PORTLAND, Ore. – At first glance, parkour practitioners look like modern dancers unleashed on an impromptu obstacle course.
Usually seen in cities, parkour involves jumping, rolling and vaulting over, under and through the objects found in a typical urban setting. Traceurs, as parkour enthusiasts are called, strive to move as directly and fluidly as possible, using only their bodies and the objects they encounter to propel themselves forward.
Parkour may require vaulting a wall, jumping off a ledge or leaping over a railing, but devotees say there is more to it than being a daredevil.
“We don't want people to see parkour as something crazy,” said Adam Dunlap, a 21-year-old in Beaverton, Ore., who teaches parkour. “It's hard work . . . the creativity comes from training.”
Parkour has its roots in France, but its popularity is taking off in the United States. The relatively new and largely underground practice, sometimes also called free running, requires strength, agility, discipline and guts.
“I think it's just humans moving the way humans were meant to move,” said Mark Toorock, a leader in the U.S. parkour movement. “People were meant to jump, climb, play.”
Traceurs are often self-taught or gather in groups to “jam” in parks, college campuses, or anywhere they are inspired by the constructs of an urban landscape.
As parkour has grown in popularity, so have the opportunities to learn the discipline. Parkour-inspired classes are sprouting up in gyms, online forums are growing and Toorock wants to take it to the level of a professional sport.
“It's not that parkour is this new, fresh thing,” he said. “It's kind of human rehabilitation, which is getting back to what we are meant to do.”
Some participants say parkour resembles martial arts in the mental and physical discipline it requires.
It tends to draw the younger, male, daredevil sector. But in the parkour-related classes Dunlap teaches, he has everyone from young children and 30-something women to middle-aged men.
Parkour has caught on in popular culture, as well. The movie “Casino Royale” featured a parkour chase scene. K-Swiss and Nike have had ads showcasing traceurs doing their thing in company shoes.
And Toorock, founder of American Parkour and a member of a group called the “tribe” that dominates the American Parkour scene, says he gets a phone call a week from people wanting to make reality shows about people jumping off buildings.
He always says no.
To him and others dedicated to parkour, it's not about jumping off things. Although many will admit that was part of the initial appeal.
“It's very serious,” he said. “It's about increasing your own capacity to eliminate risks.”
Video: Take a look at the San Diego Parkour scene.
