If someone says “parkour” to you, you might think to a scene that has remained famous in the series The Office… Or the Yamakasi, collective heroes of an eponymous film in 2001. They have been emulated: parkour, also called “art of movement”, is still taught today. In some rooms like that of Blast, in Pantin, where the teachers have even been trained by the Yamakasi themselves and today pass on their talents to teenagers in search of sensations.
This Friday, the course program led by Yohann is busy. After a discussion on the objectives of the day’s session, the five teenagers warm up, dumbbells in hand. Then they join a large adapted room, the layout of which changes “every three or four months”. There, Yohann puts them “face to face with themselves” and with several challenges: crossing obstacles, somersaults… and even jumping from the mezzanine, on mattresses placed a few meters lower.
“Running, climbing, jumping”: the definition of parkour given by Yohann is simple. But the teacher also highlights his desire to create “good people” through this sport. “Some Yamakasi had trouble expressing themselves with words, but they were able to express themselves with movements,” he philosophizes. Teenagers don’t set limits: one of the future goals will be to jump out the window of the room, to land in the courtyard below. Just that.