That’s right. We just finished up a great weekend of workshops with Prof. Indio. The training was solid and I hope that everyone was able to take a little something from his classes. I felt that the major themes of this workshop were twofold; 1) Staying grounded in all of your movements 2) relax and flow. For those of you in our class that were unable to make workshops not to worry. We will focus on these themes in the weeks to come.
Monday starts up our regular training schedule and I hope that everyone is there.
Laurette, Sapo, Amos and Angela
Best pic of Sabedinha EVER!
Prof. Indio on Berimbau
Palhaço, Prof. Indio, Mestre Preguiça and Andorinha
Thank you Trovão for teaching the lyrics to La Na Beira Do Cais at last weekends Brunch and Berimbaus. Here is a great video with the lyrics. This Youtube video is done by Josie (Maracuja). Not sure what group this capoeirsta is from but I am sure impressed with their capoeira song collection.
La Na Beira Do Cais
De jogar com alegria
Me recordo o respeito, o sorisso no rosto
A maior energia
Lá na beira do Cais
Berimbau se ouvia
Eu chegava de branco
E minha roupa branca voltava limpinha, na beira do Cais
Na beira do Cais, berimbau se ouvia
A roda famosa na beira do Cais,
lá no cais da Bahia, na beira do Cais
Na beira do Cais, berimbau se ouvia
O Malandro jogava,
O sorisso no rosto, a major alegria, na beira do Cais
Na beira do Cais, berimbau se ouvia
A cobra picava,
O veneno da cobra não me atingia, na beira do Cais
That’s right! We got another one coming up soon! This event is where we practice music and have a little brunch pot luck as well. Students that take this class always leave with some good songs in their repertoire and have a better understanding of how to play capoeira instruments. Here are the details:
Sunday, April 5th
10:30-12:00
Aceituno Arts Cooperative
2141 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94112
$12
Brunch and Berimbaus will also be the Aceituno Arts chapters effort in fundraising for the encounter in August. So in the past, we let all of you who paid monthly fees to take this class for free but because we are fund raising, we are now asking that everybody pay.
After long talk of the workshops with Prof. Indio, I finally have details!
Date:
Thursday, April 9th-11th (White cords-yellow/orange cords)
Wednesday, April 8th-11th (Orange cords and above)
Wednesday- 7:00-9:00 (Orange cords and above)
@ Aceituno Arts Cooperative (SF)
Thursday- Time TBA (all levels)
@ St. Mary’s rec. in Bernal Heights (SF)
Friday- 6:00-7:30 (Orange cords and above)
7:30-9:30 (All levels)
@ Malonga Center for the Arts, 1428 ALICE ST, OAKLAND, CA 94612 (Buscha He’s training space)
Saturday- Time TBA (all levels)
@ St. Mary’s rec. in Bernal Heights (SF)
(I will notify everyone of the times at St. Mary’s once we solidify details.)
Price: $60 for entire workshop for white-orange/yellow cords
$80 for entire workshop for Orange and above
$25 drop-in
We are keeping the prices low to encourage everyone to come. Prof. Indio is an incredible capoeirsta and teacher. You will leave these workshops inspired. The workshops open to all levels will also be open to all capoeira students in the Bay Area.
I have attached the registration form to this email. Please print it up and mail it or hand deliver it to me WITH PAYMENT!
ALL REGISTRATION FORMS AND MONEY ARE DUE ON APRIL 4TH. I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY IOU’S OR MONEY ANY TIME AFTER APRIL 4TH. Sorry it has to be this way but I will not be handling any money on the day of workshops. Those who turn in the registration form late will not be able to attend. This includes drop-in’s. If you plan on only going a couple of days, you need to pay that before April 4th as well.
Somewhere, there exists the perfect capoeirista. I don’t know him personally, but certainly his reputation precedes him.
He’s got the speed and presence to control any roda. He has the grace and flexibility for effortless floreo, as well as the strength and size to fight when challenged. He’s got the awareness and training to play a tight inside game, the cunning and instincts to dive headlong into a regional roda, and the malícia to smile while he does it. On top of all that, he plays berimbau like a mestre, sings like Aretha Franklin, and always the clean whites.
I’ve asked around, watched for him at events and encounters, even looked him up on YouTube without success. Though I have yet to see him play, I’ve struggled to model my movements after his, to adopt his habits and imitate his techniques. To make his perfect game my own.
