The art of movement

Free-running or parkour has been described as “the art of
movement”. Its objective is to move through cities in original
ways – climbing, running and jumping across the urban
landscape. Experienced traceurs such as the sport’s founders,
David Belle and Sebastian Foucan, have extraordinary athletic
skills and take risks that are just as incredible. For the BBC film
Rush Hour David Belle leapt nine metres between buildings
with no wire or safety net. Such dramatic stunts have helped
bring parkour into the mainstream, as did the Luc Besson film
Yamasaki named after Paris’s first clan of traceurs. Belle and
some of his associates were unhappy with Besson’s film, which
showed traceurs as criminals, and he and Foucan have since
gone their separate ways. Foucan now promotes the sport,
which is attracting new followers in cities around the world,
under its alternative name of free-running.
EVANS, Piers Grimley. The parkour phenomenon. Speak Up. São Paulo:
Peixes, n. 208, Sept. 2004, p. 39.

Vocabulário

Landscape: panorama, paisagem
Traceurs: praticantes de parkour
Stunts: proezas, acrobacias
Mainstream: na moda, em voga

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