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By admin, November 14, 2008 10:33 pm

Layman’s Terms

Explaining capoeira to the uninitiated is a singularly daunting task for any capoeirista. Beginners, eager to share their new-found sport with others, have clumsily compared capoeira to everything from breakdancing to gymnastics to kung fu, as though any of these bore more than a passing similarity to our art of choice. Honestly, comparing capoeira to breakdancing is like comparing a classical symphony to bass fishing; it’s wildly inaccurate and border-line insulting.

The crux of the problem is that the average American has neither the cultural perspective nor the necessary historical background to understand the game of capoeira without experiencing it first-hand. You can’t expect someone who’s never seen purple to understand it after having it described. “It’s kind of like red, but not.” doesn’t cut it. Not that that stops us capoeiristas from trying.

Relatives, friends, the curious and the ignorant will all ask a new capoeirista about his art. What is capoeira? What’s that thing that looks like a bow and arrow with a bowling ball nailed to it? Especially in American society where capoeira is still exotic and strange, confined for the most part to the fringe, the general populace has no frame of reference for understanding our game. To them it looks like a blurry, twisting hybrid of dance and gymnastics.

Another obstacle is that English doesn’t really have the proper vocabulary to explain capoeira. You could call it a non-choreographed dance, at least until a ‘dancer’ takes a martelo in the face and leaves the roda bloody and bruised, with a nose like a hockey veteran and teeth like Steve Buscemi. You could call it a martial art, until you see two ‘fighters’ flip through the air and throw a hundred kicks without ever landing a blow. Next time you’re in a bar fight, try doing a handstand and you’ll quickly see how martial your art really is.

More experienced capoeiristas than I have tried to clumsily force capoeira into categories and words an American would understand. Nestor Capoeira’s book Capoeira: Roots of the Dance-Fight Game comes to mind. Dance-Fight Game, how’s that for an elegant turn of phrase. Imagine a book titled Carpentry: Roots of Tool-Assisted Wood Arrangement for Buildings and Furniture. Or Baseball: Roots of the Stick-swing Balltossing Field Competition. Even if “Dance-Fight Game” wasn’t the ugliest trainwreck of a phrase I’d ever heard, it still overlooks huge swathes of capoeira’s essence; things like music, community, tradition, and acrobatics to name a few.

We poor American capoeiristas are left with few alternatives when it comes to addressing this problem. We can either fumble along with our graceless and inarticulate explanations, confusing our audience and contradicting ourselves at every turn, or we can do what the high cords do, which is skirt the problem by never associating with anyone who doesn’t also play capoeira.

Years ago, a few days after I was baptized and my parents were first exposed to this weird, cultish, violent art their son had become so taken with, I heard my mom trying to describe capoeira to one of my aunts. Listening to a middle-aged woman from Idaho try to explain capoeira brought to mind the singularly apt parable of the blind scientists describing the elephant.

So where do we go from here? How does one distill the complexities, vagaries, and subtleties of the roda into something palatable to the average clueless layman?

Since everyone else has, I’ll give it my best shot.

First and foremost, capoeira is a game, a game set to music and played by two people. It’s a game with few rules and regulations but rife with convention, etiquette, and tradition. The objectives of the game vary; it can be aggressive and combative, focused on dominance and physical prowess. It can be fluid and flashy, as much an aesthetic performance as a contest. It can be tricky and mischievous, humorous and childish at times. Capoeira is a game of ritualized combat, of attack and escape, of strength and agility, of strategy and instinct.

Don’t listen when sneering martial artists call it a dance, or when cow-eyed dancers call it a martial art. It’s neither, and yet so much more than both. Those who say otherwise can’t see the forest for the trees.

Bring the genuinely curious and confused to the roda. Their first game will give them a more complete understanding than words, charts, and illustrations ever could. Maybe, with luck, one of them will be able to sum up capoeira more elegantly than you or I have.

And then we can plagiarize the hell out of that person’s words, and life will be easier for us all.

Salve!

-Trovão

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By admin, November 6, 2008 5:51 pm

Okay. Yesterday I went on and on about how great traveling around and playing with other groups is. And this is true, but visiting other groups requires a little know how.

First and foremost, go with a couple of friends that can back you up. You never know what can happen in these rodas and so you need to have assurance that someone can buy you out.

