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: 

Life at Gerlev: Classes

A bit more background on the setup at Gerlev.  The school year is made up of 3 semesters: September - December (17 weeks), January - February (8 weeks), March - June (17 weeks), and a summer break in which the campus hosts a full schedule of seminars and workshops from July - August.  The different semesters allow for a wide variety in the sports that are offered (see here for the full list) but also creates a key part of the financial backbone of the school.  The Danish government subsidizes up to one third of the operating expenses of the school, with another third that is paid by the student’s tuition, and the final third that is covered by the use of the campus by a number of summer events and workshops in addition to conferences throughout the year.

The 125+ students at Gerelv hail from all parts of Denmark with a fairly equal representation from the three parts of the country (Zealand, Funen, Jutland, and Bornholm).  While the majority fall within the 19-22 year-old age range of young adults that have finished high school and are taking some time off to travel and "find themselves" before continuing their studies or seeking employment, there are quite a few students that are older than the average, yet still seeking some personal reflection time.

A typical day as a Gerlev student

A typical day for me starts at 7:20, as I crawl out of bed, put on whatever clothes are close at hand (depending on the weather this is either a sweatshirt and sweatpants, or a t-shirt and sweatpants- more on the dress code here later) and then head down to breakfast, where I am greeted by this:

While this picture is actually of lunch (hence the awake faces), it shows the dining room atmosphere.  Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Still half asleep, but smiling already.  That's how I feel most mornings at Gerlev.  Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen

At 8, we all head to the main hall where we have the morning assembly.  Since the morning assemblies that I had experienced previously in middle and high school in the US were not particularly positive (usually an obnoxiously cheerful voice reading semi-relevant announcements over the loudspeaker way too early in the morning) the assemblies here were a bit of a shock to me.  First of all, each assembly starts with the entire staff and student body singing a song from the school hymnbook that each student is given when they arrive at school.

Most of you who know me know that I am not particularly gifted at singing, and I have found that I am even less gifted at singing in a language that I can neither read nor speak.  That being said, there is something remarkably uplifting and uniting about mumbling Danish songs alongside a room full of fellow students and staff each morning.  I've also found that over the course of a few months I have started to grasp the semi-correct pronunciation of the words in the book, although I still have no idea what 99% of them mean.

Morning assembly.   Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai. 

After the song there is a 20-minute presentation by one of the staff members or students on a topic of thier choice.  Some of the subjects this past semester covered the foundations of democracy, growing up in a foreign country, personal challenges and conflicts facing students, background on various pieces of artwork around the school, influential life experiences from students or staff, and a few life lessons from the wiser and more seasoned members of the teaching staff.

Following the morning assembly are the four 90-minute class periods that make up the main portion of the day.  In between each class there is a break for food, whether it's the mid-morning snack, lunch, or mid-afternoon snack.  More details on the food later as a paragraph or two can't do it justice.  Each student has a Speciality course in which they have 8-10 hours of instruction each week and which is essentially their "major" while at Gerlev.  Students also choose a Sports Subject, which meets for 6 hours a week over a 2-month period.  In addition to these, there are two Study Subjects, which meet for 3 hours/week and change after 2-months.  Here is a copy of my schedule for the past 4 months:

The classes schedule is set up to to ensure that that students get a maximum amount of instruction time, but it also groups the classes to ensure that the instructors benefit from the scheduling.  It took me a few weeks to realize but the schedule is actually cleverly set up so that most of the instructors are actually only needed on campus for a maximum of 4 days/week, allowing them time to pursue other interests or classes, train in their discipline, and spend time with family (which do not always live on campus), or run another business (like Mikkel and Martin at Streetmovement).  The schedule below gives a rough idea of my normal weekly schedule:

Some explanation about the classes mentioned in my schedule:

As one can see, I spend the majority of my class hours in Parkour, but over the course of the week I spend a lot of time in the other classes as well.  Of course the schedule doesn’t show the training sessions after classes finish, in the evenings, or on the weekends (I know that it’s hard to believe, but I spend a lot of my free time training, conditioning, or writing about it) but it gives a general idea of how I spend my time.

