Parkour as a pas de deux: learning to dance with and within unstable spaces

Abstract

Whilst the show and tricks of Parkour are often attributed to a theatrical event, Parkour enthusiasts fiercely dismiss the idea that what they do is performance. For the Parkour participant, often known as the Traceur, Parkour is a personal journey created by efficient and effective movement from point A to point B. However, in spite of the self-contained nature of Parkour, the Traceur will frequently attract an accidental audience and is now extending its reach into other fields. It is therefore relevant to question how Traceurs create and develop their performance, and how other performance training practices that share similar conditions and objectives could benefit from this understanding. To investigate the training practices used by the Traceur, this paper refers to Higgins, who applies a performance-based vocabulary to discuss and describe contemporary Parkour practice. Using a drawing as a research approach, the article examines Higgins’ application of dance as a means to better understand the Traceur’s process and uses this comparison to break the training process down further. Doing so reveals how the space in which they perform becomes a creative and pedagogical partner with a value that extends beyond Parkour and into other creative disciplines.

Keywords:

• Parkour
• pas de deux
• drawing
• duet
• scenography

Notes

² Flow in this context does not specifically relate to flow in sport. In Parkour it is used to reference ‘good’ Parkour and the ‘continuous motion over terrain...a series of movement that flow as one and instinctively’ (Edwards 2009, p. 138 in Stratford 2014, p. 84).

³ The word Parkour evolved from the word ‘parcours’ (meaning course) coined by George Hebert (1875‒1957) and used to describe the physical activity and skill of overcoming naturally found obstacles. Contemporary Parkour was founded by a group of practitioners including David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Laurent Piemontesi, Chau Belle, Williams Belle, Yann Hnautra, Malik Diouf, Guylain N'Guba Boyeke and Charles Perrière. When Belle and Foucan separated from this group the remaining practitioners became known as the Yamakasi, a term derived from Congolese Lingala and meaning ‘strong body, strong mind, strong spirit’. The Yamakasi called their practice l’art du deplacement (ADD). Although these separations within the original team have resulted in alternative names for the art of Parkour, it has generally been agreed that there is no fundamental difference between each of the practices.

⁴ In some instances Freerunning is called a derivative of Parkour (Gerling, Pach and Witfeld 2011, p. 26). However, some contemporary Traceurs do not acknowledge that Freerunning is different from Parkour. The term Freerunning was initially used as an attempt to translate the word ‘Parkour’ and was coined by a Parkour practitioner in the documentary ‘Jump London’ (Broadcast on Channel 4 on 9 September 2003. Directed by Mike Christie).

⁵ Infiltrate: Verb. 1. Enter or gain access to (an organization, place, etc.) surreptitiously and gradually, especially in order to acquire secret information: the organization has been infiltrated by informers. 2. Introduce (someone) into an organization, place, etc. surreptitiously, in order for them to acquire secret information: they infiltrated an agent into the factory (Oxford Dictionaries: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/infiltrate).

⁶ ‘Neurogaming is where the mind and body meet game-play. It’s where your full nervous system is integrated into the gaming experience by using new sensor technologies, output systems, and game design techniques.’ Available from: http://theblog.syncself.co.uk/?p=76 [Accessed 15 Dec 2015].

⁷ Tim Storey. Head of Dance at the Victorian College of Arts Secondary School.

⁸ Pallant (2006) states that contact improvisation ‘challenges easy definition. In addition to identifying it as experimental dance, practitioners have called it art-sport, folk dance, meditation therapy, play and a technique for choreography’.