FOUNDERS
The Urban Playground Team www.theurbanplayground.co.uk
The original 2PK company founded in 2005/6 with a project that resulted in the world's first touring stages for the performance of parkour - the Urban Playground itself - and the first 2PK show. Later in 2006 the UPG Team entered a partnership with Gravity Style - the organisation of Yamakasi member and parkour co-creator Malik Diouf. Since then UPGTeam has performed across 4 continents, designed the UK's first permanent parkour site (2009) and coined the term performance-parkour. They teach and mentor new 2PK communities wherever they go for clients including the British Council. They are supported by two of the UK's regional dance agencies.
Flow Madness www.flowmadness.dk
A team of traceurs including several b-boys, Flow Madness were formed in 2013 following a collaborative project between Herning Parkour, the UPG Team, and OM Teatret Denmark. Since then the group have created their first original show and participated in several large scale site-specific works, again with OM Teatret and also with the world renowned Odin Teatret.
Displacement Parkour www.displacementparkour.webs.com
Displacement was formed in 2008 after a performance for Dublin's Fringe Festival with the realization that the art of Parkour desperately needed a direction in Ireland. Its aim is "representing and furthering the evolution of Parkour, through teaching and performance. To push the boundaries, learn as much as possible and to make that information freely available"
This has been achieved through various media works, performances, talks, events, workshops and seting up Ireland's first full time parkour class in early 2009 to pass on knowledge gained from on-going training with the founding members of the art, in a fun and safe way.
FB GROUPS
PARKOUR & MENTAL HEALTH
Closed group sharing info
PARKOUR INSTRUCTORS FOR UNDERPRIVELAGED YOUTH
Support for instructors working with at-risk communities of Y.P.
BeingFrank Physical Theatre www.beingfrank.co.uk
Beingfrank Physical Theatre creates breathtaking expressive and intensely physical performance often in collaboration with other artists and art forms. Set up in 2004 to inspire young men to dance Beingfrank continues to stimulate and engage audiences of all ages with its distinctive raw physicality.
The company has a national reputation for delivering challenging and creative dance workshops that are inclusive to everybody, and works across a huge range of settings from schools to prisons. Beingfrank Physical Theatre tours both breathtaking live performances and screendance.
Member Sites
Dr Julie Angel http://julieangel.com
Independant filmmaker, artist, academic and writer. In 2011 Julie completed the world’s first parkour themed PhD, ‘Ciné Parkour’, using short form documentary films as a means to communicate and create a dialogue around what parkour is in terms of the physical, emotional, spacial and political. In 2012 she was part of an international consultation committee for the United Nations Article 31 General Comment on the Child’s Right, valuing unregulated improvised play culture and sport.
Julie continues to work with and document various international parkour communities including Singapore, Brasil , Denmark, Finland and many more. She is currently working with many of the founders of the discipline on a book about the history of parkour.
Andy Day www.kiell.com
Andy Day began photographing parkour and its people in 2003. He has since worked consistently with the discipline’s leading practitioners and organisations contributing significantly to the global visual identity of parkour across all media platforms. He is a climber, explorer, blogger, writer and teacher who is embedded in both the parkour and buildering communities. His work has received several solo exhibitions at prominent galleries, and is published widely including in parkour’s first
coffee table book ‘The Moments Between’. As a researcher Andy has contributed to several films including Jump Britain and Concrete Circus. He remains both a key contributor to and fearless critic of Parkour’s continuing development.
