Developing Expression in the Roda

Permalink | Posted in blog on Feb 25, 2006

BY RAPOSA - Lately Daniel (my capoeira angola instructor) has been telling me to "work on expression" in my movements. Ever since I started training with him, he's periodically mentioned that I'm doing the movements correctly but with not enough expression, or with the wrong type of expression - i.e. regional/contemporanea expression as opposed to angola expression. The whole "expression" thing sometimes irks me, for a few reasons...

1) It's not one of those things that you can just make a decision to do all of a sudden. Like, if he tells me "protect your face during the negativa," or "bend your knee during this transition," I can just make up my mind to DO it. But expression is something that one develops naturally over time, by listening to the music and cultivating one's own unique way of moving in capoeira. If I'm told "Do the movement with more expression," as Daniel is fond of doing, it's not like I can go, "My bad! I forgot the expression. Now I'll put it in," and fix the problem just like that.

2) Speaking of developing naturally, I sometimes get annoyed at the hypocrisy of certain angoleiros who claim that capoeira is all about personal, individual expression, but then insist that you do everything EXACTLY the same way as them in every detail or else it's "wrong" or "not angola." This is akin to saying, "You're free to express yourself in any way as long as you do it in exactly the right way according to me." In this way, these angoleiros are just as guilty of the padronizacao (standardization) of capoeira as the cookie-cutter ABADA armies they so often criticize.

3) Part of the angola kinesthetic (or "expression" - basically, the way of moving) is having one's body totally relaxed and yet totally controlled, and I can't seem to get the hang of both these things at the same time. I need to figure out how to get more molejo and looseness in my body without actually being sloppy and off-balance, letting protection drop, and using too much movement that needlessly wastes energy.

For example: Daniel tells me to mix up my arm movements and be more creative with them in the ginga, then as soon as I try to do this he chastises me for leaving myself unprotected as he marks blows to my face and pokes me in the ribs. So I change my focus to being more defensive, still keeping my arms in perpetual motion but trying to always have one sweeping in defense of my face/neck region and the other sweeping in defense of my stomach/lats. And then he criticizes me for moving my arms in the same repetitive pattern, and also for not going on the offense at all.

Or: he repeatedly tells me that I look too solid and controlled in my movements, that I'm not "light" enough, that I'm doing everything with a firm, grounded, regional/contemporanea kinesthetic. So I try to relax my body even more and try to be looser and lighter, and end up almost tripping myself or falling over, and then I hear, "Calma mulher! You've got to control/dominate your body, otherwise you're going to be in big trouble in the game." But if I shift back to concentrating on controlling the movement, I get criticized for being too plodding, heavy, and firm again. Blah. I can't win.

...but now that I've ranted about "expression," let me take a moment to praise it when it works well. The truly great masters don't insist that their students do everything exactly the same way as them down to the last minute detail; instead they free the students to practice and teach capoeira in their own unique ways. It amazed me how different the capoeira and even the teaching methods are of the three students of Pastinha with whom I've had contact (Joao Grande, Joao Pequeno, and Curio). And look at Bimba's students too: Acordeon's capoeira is different from Suassuna's which is different from Itapoan's.

One interesting quirk of "expression" (or maybe this is just a quirk of mine) is that capoeiristas who have really unique expression tend to evoke some sort of image in my mind by the way they move. Not by the way they PLAY - i.e. John does lots of kicks whereas Jane prefers lots of ground movements whereas Joe tends towards floreios, but by the way they MOVE. Here are some of the more memorable capoeiristas who have impressed me with the uniqueness of their individual expression/kinesthetic (note: the titles in quotes are not their apelidos, but the nicknames that I gave them in my head based on what they reminded me of):

- The "old man," a young guy at M. Valmir's school in Salvador who had this stuttering, doddering way of moving (and even a certain vacuous, semi-senile facial expression at times) as though he were a frail 80-year-old. - The "rag doll," a girl also with M. Valmir's group, whose limbs and head tended to flop as though she were made of cloth; Raggedy Anne playing capoeira. - The "lizard," Valmir's younger son who was extremely reminiscent of a gecko, like when you try to catch one and it suddenly twists itself in impossible ways to elude your grasp. - The "monkey," a guy in my current group who moves extremely well on any combination of arms, legs, and head, and has kind of a goofy, monkey-like face to boot. - The "feather," a girl in my current group who is super light on her feet and hands; every movement is landed so softly and noiselessly, and she seems to "float" around the roda like a feather lifted and carried by the wind. - As for Daniel, the image he evokes in my mind is (this is going to sound weird, but bear with me) that of a pat of butter on a warm frying pan - slides around, can move either slowly or rapidly, but every movement is smooth and buttery, never jerky or erratic.

Anyway, let me close with a disclaimer that I didn't post this rant to criticize my instructor for correcting me. I'm more impatient with the lengthy time it takes to develop expression and annoyed with my inability to loosen my body as much as I'd like, as opposed to being annoyed at him. Thoughts/advice from all you readers would of course be welcome!

Written by Raposa, aka Shadowcat. Raposa is an American born capoeirsta who has trained for some time in Brazil. She now resides in NYC. You can drop by her My Space page. She is also involved at the online capoeira store Tienda Bahia.

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