Take Flight

Here are two scenes from the 2001 film Yamakasi. Written by Luc Besson -the writer of District B13 and B13 – Ultimatum- and featuring Châu Belle-Dinh, Williams Belle, Yann Hnautra, Laurent Piemontesi and others, this movie is widely understood to be the film that caused the split of David Belle from the Yamakasi team. As such this film holds a notorious place in the history of Parkour which is why we have decided to include two of the film’s most action packed scenes in our video library.

Whether this film was an appropriate commercial use of Parkour or whether it was an “exploitation” of the discipline will continue to be debated for years to come. It may take many years as well before a consensus can be reached as to whether the commercial use of Parkour, such as this film, has helped promote or pervert the art. Regardless of the views in favor of either case, the athleticism displayed in this film is undeniably impressive, and the action itself holds a strong case as representing Parkour for the utility art that it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhUAIEJfRpA

Here is another classic Yamaksi video featuring Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, Laurent Piemontesi, Willams Belle and some of the Yamakasi’s students. Most of the performance and movement is directly attributable to the Yamakasi style, in the case of what is showcased in this video most of it would not be considered Parkour. Nevertheless, as a way to enjoy movement and train, this is all very good for developing the physical capability, including the sense of trust and confidence essential to Parkour. This video was edited by William Belle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjjeyCNoBlI

Here is a spectacular Parkour mix-tape featuring the Yamakasi. A handful of their students also perform in the video, but the majority of the footage includes Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, and Laurent Piemontesi. You may recognize many of the locations as being in and around Lisses and Evry, however many of the moves performed are original to the structures and specifically attributable to the Yamakasi’s style. Although there is a noteworthy amount of flips and aesthetic non-necessary movement in many of the sequences, the majority of the action is a pure demonstration of efficient Parkour athleticism. Highly entertaining for the outstanding athletic performance and faced paced action showcased in the video, an excellent music accompaniment also contributes to making this mix-tape extremely engaging for its viewers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=li3Wd_2_Y-4

Here is a video from Rendezvous I put on by Parkour Generations. The workshop was conducted in London on the 13th and 14th of May, 2007, and prominent instruction was given by Forrest and Dan Edwardes. You may also recognize other famous Tracers who attended the event including Stephane Vigroux, Sébastien Goudot, Kazuma, Cicso, Thomas, and Yann Hanutra and Laurent Piemontesi from the Yamakasi. We posted three videos from Rendezvous II in our What is Parkour? series that we conducted almost a month ago. Unlike this video which highlights the physical training from Rendezvous I, those videos from Rendezvous II exclusively highlighted a questions and answer time with the Yamakasi. Divided into three parts, you can view the videos from that interview by going to our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th installments of that sequence.