A beautiful day in the park.  Photo courtesy of Lucas Ribeiro de Lima.

The Streetdance (also includes "House for Dummies") class has been a lot of fun and the opportunity to do it here with real “classes” has been a great opportunity and allowed me to sample from a number of different styles including house dance, jacking, popping, locking, hip hop, in a setting that is condusive to beginners like myself.  The second two months saw the creation of a performance group called "The Grind" in which a number of the students performed various pieces at Gerlev parties and events.

Taking advantage of nice weather to train outside with "The Grind", Gerlev's Streetdance performance group.  Photo courtesy of Sutton Atkins.

Games is actually “Tradition Danish Games” and is actually a 2-part course that takes place in the Gerlev Legepark (Gerlev Playpark) located next to the school.  The first two months of the course were spent playing a lot of the games and learning about them, with a few instances when we were expected to lead the sessions ourselves.  The secod half of the semester the focus has been entirely on the instruction of these games and how to use them to bring different groups together and develop certain skill sets in children.  While a few of the games are very similar to the ones that I played as a kid, there a lot that were new to me and that I will definitely be taking back home with me.

Martin (from Streetmovement) taught this class about Sports Massage, not the lovey-dovey sensual massage that some might expect at a højskole.  Needless to say, although the massage sessions themselves were not the most relaxing experiences, especially when given by other parkour guys, they certainly helped to speed up recovery from the training and I learned a lot of useful techniques.

Knife-making is pretty self-explanatory, we ordered blades and blocks of wood from local sources and have spent the last few weeks designing, shaping, sanding, gluing, and polishing our knives.

From this....

To something simirlar to this.

Needless to say, I am only taking one load of courses at the school so my schedule only reflects a small sampling of the options at the school.  For more information on the full range of activities available (there are a lot), check out the Gerlev website.

The School Meeting has been an interesting experience for me as I think it shows a lot about the Danish culture.  During the meetings the student body and staff discuss the happenings and highlights of the past week, discuss preparations for the upcoming weeks events and guests or visitors, and bring up any issues that warrant school-wide discussion.  While at first this seemed like an impractical forum for discussing things that might only impact a small amount of the people at the meeting, over the past four months I've come to realize that these meetings do more than address the problem at hand.  These meetings offer an opportunity for anyone to voice concerns, problems, or proposed changes in a setting that is both receptive and representative of the entire group.  I was surprised to find that the issues presented were not resolved by a vote (which was described to me as a tyranny of the majority) but instead by the discussion of the issue until one side had gained the group's consensus.  If all else fails, a committee is made to look into the issue further (Danes really seem to like forming committees, sub-committees, and committees to oversee the committees).

Despite the two sided setup that looks like opposing sides in a divorce case, these meetings actually help to keep the school working smoothly and cohesively.  Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Club Sports is entirely organized by the students and offers many students the opportunity to try things that they can't cram into their schedule otherwise.  There are the typical offerings (crossfit, circuit training, parkour, yoga, gymnastics, board games...) but each semester there are some sports that are unique to the interests of the students on campus like tree climbing, board games, and Vist (a danish card game).  However, about halfway through the semester I decided that "club napping" was best for my physical health, especially since my increasing sleep debt was starting to hamper recovery.

The Joint Class changed each week and was basically a great excuse for all of the students to get together to participate in an activity.  Different teachers and members of the staff led each week, so the themes were as varied and eclectic as thier interests and backgrounds, including swing dancing, cricket, group discussions, salsa, viking games, grinding, playpark events, hide-and-seek, Human Stratego, flashmobbing...

"Flashmobbing" in downtown Slagelse.  Photo courtesy of the Sealand News article covering the event.