1/7/03 - return to capoeira after the holidays

I got a new capoeira CD for Christmas! It's called "Capoeira Senzala de Santos," and I really like it! I like all the songs on the CD, but my favorites are "Bate Palmas Luana" and "O Escravo E Capoeira." I also LOVE the short section of maculele - "Sou Eu Maculele" is so catchy; once I hear it I can't get it out of my head and I always want to dance.

Last Thursday was my first capoeira class in 3 weeks. Wow, my feet are sore. We did some basic kicks and combinations. Practicing in front of a mirror is extremely helpful - I discovered that my arms look ridiculous when I kick. They don't flail out anymore like they used to, but they're still not quite right...

Tonight's class was ridiculously fun! We did the same combinations as last class, which was great because now I have them down much better. Although there were only 6 of us, the roda was great - I played all right, neither terrible nor terrific, but again I felt like I used the same ten moves over and over - too repetitive. Also, I lack the grace that the more experienced capoeiristas have... I'll have to work on making my game more beautiful and complex. I did have some fun games though!

After the roda we pulled out the instruments and played and sang! I got to play atabaque and berimbau (there were two berimbaus, so I just tried to follow what the other one was doing). I actually knew about a third of the songs; unfortunately, I discovered how difficult it is to sing and play at the same time. After the official end of class everyone stayed to play around with various moves, and mom let me stay for another half hour. I tried to do what everyone else was doing, namely the handstand where you tuck your head and bring your legs overhead - I wasn't even close to getting that one - and an armada or one-handed meia lua de compasso into what my group calls the "hollowback aerial." On that move I had the right motion, but definitely need to be more horizontal in the air.

This is the scene: 3 PM, I'm still in my pajamas. My mom comes home from work and asks me to please bring something up from the car. I'm grumbling because it's cold and I'm not wearing shoes and why didn't she ask my brother, anyway? So I trudge downstairs and then I see a tall package from brazilianpercussion.com leaning against the car - WOOHOO!!!

The berimbau arrived in terrific condition and it's absolutely gorgeous :-) It's beautifully varnished and decorated. The verga is taller than me, but it's not too heavy, and it has a nicely shaped cabaca. I was nervous when I strung it for the first time, since I'd never strung a berimbau before and didn't want to bend the verga too much and break it. However, I got it strung and set up just fine, and it sounds wonderful!

Yesterday's capoeira class was a good one. I learned another interesting combination, which I was able to pick up more quickly than the previous ones. That's one thing I like about taking classes with different people - Diney puts together moves in different ways than Roberto does, so between the two classes I learn many different ways of moving. We had a sweet roda, although I wish it was longer - I can never get enough of playing. My games were pretty good; I was able to mix it up more and vary my moves. I had to be really careful to keep my eye on the other player though, because all the capoeiristas in the class liked to circle me. It was good to break me out of the habit of playing too linearly.

Sad but true: almost everything in my life that could go wrong DID go wrong this week; I was under a ton of pressure, extremely stressed out, depressed, miserable, etc. Various circumstances and general busy-ness prevented me from going to capoeira on Monday AND Wednesday, so I hadn't played in almost a week! Felt like there was something missing...

Before all the aforementioned junk happened, I was doing pretty well in capo class - I FINALLY got the timing down for the headstand up to handstand! My backflip felt pretty solid on the big mats, and I know that if I'd just not chicken out, I could do it on the ground. While I've been away, I heard that Ben got a folha seca - congrats Ben, that's really cool!

...and today I got to go to capoeira class!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to be back it was ridiculous :-) Hanstand walking felt GREAT today, escorpiao stalls were solid, and the rest of my moves had pretty good balance and energy too. Even macacos felt decent; I'm told I'm getting closer... also had a successful au sem mao to my left. We got to play today but it was TOO SHORT!!! I was a little rusty. We got a new guy, Matt, who looks like he's going to pick things up quickly - it seems like everyone who joins this year progresses much faster than all of us did last year, but hey, that's not a bad thing!