I’ve trained and toiled enviously in his shadow since the day I was baptized, and, secretly and bitterly, I have come to suspect that he is an asshole.
For the perfect capoeirista, movement comes easily, naturally, thoughtlessly. His game is clean and dangerous and creative all at the same time.
The rest of us, mestre and beginner alike, must survive in the roda with what meager talent and training we have. Such is the fate of us lesser mortals.
As one’s education in capoeira advances and one’s game matures, each person’s capoeira inevitably becomes more unique and individualized. About the time you’re throwing your ten-thousandth meia lua de compaso, you realize that your kicks, your escapes are no longer the rigid, textbook movements you learned as an initiate. The idea of “capoeira” that you had in your head, of a disciplined, discrete, and repeatable set of attacks and defenses you’ve copied from that mysterious perfect capoeirista, no longer exists. It has been replaced instead by your game, which through use and abuse has become broken in and worn as smooth as old shoes. It is this game, which is both familiar and infinitely adaptable, rather than some intangible ideal that defines a capoeirista’s presence and ability in the roda.
On many occasions, I’ve heard folks use chess as a metaphor for capoeira. It’s a poor comparison at best. True, they both offer nearly infinite combinations of movements, tactics, and strategies. But the similarity ends there. Imagine playing chess like you play capoeira; nobody starts with the same amount of pieces, the number of squares on the board is infinitely variable, nobody wins or loses, and the only sign you’ve violated a “rule” is when you’re beaten up and cussed out in Portuguese by an angry old man.
If playing capoeira is like playing chess, it’s like playing chess against a five year old, someone who makes up the rules as they go along, decides they’ll allow the use of the little shoe and racecar from Monopoly, and hands you a random assortment of what few remaining pawns, knights and bishops haven’t been lost beneath the couch cushions. No game is ever the same and the rules, structure, and limitations of the game are unreliable and haphazard at best.
And yet somehow, it works.
Understanding this, that the framework of a capoeira game is not the same kind of concrete and unyielding rule set one finds in chess, goes a long way in explaining why I have yet to meet the ‘perfect’ capoeirista. How can one be perfect when the criteria on which one is judged are endlessly changing? A technique or movement that might be right for one game, for one roda, for one instant, can get one kicked in the face in a nearly identical situation.
The idea that a universally correct, perfect capoeira can be learned, that it even exists, is a fallacy we as capoeiristas must all eventually outgrow. Too many capoeiristas, out of arrogance or ignorance, continue to believe in a perfect, ‘right’ capoeira, and that all other forms and techniques are ‘wrong’.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe the perfect capoeirista exists. Maybe the reason I haven’t met him yet is that he’s busy teaching his perfect capoeira to Santa Claus, Sasquatch and Elvis in his secret underground academy beneath Area 51.
OK. Here is an easy one. This rule may not apply to all groups but it is always better to play it safe than sorry. Let’s talk about how you greet mestres when you are at your batizado or one of your school’s workshops. Here is the rule: When you enter the space, the first people that you have to greet are the mestres. AND!!! You need to greet them in the order of their level. For example, during our workshops we usually have Grand Mestre João Grande, Mestre Preguiça and Mestre Di Mola and we need to greet them in that order. Grand Mestre João Grande gets greeted first because he is the oldest and highest regarded mestre, then Mestre Preguiça because he is the next generation and student of Mestre Bimba, then Mestre Di Mola, whom is third generation, student of Mestre Camisa whom was a student of Mestre Bimba.
Disclaimer: This is what Mestre Di Mola has taught us. It may not be observed everywhere however, it can only look good if you enter a room and greet the Mestres according to these rules.
Ever wonder what the words were to that song that we sing for students when they leave for long travel or move out of town? This song is usually accompanied with everyone taking turns playing the departing student. And no, we typically don’t go light on them. It’s all love, right????
Boa Viagem
Adeus Boa viagem
Adeus, adeus Boa viagem
Eu vou Boa viagem
Eu vou, eu vou Boa viagem
Eu vou- me embora Boa viagem
Eu vou agora Boa viagem
Eu vou com Deus Boa viagem
E com Nossa Senhora Boa viagem
Chegou a hora Boa viagem
Adeus… Boa viagem
Good bye Good trip
Good bye, good bye Good trip
I go Good trip
I go, I go Good trip
I’m gonna leave Good trip
I go now Good trip
I go with God Good trip
And with Our Lady Good trip
The hour has arrived Good trip
Good bye… Good trip
Comments (0) 
Themocracy