Laurent Piemontesi
Laurent Piemontesi is an artist, athlete, coach and trainer; he likes to define himself as a craftsman. He is a co-founder of l’Art Du Déplacement (ADD), the original name of the discipline now known as parkour or freerunning. Born in Paris, he grew up in its southern suburbs where, in Evry, Lisses and Sarcelles, he and his friends, including Yann Hnautra, Chau Belle Dinh and Williams Belle, formed a group called Yamakasi. With the other members of the group, he was the protagonist of the films Yamakasi – Les Samouraïs des Temps Modernes (2001) and Yamakasi 2 – Les Fils du vent (2004). Between 1999 and 2000 he was part of the artistic cast of the show Notre Dame de Paris in Paris and Las Vegas. For several years he worked as a coach with Cirque du Soleil for the shows KA and LOVE. Since 2010 he has lived in Milan, Italy, where he teaches l’Art Du Déplacement in Forma In Arte, Italy’s first gym dedicated to the practice of this discipline. He is involved in the transmission of the educational, social and human values underpinning l’Art Du Déplacement. He travels around the world with his workshop ‘Esprit Yamak’.