Also, capoeira made it into the school paper! It's a really sweet article; the only flaw is that the picture they used was not of us. I love the increased publicity... and our next performance is at FebFest and then after that with Tropical Sol on the 22nd. Should be a fun month of February!

I don't think we've played since my last entry... over a week. It's difficult because when we have class at 4, there is track practice and we can't play music. The Wednesday 7:30 class clashes with softball practice, and then this past Saturday there was an afternoon basketball game so again no music.

I love playing, and I really wish we did it more often. If I can do a move fine in various drills, but can't really use it or apply it in the roda, I don't feel as though I really "have" the move. To me, the roda is the best practice... also, you get to be creative, make up combinations, learn how to respond to the other player, etc. I don't want to be one of those capoeiristas who can do a bunch of moves in isolation but has no game. Ah well, maybe our situation will improve when winter sports end...

Anyway, I had a decent practice on my own today. Armada, quiexada, and meia lua de compasso to the bad side felt like they were improving a bit. I think the key to improving those is simply repetition. Also, s-dobrados felt good to BOTH sides! I have to really concentrate to get good lift on it, but when I do it feels great. I also worked on handspins to both sides and some role combinations, focusing on getting up from off the ground. Floreios were the only things that weren't so great today - couldn't quite get the au sem mao to the left. I overextended my elbow a bit on an s-dobrado, so I didn't work on au batidos.

Right now I feel like I'm in a stage of slow but sure improvement. Things aren't coming by leaps and bounds, but instead improve directly proportionally to the amount of practice I put in on them. It's pretty satisfying.

2/13/03 - Capoeira with Canto do Galo, and I get a nickname!!!

So I'm out here in Denver for the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference, and it turns out the capoeira classes in Denver are less than a mile and a half from my hotel - sweet! The class I attended last night was great! There were 12 or so people there, many quite good and inspiring to watch. We worked on bencaos (getting the "push," not using your toe), cabecadas (putting power into them, actually throwing them to knock people over. I have to remember to protect my face when I do it), a way to evade the cabecada, and one thing that I had never done before: trying to cabecada the other person right after they've kicked. It took me a while to get the timing on that one right, and I still have to practice it more to get it down, but it's a useful move.

Then: the roda!!! It was great; everyone had such a beautiful game. As for me, I was playing unusually well! Normally when I'm visiting another group for the first time I'm nervous and don't play so wonderfully, but this time I was able to interact well with the other player, stay close to them, and mix up my moves so that I didn't get that feeling of doing the same thing over and over as I often do. We were encouraged to use the cabecada in the roda, and I did - successfully - several times! I never realized how effective it could be when timed correctly. Afterwards they gave me a nickname: arpão de cabeça, because I used my head like a harpoon to catch people and knock them over. Unfortunately I couldn't go to any of the weekend classes or stay for Mestre Acordeon's workshops next week. However, all in all I had a blast! Canto do Galo has a website at www.cantodogalo.org - if you're ever in the Denver area, check them out 'cause they're a great group!

Today we had class in the events barn - cool for several reasons:

1) wooden floor gets us used to playing on harder surfaces than the mat and builds confidence; also in my case toughens up my feet more
2) we're not in anyone's (varsity track, baseball, or softball) way
3) we can play our music and actually hear it!!!
4) increased visibility: people walking across the bridge can just look down and see us practicing

Perhaps if it's free, we can have class in there more often. Today's class was a pretty good one for me; I had a decent amount of energy and balance. Au batidos felt great to both sides; I wasn't over-kicking or rotating like I often do. And the shacacos I'm doing (to the right, anyway) are apparently quite close to the actual macaco - just need to have my feet leave exactly at the same time (I'm still cheating it a bit) and fix my hand position, moving the hand that I throw still more in line with my planted hand, rather than behind it. The highlight of today's class was a couple games at the end - played to the nice, relaxed pace of "Deus Deu Capoeira Para Gente" on my Capoeira Senzala de Santos CD. The games were good, lots of interaction, and I was able to incorporate a few moves that I don't usually use, like ponte. Can't wait for our performance Saturday!!

