It turned the splendour of a town hall into a scene out of a James Bond film.
Young acrobats leapt, looped-the-loop and swung around Batley Town Hall when they launched into a high-octane set on a lifesize skeleton-like metal steam engine .
The Kirklees teenagers used the impressive construction to showcase their professional looking skills acquired only days before through the art of Parkour, a form of obstacle course training designed to help people quickly and impressively get from one point to another in urban areas.
Aged between 14 and 16, the six participants were made up of youth offenders, Batley Businss Enterprise College students, young people from the Fieldhead Estate in Birstall and grammar school kids who all come together thanks to a new project started by Dewsbury-based Creative Scene and Parkour company The Urban Playground Team.
Their aim is to use the discipline as a cutting edge way to get north Kirklees youngsters into arts.
Vicky Holliday, creative producer of Creative Scene, said: “They have only been practising together since Sunday but have changed such a lot in that short space of time thanks to the training by the Urban Playground Team.
“Some of them were doubtful that they could do anything when they started but now they are doing flips, splits between barriers and swinging off poles.
“They may not realise it but they have been learning a mixture of martial arts and urban dance which has helped them improve their techniques and the whole point of Parkour is about teaching people to trust their bodies.
“And through the training they have learnt how to support each other to carry out these moves which has helped their team skills.”
The team were practising ahead of two events with the Parkour group’s STEAM performance, which will run outside Batley train station on September 4 and at Dewsbury’s Westival outside the train station the following day.
The Parkour sessions mark the third project by Creative Scene, which received a three year Arts Council grant last year to increase arts in north Kirklees.
“The idea is to use Parkour to get them into arts.
“A lot of people view art as high end but we wanted to show the vast amount of art forms that are easy to get involved with.
“They have all enjoyed it and we are looking into making links with other groups so they can keep learning and are planning other artistic opportunities for them.”
