Category: Journals
How not to act when visiting a new group
March 26, 2006 | By Raposa in journalsLast week, an acquaintance of mine, let's call him "Lou" asked me where and when my angola group held classes, because he was interested in training. Lou is a fellow foreigner in Brazil (though not from the same country as me) and capoeirista of 5-6 years experience in a well-known and excellent contemporanea capoeira group. I gave him the info and he showed up at the next angola class and proceeded to make an idiot out of himself.
Developing "Expression"
February 25, 2006 | By Raposa in journalsLately 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...
Learning Portuguese for capoeira, a primer
February 14, 2006 | By julien in journals(This is a reprint from my capoeira blog, JogoLog. I have gotten a lot of positive comments on it, so I figured I'd reprint it here.)
For those interested, I thought I might write a brief primer of my experiences learning Brazilian Portuguese for the purpose of immersing myself in the culture of capoeira. I suppose these tips could work for the acquisition of any language, although I suspect it may be more appropriate for romance languages, or at least, those of an Indo-European origin.
Capoeira in Popular Culture
January 30, 2006 | By Raposa in journalsIn the last few years, we've seen an exponential increase in the number of capoeira's appearances in the media. Capoeiristas are divided on this issue: some celebrate capoeira's increasing recognition and popularity, while others worry that this process will bring about fundamental and damaging changes to the art.
Those who are in favor view any appearance of capoeira in popular culture as beneficial. They claim that capoeira's increased visibility helps advertise the art and encourage people to join. At the other end of the spectrum are those who argue that the media dilutes capoeira and presents a false image of it. They tend to accuse capoeiristas who are involved in these endeavors of "selling out," of sacrificing the art's traditions in order to make a few bucks. There's also the fear that capoeira will become the next trendy workout and end up a pale, commercialized version of its former deep and intricate self.
My own point of view falls somewhere in the middle. Allow me to elaborate some of my thoughts on this tough (and often touchy) issue.
The Challenge Part II
January 25, 2006 | By Travado in journalsFast Forward another 5 years. I was working at a group home on the third shift. Me and this co-worker named Big Dave, both hailed from NYC. Both of us grew up slapboxing with our peers. For those that don't know, slapboxing is just that: boxing with open hands. It allowed us to learn how to box (or throw the hands as we used to say) in almost realistic situations. Of course, sometimes slapboxing turned into real fist fights but most young Black and Latino males who grew up in the boroughs of New York City all the way up until the dawn of the young punk with a gun learned how to box through slapboxing.
"That capoeira ain't gonna save you know is it?..."
On Songs, Part II - Why They Should Stay in Portuguese
January 21, 2006 | By Raposa in journalsCapoeiristas fall into two camps when it comes to singing capoeira songs in other languages. The people who are against it say that Portuguese is the traditional language of capoeira songs and we should preserve that tradition. They argue that the individual should change in order to learn capoeira, not change capoeira in order to suit the individual. Those who are in favor of singing in other languages say that capoeira has always evolved to adapt to its environment, and as capoeira spreads to other countries and cultures, non-Brazilian capoeiristas should be able to freely express themselves in their own languages. They argue that Portuguese wasn't the native language of capoeira's African creators, so why should we stick to it as "tradition"?
The Challenge Part I
January 03, 2006 | By Travado in journalsWhile in the Navy, I met quite a few characters. I recall one sunny afternoon on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, I had a chance to meet one young man who practiced Wing Chun for over 15 years. As he spared with many of us, he continued to tell us that a Martial Art is just that: an art. Of course, a few weeks later while involved in a brawl at an on base club, I watched this individual break someone's nose and cripple another patron. I could not imagine how it could be considered an art...
Getting Older, Thinking Slower & Why Not To Flip
December 29, 2005 | By julien in journalsWe all have this inclination when starting a new past time, especially a physical one like capoeira, to start trying to learn as many cool new things you can to impress your friends with, to show them how tough you are. There. Now that I've said it, we can acknowledge that we were all thinking that, that it happened to all of us, and we can move on. And with that, an anecdote...
Capoeira Songs, Part I: What's Their Point?
December 23, 2005 | By Raposa in journalsWhen I first got into capoeira, I excitedly looked forward to learning the music. I had heard that capoeira songs constituted an important oral tradition, that they were a treasure trove of historical knowledge, philosophy, and wisdom. But when I started looking up lyrics and their translations, I was somewhat disappointed.
New Blogger, But an Old Capoeirsta
December 19, 2005 | By Santoguerreira in journalsI am sitting here trying to compose a little background on me that fits in this little box under "short story". I have been rolling around rodas in three continents since 1994. Besides capoeira I dance, cook,swear, and play samba with a Brazilian flavor. I am former flight attendant, but don't hold that against me - it got me to Brazil my first few times. I now live in Southern Florida and still travel to Brazil any chance I get. My home academy is based out of Salvador da Bahia. Can't put much up now but promise to be a regular. This is a busy time for me as we do most of our samba shows with Unidos de Miami, between October and May. I am also preparing for a trip to Salvador to play percussion in Bomfim in January of 2006.