3/9/03 - another performance

The other day we performed for ASB's auction - in the annex - on a concrete floor. Actually the hardness wasn't so bad (I wore shoes), but the slipperiness was an issue. I felt like I alternated between really awesome games and phenomenally terrible ones in which my strength and my balance were nonexistent. I did well in my solo though. The crowd liked us, but they definitely weren't as enthusiastic as the one at Carnival... oh well. One more performance, one more experience.

My moves have felt decently solid lately. I'm getting much more comfortable with au batidos to both sides, the hollowback headstand, the au sem mao to the left, and the queda de rins to the right. However, I do wish we'd play more, 'cause I'd like to work on my game...

3/25/03 - on angola

On Sunday I went to my first real capoeira angola class. Now, I thought I would be decently prepared for it, considering 1) my year and a half of capoeira training; and 2) my tendency to play close to the ground and preference for the low, slow angola games we play in class. Boy was I wrong! This class was a completely different experience. Saying my regional training would enable me to do angola is like saying my background in Spanish will enable me to pass a Portuguese test. It helps a little because the two are related, but they're still different languages.

The first major difference was in the ginga. It was very slow (the instructor would pause in base), low (sometimes he would touch the ground with his hands), creative and improvisational (the position of the arms and lean and position of the torso were varied on every ginga). We did a bunch of crazy ground exercises, and I would try to mirror him but kept ending up 90 or 180 degrees turned around from where I was supposed to be. I felt really awkward because I'd just try to do whatever it took to get from my position to the position he was in; he'd say "no no no, too much movement, the turn is all done on one leg!" - he was so fluid.

Then came the headstand stuff. I thought "ok, I can hold my own in the headstand department." Well, first of all this was a very hard floor, and we did what seemed like an infinite number of exercises. We scissored our legs. Brought our knees to our chests and back up. Put our knees on our elbows and touched each foot to the ground alternately. Brought the left leg in front and turned our heads to each side several times, then repeated it with the right leg in front. Kicked over to a bridge with the head on the ground, twisted the upper body to the left and to the right in the bridge, then walked our legs around and back up into a headstand... and so on. All of this was extremely slow and controlled, and all done in a row. Oh, and don't let me forget the aus de cabeca and the headspins too. The instructor stayed up throughout it all of course, but I had to come down several times. The top of my head hurt and I actually had a headache for the rest of the day. Ah well, I survived.

We did meia lua de frente, armada, meia lua de compasso, chapa, and bencao. None of the kicks were higher than waist-level. All were executed with the utmost control. If you thought capoeira angola is not a workout because it's slow, think again. I'm in moderately good shape and I was dying from the continuous movement.

Another marked difference from classes I've attended before was the teaching style. For the first hour virtually no words were spoken; we just had to follow the instructor and do our best to mirror whatever he did. He'd combine kicks, turns, and other movements; sometimes doing one combination several times and then switching it up, so you had to be alert. Later on we did line drills: macacos (of all things!), aus de cabeca, headspins, and a neat handstand-role exercise.

Basically, I came away with a renewed respect for angola, an amazement at the number and creativity of possible ground movements that I'd never even considered, and a seriously hurting head. It was fun; different, but fun.

4/6/03

Had a solid workout on my own tonight. I did a lot of headstand and queda de rins stuff. My bad side queda de rins and au batidos are getting better by the day! Also worked on some back handsprings on the pole vaulting mat - it's a pretty neat move, and the more I do it the more I feel like I'm getting the hang of the motion. I wish I had something not quite as squishy as that mat but not as hard as the floor to practice it on.

...but I could take or leave the floreios, what I'm dying to practice is playing. We haven't had a roda in weeks. I feel like a pest bugging the group about it, but seriously, I think we should emphasize it more in our practices. The game is the best part of capoeira in my opinion, and if the only time we ever play together is in performances, we're not gonna develop all that much as capoeiristas.

