So exciting.
It’s our…15th batizado? Something like that.
We have Mestre Lucas Corvo that teaches in Fort Collins and Mestre Ombrinho from New York here with us. And of course a bunch of people from the Capuraginga groups down in San Antonio and people from Utah. Love them all. I got to play Mestre Ombrinho! He was awesome.
As always, the workshops and roda the night before the batizado are the best.
Workshops were a little easier than I’m accustomed to, but mostly because we were focusing on techniques of things and not so much just kicking and new tricks.
Roda was AMAZING. We started in the middle of the room, where none but the higher ups really got to play, fun to watch and I love singing, but I was glad when they divided the room into 3 rodas so I got to play a lot.
And I’ve gotta say, tonight when I played in the roda, I felt like an actual capoeirista. You know when you go in to play and everything just feels right and you do all the right moves and everything flows so perfectly, that happened today. Hopefully I can be awesome like that tomorrow for the batizado when my family comes to watch. I’m not advancing this time, like everyone else with my cord is, Mago and I decided it would be best if I waited for next time since I wasn’t all too active at the beginning of the year. Which I’m FINE with, I don’t feel like I’ve earned my 4th cord yet (it’s our “easter” cord) anyway. Maybe once my aus look respectable. My bananeiras have gotten much better, but my aus for some reason are laaaame.
So excited for tomorrow! My feet hurt.
Are FANTASTIC.
Exhausting, but fantastic.
I want a birthday roda every month.
And we did it on Saturday, the biggest class day, so my ass was thoroughly kicked. One of the guys picked me up over his shoulders and did a volta ao mundo with me like that.
I never actually did a volta ao mundo with people, so with no breaks I practically died. By the end I was just dodging everything.
Parabens to me!
Guys. Guys. I know the “Shit ___ Say” thing is getting old, but..
it’s “Sh*t Capoeiristas Say”!
Ha.
“I swear, if another high cord buys me out…”
I haven’t been posting as much lately because I haven’t been doing as much capoeira lately. This is changing.
We had our batizado this weekend, it was amazing. Mestre Loka came out, as did Prof. Bocao, Furacao, CM Ninja, and Monitor Advogado. I didn’t advance this time around, which was perfectly fine with me, because I really have been sucking in class. Plus we have to wait at least a year at my cord anyway.
Some things we learned included doing aus with one hand and then progressing to au sem mao. It was scary. Mine didn’t look so much like an au sem mao as much as it looked like a meia lua solta.
Capoeira never ceases to amaze me though, and I never run out of things I want to do and get better at. Today, my friend Niki taught me how to play the maculele toque on the atabaque, since maculele is my favorite. She and Espoleta also helped me improve my meia lua em queixada. It’s amazing how little things like hand placement can make all the difference on the difficulty of something.
I’ve realized how happy capoeira makes me, but I’ve been frustrated with myself because I’ve been on a plateau forever. So I’m going to try choosing a couple of things a month that I want to work on.
1. Handstands. I can get into one, but I want to be able to hold it in mid air. Which means working on core strength!
2. Learn one song solo.
3. Practice the maculele toque, and eventually try to sing and play it at the same time.
4. Integrate meia lua em queixada into my game in the roda.
5. Less ginga when I play in the roda. More attempts at sequences.
This should be more than enough for February.
Yesterday I learned a new.. Toque (that’s what it’s called, right?) on the berimbau. I don’t have the slightest idea how to spell it, and I’ve been scouring the Internet trying to figure it out but no dice. Its pronunciation is heh-joe-nao. However my spelling in Portuguese is atrocious so forgive me. Regional! That’s what it is! Why didn’t I think of that! (Gary you’re a genius)
Anyway, I learned that yesterday. Pretty excited. Also got practice playing the berimbau and singing a solo at the same time.
1. Esquiva frontal seems difficult.
2. Your calves are beyond sore after one day of class. Why? Because of the ginga. That’s all.
3. You have to rebuild your calluses and get your typical injuries back (for me: my 4th toe next to my pinky always gets abused and starts bleeding, I only JUST noticed that it was bleeding two seconds ago.)
