Well done to the nine who stuck around after last night's Outdoor Class to take part in the extra dusk-till-dawn training session with Dan. With well over 20 miles of walking, running and training covered before sunrise and everyone feeling somewhat stiff and sore, you all showed great spirit and doggedness not to give up and go home particularly as no one knew how long or how far we were plannng to go. Exactly what the discipline is about. Inspiring stuff guys, well done.
Tuesday 3rd June will see an exhibition at Chelsea Future Space Gallery showing the parkour-generated artwork of Layla Curtis, in association with Westminster City Council, Futurecity, and the London Festival of Architecture - thermal imaging films following the marks and movements of traceurs in London. The exhibition is free to attend and open to all, the dress code is informal, drinks and nibbles will be provided (free) and it is officially open between 6pm - 8.30pm, although people can drop by at any time to see the work.
This Saturday, May 31st, we will be running parkour workshops between 1-4pm at the Swindon Festival of Sport. Held at St Mark's Recreation Ground in Swindon, the Festival is focussed on providing physical activities for all sections of the community and this year will be the first time parkour has been included. For more information on the day and location details etc, Click here.
Pictures and short videos of the Ohio event are beginning to show up online, as participants share them in various forums etc. A small sample selection of photos by Nick Kelly of the Ohio State University traceurs can be seen here, and a few short videos here.
One for the diaries, girls.. The next Women's Jam in London will be held on Sunday the 8th of June. These training days are open to any women of any level of ability for practise, learning, sharing knowledge and experience and are completely free to attend. For more information email Tracey(at)parkourgenerations.com
The team has just returned from the United States, after a hugely successful and positive four-day Expo event and seminar in Ohio. Easily the largest gathering of practitioners to date in America, the four days comprised some hard training, great practise areas, a film presentation by Julie Angel, the first roundtable discussion about the position and direction of the discipline in the USA and much more.
This Saturday we will be running workshops in Melksham, Wiltshire at the Christie Miller Centre from 11.30-2.30 in conjunction with the Wiltshire Alternative Youth Sports department of the Council.
A 6-strong team from Parkour Generations flies out to America today to run a four-day Expo seminar event in Columbus, Ohio. Stephane, Dan, Kazuma, Forrest, Johann will be teaching while Julie Angel covers the event as well as giving an evening presentation of her films. Other activities include a press conference and a national Girls' Jam, and full details can be found on the website of Ohio State University Parkour Club hosts here.
A brand new documentary by Julie Angel featuring Stephane Vigroux, Forrest, Johann Vigroux, Thomas Couetdic and many more from Parkour Generations will soon be premiered in London at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. A trailer for the behind-the-scenes documentary can now be seen here. The film follows the making of a series of artist's films by Layla Curtis using thermal image technology, a project that was commissioned by the City of Westminster. Groundbreaking stuff.
Now that the entire team is safely back from the Yamakasi event in France, all Academy Classes are back on every night at their usual times. For details see the Coaching menu above. Expect a few prize new drills we picked up from our good friends in France to be inflicted upon everyone here..!
With the first International Art du Deplacement gathering over, and the dust still settling, it will take a while for the full repercussions of this awesome event to become clear. Hundreds of traceurs were present from all over the world, and the authorities of the City of Evry gave their full support to the development of the discipline and the establishment of a permanent Academy there run by the Yamakasi Founders - an incredible achievement.
The first couple of days of the Majestic Force-organised international seminar event in Evry, France, has gone incredibly well so far and the entire team is having a great time. With the City of Evry giving its full support to the event, and the Mayor signing an official and lasting agreement between the City and the Yamakasi founders in Majestic Force, huge steps have been made towards gaining complete recognition for the discipline in its own birthplace.
This month sees our monthly Off The Wall open training day returning to the popular area in Archway on Sunday May 25th. Last time we were there, we were provided with the first sunny weekend's weather in a long time, so we're hoping for more of the same. We'll be meeting outside Archway Station at 12:45pm and we'll begin the warm-up at 1pm, moving over to one of the central spots to then get going. The Off The Wall gatherings are a great way to share knowledge and train in a friendly atmosphere with a lot of dedicated traceurs.
Monday and Tuesday the 19/20th of May will see us delivering day-long AQA parkour courses for young people on behalf of the City of Westminster. The courses run from around 10am to 3pm both days at Moberly Sports Centre, the home of many of our Academy Classes. The AQA accreditation we deliver is a great introduction for children to the discipline and the fundamental principles of fitness, strength, co-ordination and movement skills as well as mental focus and control.