4/11/03 - more solo training

Today's workout was really encouraging because I felt virtually no difference between the quiexadas on both sides! Amazing how after a year and a half, my good and bad sides are only now evening out. Other things I worked on were queda de rins to both sides, au batidos to both sides (I can actually come closer to grabbing and holding my leg on my bad side... hmm...), armada and meia lua de compasso, and I made up a headstand exercise routine sort of modeled after what we did in the New Orleans angola class. I get up on my head and just do every drill I know: kicking back and forth, around, over to a bridge, knees bent or straight, etc., I play around with my legs and put them in weird positions, this works all the stabilizing muscles in my torso. And I finish with 10 headstand crunches... good stuff.

4/13/03 - Liberacion Carnaval '03!

Our Tropical Sol/capoeira performance was awesome!! We got to the Palace Theater around 8:30 and realized that the stage was waaayyy too small for the Magalenha piece, so we decided to perform on the floor. The place didn't really start filling up until midnight or so, but by the time the performances started there was a good crowd. We had to push everyone pretty far back from the stage, but we got enough floor space. The performance itself was terrific - high energy, great capoeira, great dancing! We pulled out a lot of acrobatic stuff in the games, and the crowd was definitely amazed by Roberto's backflip off of Phil.

After the performances they played salsa, merengue, hip-hop, lots of good music, and we all danced till we were thoroughly exhausted. We also met the Colgate capoeira crew - they seem like a really cool group of guys and they might come train with us sometime, which would be sweet!

4/15/03 - AHHHH GUESS WHAT I DID?!?

So I had a pretty intense workout on my own tonight; practiced all the kicks, all sorts of headstand and au variations, handspins, hardcore queda de rins work, and combinations of the above. Energy and balance were feeling great and I was pretty confident, so I decided to try the back handspring.

Now, I knew I physically was able to do the back handspring because I'd done it on the pole vault mat. The only thing holding me back from trying it on something less squishy was fear. However, I was determined to get it. After stretching out my back really well, I walked a lap around the track to recover my breath and calm myself down. I resolved that when I got back onto the regular mat, I'd just throw a back hanspring without thinking too much about it. So I did. And it WORKED!

...okay, so it was fairly ugly, my head touched down and I landed in a crouch, but it wasn't so bad. Once I had the confidence from the first try, I did it again and again, keeping myself in a rhythm so that I wouldn't stop to overthink and get scared again. I did about 20, only 3 or so of which I did not touch my head down. Those felt great; I think I just need to remember to throw my arms and my head back more.

Coming out of the field house I was sooooo psyched! I remember the same type of thing happened with my first au sem mao. The beautiful thing about this kind of experience is that your limitation is mental not physical, and through sheer willpower you overcome it - an awesome feeling.

4/27/03 - Two more performances and many more back handsprings!

On Tuesday Roberto, Phil, Tom, Ben, and I performed for accepted students' open house. It was an ok performance, the chapel stage was slippery and the crowd wasn't really into it, but I think we did all right, and several people told me afterwards that it looked good. I felt like I alternated between moments of brilliance (headstand and clapping my feet to the beat, a couple au sem maos and au batidos) and moments of terribleness (coming out of the aforementioned cool headstand by landing on my back, doing the same moves over and over, playing sloppily). I was also dying from playing so much, gotta work on my endurance. Roberto had a great display of floreios though; the crowd liked that.

Friday night we performed Magalenha at the Student Dance Alliance performance. We had to modify the choreography a bit since Emily wasn't there, but it went really well! I don't remember pulling off any really spectacular moves, but I felt like the games were smooth and beautiful.

Saturday's class we worked on several things, including not arching the back on aus, shifting weight from hand to hand during the au (very helpful exercise), and working up to the front handspring. Then during the after-class workout, we started doing acrobatics. We triple-rolled the mat so I could try back handsprings and Brian could try backflips. My first back handspring attempt was TERRIBLE; think absolutely zero height, launching myself completely sideways. Then I started getting them, but I was throwing my right hand farther than the left so they were crooked. So I worked on it more and more until I got them straight! We unrolled the mat and now I can do them on the regular mat; my next thing to work on is not traveling so much when I do it. It's a fun move; can't wait to train it again! Also, Brian and Phil got BACKFLIPS!!! They look solid! Must've been Magic Pants day.

