Brad ' One Punch' PickettSebastien Foucan - Freerunning is my own personal expression
An interview with SébastienFoucan
Words by Julie Angel. Interview by Dan Edwardes. Photography by Andy Day
SébastienFoucan is probably the world’s best-known freerunner after starring in the opening chase sequence of the Bond film, ‘Casino Royale’. His story began as a teenager in the Parisian suburb of Lisses, when a mutual friend (Frederick Hnautra) introduced him to David Belle. Sébastien joined David’s cousins and friends in their games and challenges that over a period of years developed into a training ethos and new way of looking at and using the environment. David had been inspired and guided by his father Raymond Belle, a celebrated athlete, gymnast, military firefighter and once child soldier. Raymond Belle didn’t do sport, ‘he was sport.’ (Sébastien Foucan)
Alongside David was Yann Hnautra, the oldest of the group (also from a strong athletic military family), who encouraged everyone and led the training in the early days. There were around 40 people training around Lisses at this time, some coming from Sarcelles and Evry. Sébastien was part of a core group of nine young men who pushed their physicality and fear to new extremes, extending the scope of what was humanly possible. They built up their ‘body armour’ and had an eye for calculated risk; they were strong - physically and mentally - and had the discipline to be precise. This was coupled with a creative way of seeing opportunities for movement, training and expression in their surroundings. There was no great master plan; they all gave of themselves in order for an art to exist, crying and bleeding together. They were doing it purely for the love of doing it. Sébastien was more cautious than the others and, at times, his fear of heights kept him at the back of the group. He spent a lot of time reading and drawing, inspired by a range of influences from Bruce Lee to Dragon Ball Z and other comic book heroes of the day.
The friends called themselves the Yamakasi, and in 1997 performed once before Sébastien and David independently stepped away from the group. Now alone, both continued with their own trainingindependently and took on part-time jobs while the remaining Yamakasi became a national sensation and phenomenon in France after the release of the Luc Besson film, ‘Yamakasi’. In 2002, David Belle featured in a channel ident for the BBC, ‘Rush Hour’. The UK audience had simply never seen anything like it. Mike Christie and Mike Smith, the director and producer team behind Carbon Media were inspired and soon went to television broadcaster Channel 4 with a programme proposal: 'Jump London'. Christie and Smith wanted David but he was contractually tied to other projects. They met with Sébastien and, as they say, the rest is history.It was after seeing Jump London that the production team behind 'Casino Royale' wrote the film's chase sequence and following his exposure through 2 ‘Jump' documentaries, Sébastien was the obvious choice for the role. Since Bond, Sébastien has starred in numerous high profile projects all over the world including performing in Madonna’s ‘Confessions’ tour and starring in commercials for K-Swiss and numerous others.
While all of the films, documentaries and commercials featuring members of the original Yamakasi group have inspired and shown what is possible, there was initially relatively little explanation of the processes and methods used to achieve such accomplishments safely and responsibly, especially to an English-speaking audience. However, much has changed over the past few years and, like anything of quality and value, shouldn’t be rushed. Today, many of the trailblazers from the Parisian suburbs are dedicating their efforts to teaching and sharing their knowledge based on over 20 years of experience. Their current physical abilities and condition is living proof they know what works. For Sébastien Foucan, this is freerunning.
An interview with Sébastien Foucan
What is freerunning for Sébastien Foucan?
Freerunning is my own personal expression following my natural evolution. I started off doing parkour, and felt I was limited and incomplete in my practice (I am referring to the past here, because parkour has evolved and is a more accomplished discipline now).
At that time, before the term freerunning was coined, I began to build my own way of practicing my own personal expression, following martial art influences and especially Bruce Lee's ideology. Freerunning is not only physical, but also spiritual. It can be helpful for life because it gives you tools based on experiences of physical practice. Basically, I tried to put down on paper a method and some guidance for those people who are lost like I felt I was. Freerunning can be seen as conceptual and a method rather than a fixed discipline. It is really concerned with teaching something for life.
For me, the action of putting acrobatic moves into your expression together with parkour is freerunning, but simply doing acrobatics and everybody else then doing the same thing is not! Freerunning should reflect your own expression and one of the aims of it is wellbeing. I haven't seen yet someone who truly combines breakdancing and parkour or capoeira and parkour etc, (other than a few tricks on videos). It takes a few years to achieve some basic movements, but much longer to truly understand and walk that path.
And what are the similarities with parkour/art du deplacement?
Without being too complicated, we are of the same family. For me, physically, parkour and freerunning are both art of displacement. As the founder of freerunning, I can say that freerunning shares the same fundamental techniques with parkour. I don't know about the other disciplines, but as far I'm concerned, freerunning is an unfinished discipline, ever evolving.
How do you see the future and what are your hopes for this art?
The future for the practice is always in movement (I sound like Yoda!). But I hope there will be more unity in terms of respect for other people’s differences. I have a wish for freerunning - that people can see the work I'm doing because it's important for me as a creator.
What are your projects to help develop the discipline?
My project in terms of development is to work closely with Parkour UK, the UK’s national governing body. I want to get fully qualified in ADAPT to help create and maintain a standard, not to control people, but to help people avoid injury and learn safely and correctly, so as not to destroy the positive image of ‘the Art or Sport’. Basically I want to bring quality and more understanding for a non-practitioner, or politicians etc.
I hope to create my own academy where I can deliver my knowledge and share my experience, and find my way! I am working to have a friendly connection with all the other pioneers and the ‘peaceful’ parkour organisations.
How can freerunning change or improve someone’s life for the better?
Physically, freerunning changes your life because it can be a way to release and express your energy, by meditating on its message and having the maturity to enact it in your life. These experiences can really help if you use them to overcome your own obstacles.
All the best,
Sébastien Foucan
www.foucan.com
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