The huge event being hosted by the Yamakasi Founders with the full support of the City of Paris is almost upon us, and will be running on both days of this weekend - the 17th and 18th of May. Open to all, the seminar days are completely free of charge, and accommodation can still be booked in a gym provided by the City for the participants.
The YouTube Parkour Takeover Day we organised in conjunction with film-maker Julie Angel on May 2nd has proven to be one of the most successful Takeover Days YouTube has done. Feedback from the authorities at YouTube tells us that the 13 selected videos received over 6 million views in just two days..! One of the videos stayed among the "Most Viewed" category for a couple days, which apparently is quite an achievement for a featured video. The positive feedback form this event has been enormous, and the repercussions will go on being felt for some time yet.
A full itinerary of our four-day seminar event in Columbus Ohio, running from 22-25 May, plus location photos, directions, lodging details and essential release forms etc can now be found here. The event will include a film presentation and talk by Julie Angel and the Parkour Generations Team, the first US national Women's Training Day, plus two seminar days open to all.
On Friday May 16th our regular Youth Academy class and Outdoor Class will not be running, due to the entire team being away in Paris on that date for the forthcoming Yamakasi Seminar Event at which will be announced, among other things, the establishment of France's first permanent Academy building. All other classes this week and next will be running as usual.
With all our regular adult classes going from strength to strength, it's great to see that our Under 19s Youth Academy class on Friday evenings is booming too. Now averaging around 35 students per class, the sessions - run principally by Dom and Yao - may even require a third instructor to cope with the numbers as this summer the class will at times be held in the outside section of the Westminster Academy Sports Centre. The next generation is looking very healthy indeed...
Parkour Generations Team Member Thomas has just finished running a three-day seminar in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which proved to be a great success. The event was organized by Bruno "Rachacuca" Peixoto and his "PKMAX" team, with the help of Alberto Brandão from Brasília, and funded by the National Art Foundation of Brasil. It was a 3 days workshop for a limited number of participants, and saw 20 motivated traceurs displaying great skill and determination, as well as enthusiasm for Thomas' knowledge.
This month's women-only open training day in London will be held on Sunday May 11th, kicking off at 12pm. The meeting place for the Jam will be Vauxhall Train station at the bus stop exit, so anyone wishing to attend should be there by midday on Sunday to be taken to the training area. The Girl Jams are free to attend and open only to women, and provide a great opportunity for female practitioners to get together and share ideas and learn from the more experienced.
As part of the YouTube Parkour Takeover Day last week we launched the start of a new video series of training insights, entitled 'Behind The Jump', and it has proven to be extremely successful and in great demand already. The first 3 edits can now be seen on the videos section of the site and also on our YouTube Channel. Volume 4 will be released very soon, and the series will be ongoing...
Due to the incredible response from interested people in America following our YouTube Takeover Day, this is just a little reminder that we will next be Stateside to run an open 2-day seminar in Columbus, Ohio on the 24th and 25th of May. The event will also include a film presentation by film-maker Julie Angel as well as some other little tidbits thrown into the mix.
London Aware 08, a May 10/11 event, is the product of UK Aware, a charitable events company dedicated to raising awareness of the increasingly severe environmental problems facing the world.
Monday 5th May is a Bank Holiday and so due to Moberly Sports Centre being closed there will be NO Indoor Academy Class that day. However, we are running a special Outdoor Class that day at 7pm. Every other class that week is running as usual and we will be back at Moberly for Thursday the 8th of May's class at 7.30pm.
The YouTube Parkour Takeover Day proved to be an enormous success, bringing the discipline to a whole new audience and touching thousands of people in the process, most of whom we are still hearing from now..! It has been extremely positive all-round. Huge thanks to all the people who worked so hard to get their videos ready for the event, and to everyone who tuned in to support those film-makers and their films. And a big thanks to YouTube of course and Andrew Bangs for making it happen!
To remind you, tomorrow (May 2nd) will be a huge day for parkour, as YouTube has invited Parkour Generations and film-maker Julie Angel to provide parkour videos for a Takeover Day - meaning the YouTube homepage will feature NOTHING but parkour videos for the entire day and a little longer. We now know that as well as YouTube.com at least another 18 countries' YouTube homepages will be running the Takeover Day, including the UK and France, making this easily the largest online exposure for the discipline in history.
Parkour Generations is now ready and proud to unveil a brand new video series, entitled 'Behind The Jump': A groundbreaking series of short pieces giving insights into the rigorous, daily training that allows serious practitioners of parkour to perform at such high intensity and yet remain free from injury. The series will offer a look at all aspects of practise and training, from conditioning to technical work to the necessary mindset and so on, and will be an ongoing production.