Second, go with good energy and make friends and ALWAYS ask the instructor permission to play. For example, a few years ago, we went down to LA and visited another group’s class and played in the roda. When we do this, we ALWAYS make sure to introduce ourselves to the instructors and high cords of the group. We make sure that our presence is okay. We offer to play music (always offer, however, as I have mentioned in the past, typically, the capoeiristas want to have you play versus being locked up on music. But as our mothers always say, “it’s the thought that counts!”) In the roda, the energy was good. Their students challenged us but not out of spite but in the good spirit of capoeira. We had a great time.

BUT, there was a friend of ours that also trained capoeira with us back in the day and he met up with us at this roda. He is a gifted capoeirista but for some reason came into the space with a chip on his shoulder. He wasn’t friendly and made no effort to talk to the other students. Needless to say, he was not as welcomed in the roda. The capoeira school’s high cords went after him and were out for blood. I don’t blame them. We are guests and we should be gracious guests when going into someone else’s house.

Third, DO NOT be the first one in the roda unless you absolutely have to. Sit back, watch some games and try to figure out how people are playing and what they are about. 

Fourth, a word of advise to the ladies, be careful. I some cases you may come across the alpha female trying to hold things down and show who’s boss. (I can say this as a women that has been confronted several times by other female alphas). In most cases they will only go after intermediate or high cords but low cords should be careful as well. Watch the roda and try to see if anyone like that fits the bill. If you do see someone playing like that and if you end up playing them, open up your game and show them that you are just here to have fun. If they challenge you, challenge back but ALWAYS keeps the integrity of your game. NEVER reduce yourself to slapping and straight fighting. Thats just ugly. 

So to all capoeiristas reading this blog, visit some rodas. The more interaction we have between groups increases the community bridges between us all.

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By admin, November 5, 2008 7:18 pm

My sister and I have done a lot of traveling together. She lives in Italy and we have gone to a lot of countries in Europe and I always seem to find a capoeira class or roda. When Palhaço and I take a trip down to LA or maybe visit my family in Chicago, thats right, we find a roda or capoeira class. Sometimes we hear the berimbau playing in the distance or we go online and try to see what is going on in the city we are visiting. 

This is what my sister lovingly calls capoeira tourism.

The truth of the matter is that there is nothing more exciting then discovering an open roda in a foreign place or scouting out a capoeira class in unknown terrain. Historically, I have found that capoeiristas overall can be incredibly open and really cool people when they embark on a visitor in their group. (That is, of course, if the visitor brings an equally positive energy.) In my experience, my capoeira brethren have welcomed me into their rodas and classes with open arms. In only a few cases I have gotten a little bit of an ‘icy’ introduction but after 15 minutes of playing and contributing to music, everyone warms up. 

Whats even better is, after playing capoeira, you have now made yourself some new friends in this foriegn land. After exchanging the typical questions of, “who do you train with?”, “how long have you been training”, and so on, maybe even playing some capoeira 6 degrees of separation, your new friends want to show you around town and give you some insiders advice on what to do and where to go. It’s quite fun!

Aside from making friends and expanding your capoeira rolodex, you also learn a lot about capoeira. When you visit other rodas you learn how to have deeper interactions with capoeiristas because often times the styles are different. You also find out that, well, not everyone is welcome to your presence. (Especially with the women.) But you learn how to work around that. 

Ultimately, practicing capoeira tourism is not only fun but you really grow as a capoeirista. Some of my fondest memories and biggest learning experiences come from visiting capoeira groups all over the map.

We have an opportunity to do some capoeira tourism in the next couple of weeks. Omulu Guanabara’s LA group will be hosting their batizado on November 15th with workshops taught by Mestre Di Mola and Mestre Preguiça on that Thursday and Friday. For our students reading this blog, this is our same group so you will not be forced completely out of your comfort zone, but it is still a different crop of people making the experience equally exciting. We will be driving down with a couple of cars so if you are interested, drop us an email.

Also, there will be a part 2 of my writing on capoeira tourism. There, I will give some tips on how to persue capoeira tourism that have worked for me. I will also give some examples of things that I have seen during my time in capoeira that DEFINITELY do not work and will, more times than not, have you end up getting your ass handed to you.

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By admin, October 20, 2008 4:24 am

I was just recently talking to this guy that used to do a whole bunch of mixed martial arts. He was talking to me about his experience with boxing, Muy Thai and Jujitsu. He explained to me that the one principle that remained consistent with all of his training was breath. When fighing, the fighter can’t lose focus. They can ‘t become wrapped up in emotion. If they do, game over. They lose.

Breath.

