Figure 72 – Route describing traceur participant 05's tour of the city.
explain gestures
hand
jumps onto out over
pedestrian
points
railing road
runs steps walks
wall
Figure 73 – word cloud to illustrate the most used terms to describe traceur participant 05’s interactions with the surrounding environment during the tour.
Veteran describes himself as a coach and founding member of an entertainment company
that produces films and offers freerunning and martial arts training. Veteran emphasises the dominance of the parkour community by males in their teenage years and early twenties and thus discusses the distinction of pursuing the activity in his late twenties. Throughout the tour Veteran performs expressive physical movements but they are more subtle than the movements demonstrated by younger traceur participants, additionally, they are intended to complement his efficient route through the city. In addition to his own background in martial arts, Veteran speaks about parallel movements such as break– dancing and Capoeira39, which are integrated into parkour in order to express a distinct personal way of moving.
Figure 74 – The steps to the Metropolitan Cathedral that are compared to an obstacle created for a freerunning competition (4, J on map).
Veteran speaks about how his interest in parkour paralleled the emergence of the discipline
within the U.K. Accordingly, he speaks of younger practitioners as being of a different generation that are willing to push the boundaries of expressive mobility even further, he states;
39 Break dancing is a dance movement that emerged in parallel to rap music as part of the wider
Teenagers of today around about sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, they’ve got a crazy amount of ability. A lot more skill and a lot more bottle than I had when I was at their age. So to keep up with that age group is pretty difficult nowadays. So I don’t know how I would probably fit in. The only thing that I can offer them is the opportunity to practice those tricks40 in a safer environment with my teammates and me. Give them some pointers on the basic gymnastic techniques behind them.
Veteran’s emphasis on safe environments for parkour highlights the tension that exists
between arguments for and against parkour specific facilities. It is also a reflection of the concerns surrounding the maturity of practitioners due to the pressure that can be placed upon taking unnecessary risks without adequate training.
Figure 75 – Concrete bench used to communicate the potential threats that exist for traceurs if they imitate movements without a correct awareness of the dangers involved (14, L on map).
Veteran also speaks about the city as a place for practitioners that represent the dialectic
between; a terrain that facilitates incremental physical development, and a backdrop for spectacular performance, as he states;
It’s also probably a huge factor to take into account who’s watching, because although some people who are purists of parkour, who tend to think about their movement being for them, and practice only for their ability, for their creativity and their development. Freerunners tend to look at it a little differently; they’ve got a little bit more of a showboating attitude about them. So they’ll look at from the perspective of what can I trick off next? What can I do? Who’s watching? What will it look like and what will they think?
40 Tricks refers to martial arts tricking, an offshoot of martial arts which focuses on the display of
Veteran’s observations on traceurs image consciousness lead him to discuss the value of visual character of parkour as a commodity within the film industry. Veteran speaks of the potential for traceurs to apply their skills within the stuntman occupation. In doing so, he posits the notion of the urban terrain as a training ground for the choreographed scenes of action films, again highlighting the reciprocal relationship between parkour and the visual language of movies. Veteran comments; ‘But I think when you’re winding down at the end of it all, the only way to go with it is to look at probably teaching other people, coaching and mentoring other people like I do, or taking it to another level and coordinating situations or scenarios in films or on stage.’ Veteran’s remarks reflect his interests in the long-‐term application of the skills associated parkour. He also expresses his concerns regarding the physical demands connected with parkour again portraying it as a discipline that culminates only at a certain point in an individual’s life. He describes this period as being strongly connected to individuals’ desire to visibly manifest a social identity and describes,
If I was seventeen or eighteen it would be the idea of having a secret identity appealing to me more, to do all of those freerunning skills and parkour skills but without having anybody to know who you were. You’d need to develop some kind of a.k.a and alter ego. When I grew up it was a fascination with the likes of Spiderman and stuff like that, but I think the most interesting concept of it is not what they can do, because a lot of human beings can do that sort of stuff if they push their minds to it, it was the fact that nobody knew who he was and that he had a double identity, he lived two lives – one on the roof and one on the street and that was the fascinating bit for me, that was the interesting side.
Veteran’s statements about anonymity emphasise the complex system of social exchange
that inform the introversions and extroversions of city’s inhabitants. Veteran’s comments regarding interaction with the cityscape and public identity resonate with scholarly work that examines the notion of the flâneur (Mitchell 2005, p. 158)41. This again helps us to realise the significance of traceurs as figures for critiquing the contemporary nature of urban space and the identities that they help to engender.
Path Node Edge District Landmark
Chavasse Park
Waterfront Town Liverpool One Roof–scape
Liver Building Wellington Rooms
Table 18 – Urban elements significant to traceur Participant 5
Additional features of significance; Cathedral Plaza – Steps
Lime Street – Railing
Brownlow Hill – Concrete Bench St John’s shopping centre – Stairway