Grounded in safety, training and artistic expression, Levi Meeuwenberg defies gravity.
A friend introduced the 2004 graduate of Traverse City St. Francis High School to the art of parkour three years ago and Meeuwenberg was captivated by the physical, mental and aesthetic challenge of using an environment as a obstacle course.
Using jumps, spins, running, vaults and even climbing to flow through, say, an urban streetscape or a park, parkour requires no special equipment. A playful attitude of romping to transcend what others might view as limits or barriers is key — making creative movements around, through and over obstacles while having a good time doing it.
"After trying it I just kept doing it because it was so much fun,” said Meeuwenberg. "I had been practicing gymnastics for fun so a lot of that had some similarities.”
"I wouldn't call it a sport, it's an art,” he added. "It's more of a personal art thing, though it is expressive, too.”
Parkour began in France — practitioners are called traceurs — during the 1980s and the American adaptation is called freerunning. While many moves and the environments parallel, the major contrast between the two is philosophical. Parkour is more about speed and efficiency while freerunning emphasizes art and aesthetics.
In both cases, the goal is fluidity of movement -— "like water,” in Meeuwenberg's words.
"Parkour basically came out of military exercises where they tried to do obstacles courses as fast as possible,” he said. "Then the kids applied it to city streets.”
Pushing mental limits is as much a factor in parkour or freerunning as pushing physical ones.
"Definitely there's a large mental aspect to it and one of the large parts of that is dealing with fear and overcoming your fear,” said Meeuwenberg.
As freerunning and parkour slowly spread throughout the United States, practitioner Mark Toorock formed a group called The Tribe in September 2005 to unite the disciplines. He created a team, which included Meeuwenberg, to develop and support the budding community and also to express the arts in a positive light. The Tribe created a tutorial DVD of basic movements and also hosts gatherings, or jams, for the dozen or so members.
"It's a lot of fun at jams with other people,” Meeuwenberg noted. "It's not really choreographed. About the most we usually do is check the surfaces and landings to make sure they're safe.”
Gaining a reputation for his proficiency and knowing someone who knew parkour's founder landed Meeuwenberg a gig with Madonna's Confessions tour this year. Parkour is much more widely known in Europe and Britain, where Madonna resides, and the singer included a four-minute routine featuring five traceurs in her set.
In early May, Meeuwenberg left for Los Angeles for a month of training and then performed for five months with the tour. He returned to Traverse City in September after venturing to cities throughout the United States and Europe.
"It was incredible, it was a great opportunity,” he said. "The energy varied quite a bit from city to city; definitely some cities had a ton of energy and you could kind of feed off of it, some it was just like they were watching a movie — just sitting there.”
"The actual techniques themselves we took the skill level down a bit just to make it more safe, but the challenging part of it was the endurance and stamina it required,” Meeuwenberg added.
Sharing his passion for the art, Levi Meeuwenberg has been teaching a freerunning class at Water's Edge gymnastics this fall. He currently has three students who are absorbing the fundamental principles of the discipline from him.
Meeuwenberg stresses safety, safety and more safety while teaching the physically and mentally demanding maneuvers and imparting the overall philosophy.
"It's appealing because there are no set rules, you can kind of push your limits,” said Chris Leeder, 20, of Copemish, who learned of freerunning from a friend but did not have access to learn it prior to the class. "You don't need any tools or equipment, just your body — it's probably the cheapest sport.”
For more information on the weekly freerunning class Meeuwenberg teaches, call Water's Edge Gymnastics at 941-7751. For more information on parkour or freerunning, see the web site www.americanparkour.com