Parkour/Free-Running

I haven't posted any sports-related entries in a while, though I do plan to write a short comment or two about the current Major League Baseball season, which nears its midpoint, but as longtime J's Theater readers know, I do love sports, particularly of the non-professional variety.  I'm thus posting a handful of videos inspired by a short segment C and I caught on one of my favorite shows, Santo Domingo Invita, which featured young practitioners of the sport of parkour and free-running displaying their skills in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone. If I were a friend, partner or sibling of any of these traceurs/traceuses, as practitioners of this sport are called, I'd have to do everything in my power to keep my hearts in my chest with every leap, somersault and dive. As it is I don't know any of them and I gulp at half their moves. If I were a parent, let's just say I'd resort to what I hated hearing my parents say, "Not in this house...." That said, watching these athletes perform these moves is like seeing capoeira, the Brazilian martial arts form, crossed with gymnastics, and a bit of magic. It's enchanting even as the traceurs' speed, dangerous moves, and seeming caprice rev up the heart and the amygdala.  But their evident skill also provides some reassurance. Some. This is about as close as we'll get, without further evolution, to flying. Enjoy.


El Parkour (Santo Domingo Invita)


Jump|London, a documentary about Parkour


"Parkour, literally" (celui que c'est ça)


"Parkour, literally" #2


The one and only Sébastien Foucan, free-running


Karen Palmer, traceuse


Traceur extraordinaire David Belle


Parkour in the movie Banlieue 13 (District 13) - some violence


Damien Walters: 2010 - high-voltage parkour (sorry about the advertising that opens it)


Parkour Brasil (São Thomé, Minas Gerais)