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The stone courtyard in downtown Denver, for this day, is an acrobat’s theater, a dance floor and an artist’s canvas.

“Look at it. Some people see curbs, walls, concrete. I see a playground. A place to jump around and get where people aren’t going,” said Matt Marshall, a 21-year-old gymnastics instructor and disciple of “le Parkour,” a French-bred sport and philosophy that inspires artful movement through urban terrain.

Parkour practitioners – known as traceurs – leap between rooftops, hurdle obstacles and drop, roll and run through urban landscapes with the feline efficiency and speed of a martial artist pursued. Their frolicking flight is reminiscent of poorly dubbed and precisely choreographed martial arts movies; the ones in which a single combatant dodges the blows of evildoers through gravity-defying and cat-like maneuvering.

Every so often, a group of traceurs meet for a “jam,” in which they aim to take the path less traveled. They convert concrete architecture meant to contain and control pedestrians – stairways, sidewalks, planter boxes, benches – into a sprawling Parkour stage. One by one, they follow each other through high-consequence vaults over stairways, diving hurdles onto concrete and swinging drops onto handrails. They look like feral cats stalked by unseen villains.

Michael de la Cruz races toward a 6-foot wall and leaps to the top before flipping backward off the wall. Ryan Ford matches the leap of de la Cruz with a two-handed spin on the face of the wall. Marshall adds a pommel-horse-type spin on the apex of the wall. Frankie Najera hurdles the wall with a handplant. Then they jog toward the next obstacle.

“It really changes the way you look at things,” said Ford, from Golden, who has been practicing Parkour for almost two years. “Where some people see a wall, we see an opportunity.”

Parkour was born about two decades ago by Frenchmen David Belle and Sebastien Foucan. The urban acrobats eventually transformed their pursuit of a different pathway into a philosophy, much like most martial arts. The transcendental tenet of Parkour is to gracefully overcome life’s obstacles and transform impediments into advantages.

“A lot of times the biggest obstacle is not the thing in front of you but the belief you can do it,” said Ford, a lithe, soft-spoken 18-year-old who founded the Colorado Parkour group about a year ago, watching it grow from a few friends to more than 70 members. “I do see this as a discipline. The mental side is just as hard as the physical.”

To demonstrate, Ford scrambles to the top of a 12-foot wall and leaps. Upon landing, he drops into a quick roll and springs into a trot that turns into a nimble dance over vertical rocks in Denver’s Skyline Park.

Fluidity and flow are anchors of Parkour. The idea is to move as efficiently and quickly as possible through any environment, like water through a stream bed. Draw a straight line between two points on a city map and travel that line regardless of barriers. Go over, under, through. Do it faster. Those are the ideas behind Parkour.

“It’s about body control and awareness of your body and your limits,” said 17-year-old Rithi Son from Golden, just after running up a wall and flipping backward. That’s a move, he proudly explains, that once landed him in hot water with administrators at Golden High School, where he recently graduated.

Parkour is the modern interpretation of “The Natural Method,” the legacy created by pioneering French physical education theorist George Hebert. Hebert’s approach to physical development was modeled after Africa’s indigenous people and eschewed stifling indoor gymnasiums. His method utilized the natural environment. Aggressively romping through anything and everything outside would ultimately develop strong men and women of character.

In defining his “Natural Method,” Hebert wrote: “With regard to the development of virile qualities, this is obtained by the execution of certain difficult or dangerous exercises requiring the development of these various qualities, for example while seeking to control the fear of falling, of jumping, of rising, of plunging, or walking on an unstable surface, etc.”

Parkour thrives in France and the United Kingdom, where companies such as adidas are sponsoring Parkour athletes. The Internet is most responsible for the growth of the Luddite-friendly sport, which requires only a playful spirit and sneakers. Groups meet online and schedule jams, post photos and discuss the finer points of running, vaulting and leaping through the city.

As the sport trickles into the United States – groups have formed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Denver – a growing Parkour rift has become more evident.

Traditional Parkour is all about flow. An increasingly popular interpretation – classified as “free running” – adds showy flips and spins to the traditional Parkour repertoire. While rubbing against the natural efficiency and in some ways the core philosophy of Parkour, free running has opened the sport to break dancers and gymnasts eager to move beyond the limitations – gyms, dance floors – of their chosen pursuits.

The simplicity and fluidity of Parkour drew de la Cruz, a Pueblo native who has been break dancing for a decade and has dabbled in Parkour for about a year. The leaps of Parkour are similar to learning dance moves. Steps must be aligned several seconds before takeoff to assure a solid leap and landing, which requires systematic “left foot here, right, left, right, jump” approaches.

“This is a lot more physical,” de la Cruz said. “A lot of the flips I know from break dancing carry over.”

Parkour basics

Kong vault: Place two hands on a rail or ledge and swing your legs through your arms. A Kong vault can be done while running or standing still. It works for vaulting a wall or rail.

Cat leap: Leap over a gap and grab a wall with your hands. Feet should land first on the wall and then the hands. Can be done from a standstill or while running.

Precision jump: A basic skill of Parkour requires landing cleanly. Don’t let your knees flex too deeply and use your arms to control momentum. Experts can precision leap onto a 2-inch-wide handrail.

Roll: When jumping from a distance, momentum is dissipated by rolling onto a shoulder. Land with your feet somewhat sideways and move directly from landing into a shoulder roll and back to your feet. Practice this one in the grass. Heck, practice everything in the grass before moving onto concrete. The experts make it look too easy. It isn’t.

Learn more: www.parkour.com; www.urbanfreeflow.com

In Colorado: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/COPK/

Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-820-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.