Practicing your breathing in the roda is truly important when playing capoeira. The roda can be a rollercoaster of drama and emotion. One second the games can be fun and open and then next moment, the games can close up and get very personal. Often times, when the games get personal, you will slowly watch the tension build and the integrity of the capoeira drop. It is the capoeiristas job to maintain themselves in the roda, to not let the opponent get under their skin. How do we do this?

We breath.

When playing in the roda, listen to your breath. Make that your focus. When your opponent tags you with a martelo or if you get swept with a rasteira, don’t get mad. That is part of the game. If you get mad at that moment, you will lose your composure. Just listen to your breath and focus in. You will find that your game will open up and vision will get clear. And, hey, you might not get your hits back in that game.

But there will always be other rodas….

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By admin, September 22, 2008 4:50 am

Congratulations to everybody that got baptized into the group and those who got promoted to the next cord!!!

Palhaço and I both feel that this past week turned out to be really great training and an excellent experience for everyone who participated. The energy was good and everybody represented themselves wonderfully. We are really proud. Below are all of the pics with our class and those who got cords.

Corey and I were talking after the batizado and he said something that was really right on. He said that now he is no longer a white cord, he can no longer skate by. This is the truth for everyone. Now is the time to train harder than you ever had. This is the time where you try to make it to all classes and push the boundaries of your own expectations. If you are a yellow cord you want to already focus on singing in the roda, playing bermimbau, expanding your floreo vocabulary and vision. You want to begin to have presence in the roda. Right now is the time for you to set goals for things you want to accomplish for the next coming year. Your ultimate goal is to have others look at your cord shockingly and say, “that person is a (fill in the cord)?!?”

Now is the time to TRAIN!

For this upcomign year Palhaço and I have also set personal goals and class goals. One of these goals is to expose our students to as much capoeira as possible. We we plan outings to other rodas, collaborate with other instructors in the group and hold workshops with special guests that will highlight different aspects of capoeira.

This is going to be a good year.

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By admin, August 10, 2008 6:25 am

I love capoeira. Well, that should go without saying. However, what has kept me in capoeira for over a decade has been our tight nit community. Our group has always attracted a really rich variety of people with such diverse backgrounds. Many of these people, I am proud to say, have become part of my extended family. Below is just a small sampling of our groups family. In these pictures, a small handful of us went to Berkeley to celebrate Vicki’s boyfriends birthday.

Palhaço, Becca, Vicki, Penguino and Andorinha

Andorinha, Becca and Vicki in Berkeley

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By admin, July 30, 2008 10:29 pm

I have been hearing some CRAZY capoeira stories lately. None of the stories took place in the Bay Area and none of which involved any schools in the Bay Area (thank God). These stories were about games and capoeira events that were completely out of hand. They were about students playing dirty capoeira and disrespecting mestres. These are Rodas Gone Wild. When I hear stories like that, my skin crawls. I feel that these fights are all about ego and have nothing to do with capoeira. I know there is fighting in capoeira and have seen many bloody battles in my time. Most advanced students can sit around half of the evening talking of fights and scuffles that they have been part of in the past. Fights will always happen in this game but what counts is the energy behind these fights. In fact, in the past, capoeira in the Bay Area has had quite the reputation but I feel that the things have been changing around here.

I feel like capoeira in the Bay Area has gone through several changes in the few decades that it has been here. In the past, open rodas would get pretty crazy. Games would turn into fist fights and instructors and mestres would openly not get along. It really came to a point where most groups just kept to themselves. There would be occasional visitors but to have someone from another group visit your class was a special occurrence. It was hard to visit other schools because there was not a whole lot of trust and games would just get out of hand.

I feel that things are changing. The students that have started a decade ago are now Instructors and Professores and for the most part, these students have maintained a camaraderie with other students from other schools that were coming up with them. How we interact with each other has changed. There is less value in ‘kicking someones ass’ and more value in having challenging and constructive game. We want to have games that involve placing kicks and marking rasteiras and tesoras but we no longer take these interactions personally. We play hard games, fast games but no longer have a hit out on each other. We play with a smile (and really mean it). I wouldn’t say that the schools in the Bay Area are about to exchange BFF necklaces but the energy is much more tolerant and the games are a lot more interesting to watch and to play.

Now for some classic ‘roda’s gone wild’ videos…..

