Ser y Durar (to be and to last)

Week 8: Community Outreach
With final exams, work and other factors, I haven't been able to train at all this week.  It's driving me crazy but I know I've been too physically and mentally exhausted and it's smarter to just get some rest and then get back to it as soon as I can.  Since I can't do parkour, I thought I'd do the next best thing: watch other people do parkour.

I went with my friend, V, to check out this really cool exhibit at the Hirschorn showing the film Ser y Durar from DEMOCRACIA in the black box downstairs.  For my DC readers, you should go check it out before it ends! I think it's gone at the end of May.  I could be making that up though so don't hold me to it.  You can also watch the film online by clicking on the name of the film above.  I found the piece intriguing and very well done.  But it also made me extremely uncomfortable.  Cemeteries are quiet, peaceful places where loved ones have been laid to rest and it made me cringe to see these young men tracing through the cemetery, even with a purpose.  My beliefs aside, the film itself was still very interesting and worth watching.

As part of the museum's gallery talks, the American Parkour founders came to the Hirschorn Friday afternoon to give a little demonstration and answer some questions from the audience/museum-goers.  There were a handful of guys and one girl (yay!) with a few different obstacles to show us what parkour could look like.  I seriously never get tired of watching parkour.  Even if it's nothing showy, you can always learn or notice new things by observing other people.  One of the guys had a big cast on his hand/forearm so I was thinking he might be taking it easy.  Nope.  This guy just jumped over the vault boxes with no hands.  And then did some flips.  Because who needs hands?

The demo got a little awkward because it was just a bunch of people staring at them in silence while they were going through the obstacles, so one of the founders got everyone to start clapping their hands to create a rhythm and people started cheering when they saw something they liked.  Much better.  After a few runs, the team stopped to answer questions for the audience.  What is parkour all about? Why do you do it? (everyone's answer is different) Where do you do it? (definitely not the roofs of buildings at a local university... never) What is involved in training parkour? How is it similar to or different from dance, gymnastics, and other movement arts or physical disciplines? And more.  I'm not going to list out every Q&A because that's a little unnecessary but it was a great conversation and I think the audience was really into it.

I also learned more about the APK founders and their own beliefs about parkour, and how they'd like to see it evolve which was cool for me.  I always enjoy learning more about the people I train with and my instructors.  I'm really glad I went to check it out.  If you have 20 minutes to spare you should definitely watch the film and let me know what you think!  I'm curious to see other people's reactions.