into better practice spots for practionners. This in itself is symbolic for the progress that the sport has made in the last few years, since at the beginning the discipline was used as a way for the Yamakasi to adapt to their city and its unique architecture, but now the city is being adapted to better-suited the needs of the practionners.

Châu, me, Guylain, Yann


Last summer I was given a generous grant by the Abernethy Foundation at Davidson College to go to study the activities of the Yamakasi in Paris over a four-week period. My time spent with the team allowed me to really get to know the guys in the group, as well as to witness the effects of their actions and the influence that it had one the kids that they worked with. I left at the end of the month thoroughly amazed and inspired and good friends with many of the guys, especially Bruno Girard who wears the hats of close friend, advisor, manager, press aide, and producer to the team.

My arrival in Paris two weeks ago was planned to coincide with the “International Art du Déplacement/Parkour/Freerunning Meeting”, a 3-day affair that included traceurs from all around the world. I arrived a few days in advance of the opening activities on Friday to be able help out Bruno and the rest of the Yamakasi to help in any way that I could. The first two days were spent doing small errands and watching the guys rehearse for their big show on Saturday. The highlights of those days were definitely when I got to climb around on the 3-story scaffolding (think your average jungle gym on lots of steroids) that had been set up for the performance, taping down mats on the platforms, getting it ready for the show, and generally “monkeying around”. Thursday things started to pick up as we started getting everything ready for the following day’s activities, and the flood of foreign visitors that were expected.

Here is a link to the site for the event for those that might like more details.

Friday was essentially a day for the press and politicians, featuring interviews with the mayor and other city officials, and a press-conference/debate on the status of the sport in Evry. Although the statements by some of the politicians and “experts” sounded a little rehearsed and un-genuine, I was very impressed by those of a number of the other people that attended. Among those were the members of London’s Parkour Generations, and Eugene Minogue, their contact within the city of Westminster who was one of the driving forces behind the “Jump Westminster” project. Both he and Mohammed Nesch, the organizer of the “Mixe 3 Terres” arts festival in Blois that I attended with the Yamakasi last summer, spoke to the potential of the sport in their work with youth and their observations of the success of their respective programs. I learned a lot from the press conference and hope to receive a written copy of the transcript soon so that I can a link to it.

One of the defining features of this weekend was the emphasis made on working toward the unity of the sport/discipline of parkour/freerunning/ADD. The presence of Sébastien Foucan at the event was a big deal for many of the traceurs that had come from abroad due to his international celebrity status and the fact that he is a seldom seen member of the parkour community now. Although many online blogs have criticized his lack of communication about his activities and called him a traitor to the sport, I found all of my experience to be quite the contrary. Not only is Sébastien as generous and open as the rest of the Yamakasi, he is actually kind of the clown of the group. He was constantly cracking jokes throughout the weekend, and his antics seemed to be regarded with fond patience by the other Yamakasi. Despite being surrounded at all times by a mob of curious traceurs posing all manner of questions, he took everything graciously and never seemed to tire or to let it go to his head (for an example of the mob that surrounded him, see the before and after pics here. The time difference between the two pictures is about 4 seconds.) For more information about Sébastien, you can visit his site at: http://www.foucan.com/

Seb and I


Seb, me and "the mob"


When I wasn’t attending the press conference, running errands, or hanging out with the guys, I was working the reception desk for participants in the workshop later that weekend. This was a lot more interesting than it might sound at first because it gave me the opportunity to see the full breadth of international involvement at the event. I met participants from all over Europe, with particularly strong representation from Italy, France, the UK, and Germany; as well but with many other countries represented (Poland, Lithuania, Switzerland, Belgium, Estonia, Spain… even Australia, although I was the only American). Many of these visitors were being hosted by various members of the team, or were staying in the gymnasium that the city had generously offered for the event (where I was given the job of essentially being co-babysitter to a bunch of very coordinated and energetic “kids” with a fellow bilingual member of the support team).

I spent Saturday working on a number of administrative tasks and then got a chance to visit the four workshops that had been set up around the city. Each spot had a group of the ADD Academy/Yamakasi instructors working in conjunction with instructors from Parkour Generations and Parkour Italia. Practitioners were encouraged to do a circuit of the city and receive tips, workouts, and hang out with some of the most respected traceurs in the world. Saturday culminated with a show that was put on by the Yamakasi in the local concert arena. The spectacle had been produced by Châu and choreographed by Guylain and was called Darwin Fantasy. It featured a number of different pieces that followed the evolution of man’s movement from pre-human and pre-historic ages to the modern day. While I had seen something of a similar theme last summer in Blois, this spectacle was on an entirely different scale and of a much higher caliber. Although I had witness the evolution and improvement of the show over the course of the week, and the final performance was probably my 15th repetition, I was continually amazed by what the guys could do. Unfortunately I don’t have any footage of the show because there are plans to do a professional DVD release of the show, but I will post a link to it as soon as that is made available.

Sunday was the official “workshop day” and included an 8-hour series of practice sessions around the city. I was finally able to work some of the rust out of my system after a year of little-to-no parkour training and had a lot of fun. Although the sessions were short, the length of the day had its effect and I came back to the city hall thoroughly tired but happy.

Throughout the week I was continually impressed by how integrated the Yamakasi and the ADD Academy are into the city of Evry and in Paris in general. The entire event seemed to involve a city-wide commitment of resources and it was clear that the city officials were very proud of the team. The Yamakasi have also established an impressed entourage of artists and support staff, from DJ Mao, a professional DJ who managed the entire soundtrack for the show from the spot of honor at the top of the central scaffold throughout the show. Other friends like Daniel Toti were involved with the release of a new clothing line by the Majestic Force/Yamakasi label, that will soon be released (I’ll have more details on that in a future post). There are countless other friends and supporters of the team that I met this weekend and each one contributed to the atmosphere of cooperation and progress that pervaded this weekend.

This atmosphere was what really made this weekend special. Talking with other participants everyone remarked on the spirit that seemed to permeate all the activities this weekend. Maybe it was the coming together of representatives from each of the 3 “branches”: l’art du déplacement (Yamakasi), freerunning (Sébastien Foucan), and parkour (Parkour Generations); or maybe the continual references to “unity despite differences” and “embracing your individual style”; or maybe just everybody’s excitement to be at the birthplace of the discipline, working together to make each other stronger. While I have had pretty limited contact with fellow traceurs in the US due to the fact that I was usually training for track/XC and therefore not allowed to train for parkour, I have found that this sport/discipline seems to attract a lot of very genuine, friendly, and generous people. Although I know that this weekend was unique for its star-studded cast, I hope that the atmosphere of cooperation is not and I’m looking forward to repeating my experience around the world.

I would like to give special thanks to Bruno Girard, Marie Gayan, and the whole of the Yamakasi/ADD Academy for their warm welcome and the generosity that they showed me during my visit.

Bruno, me, Marie


Some members of the ADD Academy & entourage