Ali Kadhim
Founder and Leader of Team 9Lives

Since he was young Ali Kadhim was addicted to superhero comics and Jackie Chan films. He joined his local Tae Kwon Do club at the age of 12 and earned his 1st Dan Senior Black Belt at 15 before moving onto other martial arts including Shaolin Kung Fu and Goju Ryu Karate. He also pursued extreme sports such as inline skating, skateboarding and breakdance with his high school friends.

All of these physical arts finally led him to Parkour - Which he discovered on the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not TV show. The show featured the Yamakasi team training in France and for Ali, a whole new world was opened. It was a combination of everything he had already practised and after spending most of his childhood climbing and jumping off things, Ali knew this style of movement was meant for him.

He taught himself the art from what little information he could find on the Internet and he copied the movements he observed in videos. Ali formed a group in 2003 called '9Lives' which was made up of some high school friends who also shared an interest for Parkour. Ali began documenting all their training on a video camera and editing the footage which soon led to another strong interest - Filmmaking.

His passion for films, especially those of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, had been strong his entire life until he picked up a camera and realised he could make his own. Finding some software to edit the stunts and Parkour moves he and his friends would perform, he quickly became obsessed with the video medium.

Ali went on to study Digital Media after high school to learn more about film and graphic design. Soon his shortfilms started appearing in film festivals around Sydney and his love for film and physical movement grew even more. Although the original 9Lives team parted ways at this stage, he kept the spirit of Parkour alive and took on board several talented newcomers from his neighbourhood to pass on his knowledge.

Together they have progressed their skills and have a tremendous amount of passion and devotion for the arts of Parkour, Martial Arts and Filmmaking just to name a few. Ali remains as the leader of the team and sets high goals for them to continue to train themselves and newcomers in Parkour and continue to showcase their physical talent through live performance and film which have reached worldwide audiences.