Founder of Parkour - David Belle
David Belle (born 29 April 1973 in Fécamp, France) is the founder of parkour (PK). He is also a physical educator, stuntman and actor. His military training and early athletic, climbing, gymnastic, and martial arts training acted as the foundations for the discipline he has developed
Belle was born and raised in Seine-Maritime, France. He descends from a modest family in the suburbs of Paris. His grandfather Gilbert Kitten, father Raymond Belle, and brother Jeff Belle have been highly skilled rescuers in the French military fire service.
He spent the first 14 years of his life in his birthplace Fécamp and later in Les Sables d’Olonne, a time during which he demonstrated a taste for action and fast movement. He excelled in athletics, climbing, gymnastics and martial arts. He was strongly inspired by his maternal grandfather Gilbert Kitten who evoked in him a passion for heroism and helping other people.
In 1988, at the age of 15, Belle left school and moved to Lisses, Paris to begin his national service. In this time he obtained his French national First Aid certificate and UFOLEP certificate of gymnastics leadership. He made close friends with a group of teenagers with a similar physical passion, who later became the Yamakasi (Yann Hnautra, Frédéric Hnautra, David Malgogne, Sébastien Foucan and Kazuma). After joining the fire brigade with aspirations of following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, he was temporarily discharged due to a wrist injury and did not return for personal reasons.
He later joined the Troupes de marine in Vannes, where he received a promotion, a gymnastic agility certificate of honour, and champion records for Regimental rope-climbing (which his father had once held) and the Essonne obstacle course. He has however said that his taste and love for adventure and freedom did not go well with the regimented life of the military.
Upon completing his national service he worked in a number of various professions including a warehouse worker, security guard and furniture salesman. He then flew to India and obtained a Black Belt in Gong Fu. After his return he began promoting his discipline by filming footage of his capabilities. In 1997 the Stade 2 team (Francis Marroto, Pierre Sleed and Pierre Salviac) were shown a video and decided to create a film about Belle and parkour, in a series of his collaborations with ‘the speed-air man’, ‘catmen’, ‘la Reléve’ and ‘les traceurs’. The word ‘traceur‘ has since been used to define a practitioner of parkour.
Belle was first introduced to his acting career in a meeting with Hubert Koundé (La Haine), in order to discuss the success of parkour on the big screen. He then began developing his acting ability with the play Pygmalion, and has since been successful in obtaining a number of roles mostly in French films and promotions. Belle has been featured in promotional videos for Tina Turner, and Iam. He has starred in “Les gens du voyages” and “Un monde meilleur”, followed by “L’Engrenages” and “Femme Fatale”, as well as “Les riviéres pourpres 2″, starring Jean Reno. After filming several more advertisements and promotions for the BBC, Nissan and Nike, Belle was contacted by Luc Besson (director of Nikita, and The Fifth Element) regarding co-starring as lead actor with Cyril Raffaelli in the action movie District 13.
Founder of Free Running
Sebastien Foucan
Sébastien Foucan (born May 24, 1974 in Paris, France), an Afro-French, is one of the founders of freerunning. He created the sport along with his friends including David Belle. He has been influenced by the art of parkour and is generally considered to be a “second generation” founder of parkour along with David Belle. He is well known as an ambassador for free running to many countries and is generally considered to represent free running. Well known for his views on the philosophy behind free running, he also stresses the need for proper training in the basics of free running, not only for safety, but also to maintain the positive appearance of the activity in the public eye.
He came to prominence in the United Kingdom after the showing of Mike Christie’s Jump London documentary on Channel 4 in September 2003, and the subsequent documentary Jump Britain.
In addition to leading these programs, Sébastien also appears as Mollaka in the 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale. He spent three months in the Bahamas filming his role in the movie. A stunt double was used for portions of the opening chase scene. Besides this, Sébastien appears in the music video for Madonna’s 2005 single, Hung Up.
Foucan helped K-Swiss develop the Ariake, the first free running and parkour running shoe in a line of 5 models.
Tags: David Belle, parkour, pk, yamakasi, sebastien focan, traceur, district b13, freerunning, focan, Ariake, free running, parkour running shoe,
Technorati Tags: Ariake, David Belle, District b13, focan, Free Running, freerunning, Parkour, parkour running shoe, pk, sebastien focan, traceur, Yamakasi
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