Capoeira

I have decided to take a Capoeira class as a way to stay occupied with my time and explore the culture of Brazil while waiting for my permits. Capoeira, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a Brazilian martial arts dance. The best word for me in there, DANCE! The scariest words in

there for me, MARTIAL ARTS. So as some of you may or may not know, I enjoy a good boogie on the dance floor now and then. And as many new Brazilians have found out, I will give a hilariously good effort at trying to dance Forro (country dancing), or Samba (fast fast fast dancing, at which I am hilariously horrible) or reggae dancing, where I do my best impression of Bob Marley. So after having seen Capoeira (pronounced ca-poo-era) only once in Australia of all places, when Caritas, the owner of my favorite pousada in Fortaleza suggested we start classes together, I thought well, why not. I should experience this culturally unique Brazilian activity. Let us all experience it together, in this super awesome video.

CAPOEIRA VIDEO

ok so there are a few differences between this video and what I am doing. A) I am not jumping around doing back flips, standing on my head, doing crazy things. B) These guys have been doing Capoeira for many many years, so there is a high probability that I will never be that good. C) Whenever I do capoeira there is most likely an incident which involves me being afraid of getting kicked or punched in the face, because I am still new to the process, and I duck down into a ball, the proverbial "fetal" position. And my capoeira partner sighs, and has to repeatedly assure me they won't actually kick me.

Capoeira is about a dance, where the dance moves are martial arts moves. The purpose is not really to hit the other person, but to "attack" and then "defend" with different dance moves. Or at least this is kind of what I have gathered. I still haven't been able to work out how people know which moves to do and when, but I'm hoping that comes with time.

Thank goodness that I have the ability to laugh at myself. So my first capoeira class was all about learning the basic dance move, called the jinga- no idea if the spelling on that is correct. The jinga is basically where you step back with one foot and then stand normal, then stand back with the other foot and back to normal again. Or that's kind of it. So this is the basic step, to which people add the kicking, spinning, cart-wheeling moves to.

Capoeira video part II

So capoeira is not just about learning the martial-arts type dance moves, but it's also about learning instruments. I got to learn how to play the tabaki, perhaps atabaque? I am good at this one. Here's what it sounds like.

The berimbaus, which according to me is like holding a fishing pole with a coconut on the handle in one hand, while with the second hand you use a chopstick to tap the fishing pole line. You also hold a rock in the hand with the fishing pole, which you occasionally touch to the fishing line, to change the sound of the instrument.

Fact: there are only 3 notes to learn how to play on the berimbaus.

Fact: I don't think any of them sound particularly pleasant to the ears.

BERIMBAUS!

The last class was very exciting and we got to play with what looked like drum sticks. My partner and I did our little jinga dance while tapping the drumsticks together in a certain beat. And at times, we would even hit each other's drumsticks to the rhythm. Then since we were really good at it, almost surprisingly so, the instructor tried to have us add in some spin moves, while keeping the beat and tapping our sticks together, and...well.....my partner and I rocked the simple stuff!

I also got to learn how to play the tamborine, which has a different name in Portuguese that I can't remember. So I guess to sum up, Lindsay is quite good at the musical parts of capoeira and is not quite so into the martial arts part. But I am a big fan of doing cartwheels, and spins. Another positive to capoeira is that it requires all my attention and I can't think about permits, house problems, Brazilian bureaucracy, boy dramas or anything else! Another cool think about capoeira is that is strengthens and tones, and improves flexibility, which is cool. All in all I like it because I usually wind up laughing at myself trying to do these crazy dance moves while spinning and doing cartwheels all to the music of a fishing pole and a chinese chopstick!