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By admin, May 3, 2008 12:45 am

Nowadays, a lot of capoeirstas can’t afford just to train capoeira and go to the gym everyday and all day long. ( I must admit that I am jealous of those who can afford that luxury but living in San Francisco comes with a lot of bills to pay!). Some of us are lucky if we can even set aside time to train a few times a week! So with such a time crunch, instructors really have to decide what will be the most effective way to train their students in terms of capoeira and in terms of general fitness within only a few hours a week. There are also several things that capoeira students can do on their own time to build strength and practice capoeira movements when they are not in class

Go out and buy a resistance band. Resistance bands are great for building muscle, especially if you are short on time or space. There are several workouts that you can do, even if you can only fit in 10-15 minutes. Capoeiristas really need to have a solid core, strong arms and strong legs. (Okay, we need to be pretty strong all around!) Below are a some videos that offer some really great training ideas for when you have a moment to spare at home. These excercises focus on the upper body.

This guy has a lot of great exercises for all types of martial artists and fighters.

This really works out your obliques, arms and legs!

Here are a bunch of great basic upper body exercises.

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By admin, April 29, 2008 7:55 pm

CHECK IT OUT! This is an interview with Mestre Preguiça. Definitely an important read.

http://www.capoeira-connection.com/main/content/view/150/79/

Interview with Mestre Preguiça

Source: Revista Capoeira
Translated into English by Shayna McHugh

Waldenkolk Oliveira, known as mestre Preguiça, was born in Sítio do Mato in Bahia, Brazil. It was June of 1947. His mother died when he was only seven years old, and he was left alone to face the world about which he knew so little. Three years later he was in Salvador, living on the streets, sleeping under bridges along with other street kids. In the constant search for a direction that he could follow in life, he would spend time in the poor neighborhoods of the Bahian capital, like Calçadas and Ribeira. That was where he met Gilson Capoeira of the Periperí neighborhood in 1959, who taught him his first Capoeira moves and brought him to Mestre Bimba’s academy. The powerful mestre then taught him the rules of discipline and respect that Waldenkolk longed for.

How was your first contact with Mestre Bimba? Do you remember much?

When we entered the building, the students were training in a small room on the second floor of the Academy. Mestre Bimba rested on a bed in a side room. He was seated in silence, and his eyes observed each detail. Since that moment when I saw him for the first time, I felt that that man was a great and powerful mentor who didn’t need a weapon to defend himself. I was attracted by the power of the martial art and by the spirituality that I felt in the atmosphere. I knew then that Capoeira would be an important part of my life.

Were you soon accepted as a student?

When I told the mestre that I wanted to train, he mumbled and told me to do a ‘queda de rins.’ Although I fell over, he still invited me to join the class. I trained there until graduating from Mestre Bimba’s Academy.

What was the graduation ceremony like?

The graduates gathered in Mestre Bimba’s house for the ceremony. We all wore white pants and shirts and shoes, as was the tradition. That way, if our bodies touched the ground during the game, the dirt would show. Each graduate received a blue belt and a small silver metal with an engraved figure of a capoeirista. Afterwards there was a big party, with all the capoeiristas and their friends.

And why is your nickname Preguiça (lazy/sloth)?

The control, strength, and flexibility of Bimba’s students scared me a lot and I used hide behind the bench, afraid to participate. I was always one of the last to enter the roda, because of a little bit of fear and also caution. This slowness led the mestre to give me the nickname Preguiça.

Did your participation in Bahia’s folkloric performing groups help you go to Rio de Janeiro?

Yes. After I graduated around 1965, I went to Rio with the group Vem Camará.

Talk a little bit about your experience in Rio.

In 1968 and 1969 I was crowned national champion of the Golden Berimbau competition. Since I was champion in three consecutive years, I won the Golden Berimbau trophy, which was the biggest Capoeira prize at the time. The following year, I prepared two of my best students, Mosquito and Borracha, to go to the same event and I was entitled the Best Coach of Brazil, for my success as a teacher. To further develop my professional skills, I studied physical education at the university. This university was the first to offer a Capoeira course, and I was the professor.

And your experience in Europe?

I went to Europe as part of the Brazilian Ballet Show and I spread the practice of Capoeira in almost all the countries there. When I returned, I continued giving classes with Senzala, while I finished my degree. In 1976 I went to Austria to do a specialized Physical Education course, and I also taught Capoeira. Upon my return, besides my normal classes, I performed Capoeira in shows, theaters, nightclubs, and on TV. I ended up forming two groups: Mucuiu nu Zambi and Ganga Zumba. I also did a performance on Fantástico [a very famous Brazilian TV show], playing the role of Madame Satã.

How was your experience in the United States?

I didn’t speak English, but I liked the challenge of teaching Capoeira in another language. I began by writing the words “right” and “left” on my hands, which helped me give instructions to the students. After a year, I had already developed a strong base of study.