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| In May 2010 I was contacted by Russian company Yota and asked if I could take a team of traceurs to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. The brief was to find locations, photograph and film parkour, as well as running two introductory workshops for the residents of a city that had never seen the art before. I flew out in July to find locations, joined shortly afterwards by Julie Angel, Violeta Beral, and Dan, Blane, Stephane and Sticky from Parkour Generations. |
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| performance 1 | performance 2 | performance 3 |
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The School Having contacted various schools, gymnastics groups, skateboarders, boxers and martial artists, Yota held the first of two workshops at a school in the suburbs of Managua. Choosing the location had been tricky; the location had to be fixed before I flew out to start the reccies so there was no guarantee that there would be sufficient obstacles or equipment. Fortunately, Parkour Generations have lots of experience of this sort of thing and could probably hold a parkour workshop pretty much anywhere. As a result there was a special vibe to the day, helped by some fantastic enthusiasm from the locals despite various language barriers and torrential rain later on. Gallery of photos. |
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The Concha Acustica The second workshop was held at the Concha Acustica, an outdoor music venue and possibly the most iconic building in Managua, offering a wealth of obstacles. The weather was ideal, if a little too hot but the participants were keen and it made sense to seek out the cool of the Concha's stage. Free T shirts from Yota meant that all the participants matched the blue of the sky, making the warm down games and stretching a photogenic finale when combined with the striking view from the Concha out across the Plaza de la Fe Juan Pablo II. Gallery of photos. |
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| Being a surfer, Julie was adamant that, on our one day off, we hire a minibus and head to the coast. Pochomil was our destination and it proved to
be something quite magical. The surf, the beach, the slight disbelief that we were in the Pacific Ocean, the barbecued fish for lunch, and the weather. The sun came and went over the course of
the day, finally swept violently aside by an almighty thunderstorm that followed us all the way back to Managua. A handful of snapshots as a memento for the seven of us that shared the sea, salt, sunshine and storms. Playtime. |
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Andy Day - www.kiell.com 2010 |  |