4. You forget that capoeira is really, REALLY hard.
Yesterday I did three classes: kids class, adult beginner, and adult advanced. Today: adult beginner and adult intermediate class.
SO. HARD. I could do the movements, but man, it was not easy at all.
But I just love it so much.
Moi:
Le opponent:
Le spectators:
Moi:
“At least I ginga-ed.”
LMAO! This was definitely me for like the first few months
OMG. This. I was like this until probably the end of last year. Haha. Love this so much.
Class today. 4 sequences. I hit a huge wall in class (metaphorically), there was a point I wanted to bust out in tears but I stepped out, collected myself and kept going.
This is a crap-tastic video, but I thought some of you might get a laugh from it. What I did in capoeira today.
Because I’m too lazy to create an original post. What I learned in capoeira today.
What I did in my intermediate class today. Comments are welcome. I’d love feedback, though remember I was in a restricted space.
AND GUESS WHAT?? In our warm up for class today, we were doing bananeiras, and then we had to walk on our hands, which I usually don’t even try, I tried.
I TOOK 4 STEPS. SO HAPPY.
I think dude from San Antonio that looks like the guy from “Only the Strong” has been flirting with me. Nothing specifically out of the ordinary, other than we barely talked at the batizado and he’s been messaging me regularly since we became facebook friends (of which HE added me first). He’s older. Like, 31? I think. And if I went by his facebook I would think he’s a douche for putting up pictures of himself shirtless all the time, but.. he really is shirtless like all the time. So yeah. This is capoeira related, yes? He could just be friendly and be messaging me to be better friends, but I don’t know the intentions of older men. Before another certain capoeirista from San Antonio would flirt with me, but because of his position in the capoeira community I won’t say who he is. Luckily this last time around this guy backed off a bit.
Aú is one of the first movements one learns. Practice. Practice. Practice.
Ha. My aus still suck majorly. I’m only now barely able to get my legs overhead. I need to work on these. A lot.
But for now, I’ll post pictures with some of the awesome instructors that came to visit!
This Monitor (I think it’s monitor, at least) Advogado, from San Antonio. This guy’s hilarious. He’s always harassing me to go their events down there.
That’s Mestre Fran next to me, and Professor Guerreiro next to Espoletinha on the far right, they’re from.. I’m not sure. But the Maculele group. They’re so nice, but I get so nervous to talk to them since they barely speak English.
And me and Professor Furacao, originally from the Dallas capuraginga group but he recently moved to Arizona. Found out he’s a doctor and vegan “in real life”.
If you follow my personal blog, you’ve already seen this picture, but I love it. Contra Mestre Ninja, from Kansas City. Such a great guy. That’s us at the top of the incline.
Oh yeah, and some other random awesomeness:
Ninja being cool on the big rock:
Okay, this guy. The first thing I said to him when we met: “Oh my God you look like the instructor guy from ‘Only the Strong’!” He busted out laughing. But tell me I’m wrong. His name’s Animado, he’s from San Antonio. He looks more like it when he’s in action and in his whites, but you could still see it. He’s crazy awesome.
This picture was so hard to take. Luckily she got me right before I dropped. This was also at the top of the incline.
Epic batizado weekend.
Boa noite pra quem é de boa noite
bom dia pra quem é de bom dia
A bençao, meu papai, a bençao
Maculelê é o rei da valentia
Translated as:Good night for who is from the good night
Good morning for who is from the good morning
A blessing, my father, a blessing
Maculele is the king of the brave
Love this song. Gotta remember to tell Mago that we need to do maculele in class this week. He promised we would after the batizado.
Batizado was absolutely amazing. Will post a recap when my body catches up on rest.
These two kids, Espoleta and Espoletinha, 12 and 13, have been playing since they were 4 years old. Them and their mom are all amazing capoeiristas. I was so proud of them to see them get their adult cords. It was funny, about 20 minutes before this I asked them when they would advance again, and they said they had no idea because they would have to wait until they were 14 for their adult cords (they were at the highest for kids cords). They are amazing. Great teachers, really patient with everyone, and not afraid to try anything. I feel honored to be able to play them as much I do. Plus, they’re adorable! They’re so well behaved, which is surprising considering they’re middle schoolers.
