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.
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.
This is an older, but nevertheless superb compilation of great Parkour action. The video features many prominent Tracers including David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, and members of the Yamakasi to name a few, and contains footage from Le Tuyau, Un Lundi Cool, the Bont Commercial and BBC Commercial both featuring David, Accroches Toi, Speed Air Man, and other prominent videos.
Here is a documentary about the Yamakasi and the Art du Déplacement. Titled Vol au dessus des cités: Génération Yamakasi this film is spectacular to say the least. It has great action, excellent insight and highlights the Yamakasi who are by far some of the best athletes in the world. At 71 minutes in length if you have not seen this then you owe it to yourself to watch it in its entirety.
Note: Of course the Yamakasi don’t call their art “Parkour,” but regardless of the verbiage it is still the same discipline which is why we have posted this video.
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.
Here is the fourth installment of our What is Parkour? series and the last piece of our three part mini-series featuring the Yamakasi. Stay tuned to MisterParkour.com as we end our five part series tomorrow with a rare video of David Belle speaking openly about Parkour and what it means to him.
For part three of our What is Parkour? series we will continue with our mini-series featuring the Yamakasi. Embedded here is video 2 of 3 of the question and answer session that took place at Rendezvous II.
Also, here is another link to a great video we posted a couple weeks ago. Featured in the link below is a short video of David Belle briefly answering the question “What is Parkour?” However, please note that this is NOT the rare David Belle video we have promised to post in this series. That video of David (with the transcribed translation) will be the final installment of our five part series so stay tuned.
For the second installment on our What is Parkour? series we have decided to start a mini-series by posting the first of three videos featuring the Yamakasi. On December 8th, 2007 Parkour Generations put on their second Parkour seminar titled Rendezvous II at the WestminsterAcademySportsCenter in London . Some of those in attendance included the Yamakasi, the Vigroux brothers, Forrest, Dan Edwardes, Kazuma, Sebastien Goudot, Francisco Soto-Tautiva and Thomas Couetdic. At the end of the day of training, the Yamakasi spent almost half an hour questions from those in attendance. This is part 1 of 3 of their answers.
A few weeks ago we also posted a Parkour documentary by TK17. The movie is a full length 90 production titled “Parkour Project: Pilgrimage,” and it takes an in depth look at Parkour and its origins in Lisses, France. The majority of the movie focuses on Lisses, but we decided to include a link to this post because the first 20 minutes specifically does a great job of answering the question, “What is Parkour?”
Here is a German news feature broadcasted in 2005 that is dense with Parkour information. It features David Belle, the Yamakasi, and Austrian Tracer Andreas Kalteis.
The news pieces starts with David Belle at a Parkour workshop in Berlin. In this segment David talks about the origins of Parkour and one of the often overlooked mental aspects of Parkour. Clips featuring David are also shown from the Accroches Toi video and the feature film Banlieue 13 (District B13).
After the workshop the news feature moves to Lisses, where it spends considerable time with Austrian Tracer Andreas Kalteis. Andreas trains at some of the most famous locations in Lisses and prominently represents the mindset of humility and modesty when he refuses to do a jump for the camera.
The news piece ends with the Yamaksi and a short interview with Yann Hnautra. Yann talks about the Yamaksi organization and their, unreleased at the time but recently established, Majestic Force brand/label is also mentioned.
Gems of Parkour history are spread throughout this feature in the video clips and interviews. We have transcribed David’s dialogue below.
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“I was interested in the story of my father. People always said, “Your father did this and that he saved people,” and I wanted to know why – what he was doing? He explained to me, ‘that is Parkour.’ I asked – ‘what is Parkour?’ and he told me that in Vietnam there are different kinds of Parkour. The more he told me the more I wanted to experience that myself because he did that too. When I was out, more and more young people came and asked ‘Can I participate? Can I participate?’ and I said ok, and here we are today.”
“You escape form the system, from pressure, from technology from such things. When you escape you feel free. When you stop you think about your problems, so when you do Parkour these thoughts aren’t there because you have to focus so you don’t get hurt.”
We have recently added four new blogrolls to the site, and since only two of these directly represent Parkour I wanted to explain our reasoning for these additions.
The two blogrolls that directly represent Parkour are www.ParkourGenerations.comand David Belle’s personal website kyzr.free.fr/davidbelle/The Parkour Generations blogroll was included because Parkour Generations is the most prestigious Parkour academy in the world. Located in London it is directed by Stephane Vigroux, Forrest, and Dan Edwards, all three of which are incredible Tracers who deserve the utmost respect for their knowledge, skill and contribution to the instruction and spread of Parkour in Britain and throughout the world. David Belle’s personal website was included for obvious reason.
The other two blogrolls are www.Foucan.com and www.MajesticForce.com. Although these two sites do not perfectly represent Parkour, the founders of these sites, Sébastien Foucan and the Yamaksi, are inexorably linked to Parkour through their childhood relationships with David and their influence on the development of Parkour. David Belle started the Yamakasi, but when disagreements arose regarding the true meaning of Parkour, the group split up and since then three disciplines have emerged: Parkour, Freerunning, and the Art du Déplacement. Sébastien is the founder of Freerunning and the Yamakasi are the leaders of the Art du Déplacement.*
In the near future we will be posting more information and videos that explain the differences between these arts -even though some contend that they are the same-. However, for the sake of highlighting the similarities and connections of Parkour, Freerunning, and the Art du Deplacement, we will point out that the movements in all three disciplines are rooted in dynamic movement of the human body and encompass interacting with and/or overcoming obstacles in your environment. As such, many of the movements in all three disciplines are very much the same if not identical. In many cases the training methods and principles, including both the mental and physical aspects, for these three arts are the same as well. Regardless of which art you study/adhere to, the founders/leaders of Parkour, Free Running, and the Art du Déplacement are all incredible athletes that have uncovered ways of movement that were previously unimagined in modern society, and they have reached levels of athleticism that supersede any previous beliefs of man’s capabilities and/or limitations to move.
You will learn a great deal from every one of these sites, and although the primary focus of www.MisterParkour.com is the philosophy of Parkour, from time to time we will include videos and information from www.Foucan.com and www.MajesticForce.com to supplement your training methods, enjoyment, and imagination.
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*“The founders of the Yamakasi group haven’t invented anything! However, with what they have agreed to call the << Art du Déplacement>>, they affirm that they have reached a very high level of research and performance with the aim of bringing to a life a simple form of expression that is capable of reaching out to everyone’s imagination.
Having succeeded it making their Art known and achieving a certain popular recognition, within a few years they became real ambassadors for the << Art du Déplacement>>, their own discipline…”