4/28/03 - more back handsprings, but they're crooked again

Today was beeeeeeeautiful weather, low 70s and sunny, so we had class outside. After warming up and psyching myself up for the back handspring, I tried a bunch. My first one was the highly amusing "electrocuted frog" (since that's apparently what I look like in the air) sideways back handspring, but once I got that out of the way with, I could actually work on them. And I picked up the habit of twisting to my left again, grrr! A few of 'em I had nice height on though, and hey any practice is good to get me used to going backwards. I think another factor was the mental one of being on the grass rather than the mat... even though the grass is just as soft, I feel safer on the mat. However, at this point I'm still pretty satisfied with just being able to throw it and work on it.

5/2/03 - yet MORE back handsprings... a little bit of progress

Capoeira class was mainly acrobatic experimentation on the mat today. I worked on back handsprings (still slightly crooked! argh! I'm taking off straight but then slightly cocking my torso in the air. I can feel it, but it's tough to fix) and roundoff-back handsprings. The latter were a lot less sloppy than the ones I was doing the other day. The timing is still hard to get, but I can feel it when I get it right and then I try to replicate the feeling. A few of them I had really spectacular height on; that was awesome! And, of course, a few of them I crashed on. However, I think I'm improving. My confidence certainly is. The key things I have to remember on the roundoff back handspring are:

- not to stop or slow down the motion in between the two; instead keep the momentum going and take off immediately from the roundoff landing, since it sets you up for the BHS anyway

- not to give my arms an extra circular swing in between the two moves, just go up and straight back

- to focus on jumping up, not back

- getting whip out of the roundoff

- making sure to push off my hands in the BHS

5/14/03 - a SWEET solo workout :-)

My back handspring has been on and off lately, so I haven't worked on it as much in my solo training. I've discovered I'm now better at throwing it from the roundoff, and I think I lost the standing one - boo to that! Anyway, today I had a solid, solid workout on my own. Within an hour I did

- aus de cabeca

- lots of queda de rins work

- meia lua de frente-quiexadas

- alternating quiexadas

- quiexada-armadas

- meia lua-armadas

- martelo-armadas, both in the same direction and with switching directions

- one-handed and two-handed meia lua de compassos

- au giratoria to both sides

- headstand exercises and crunches

- au batidos, both variations

- aus with pushups

- handstand walking

- a solo "game" of angola and regional each

After doing all the kicks and kick combinations to both sides, I felt like I'd made some progress on controlling my bad side. My "game" of angola was good: I used quite a few different moves, was able to stay within the small space I'd allotted for myself, and my endurance was solid. However, I got out of breath much too quickly in my regional "game" - gotta work on that. All in all, a productive session.

5/16/03 - last class :-(

Today was the final class of the 2002-2003 school year! It was a small group, namely just me, Phil, Theresa, and Tom, but we had a good time. Did some handstand walking and kicks to warm up, then worked on all sorts of stuff: queda de rins, headstands, parafusos, etc. We also did the drill where one person keeps kicking and the other keeps dodging - Theresa and I had a couple awesome rounds of that where we worked really well together! The highlight (for me anyway) was playing for like 20 min at the end. First some slower games, which I thought went really well - although I felt a little sloppy, for the most part I had decent control and was able to utilize a lot of moves that I usually don't, such as escorpiao, rasteira, mini-aus. The fast games were ok, but again I got out of breath really quickly and I felt very, very sloppy and spastic. All in all it was good though, especially for not having played in such a long time.

This has been a really excellent year for our club. I can't believe our first performance was only 6 months ago (Culturefest, 11/02)! Since then we performed at the Kirkland Arts Center, BSU/WIAA's Carnaval, the ASB auction, and accepted students' open house, plus collaborated with Tropical Sol to perform at La Vanguardia's Liberacion Carnival, the Student Dance Alliance performance, and for Al Ham weekend (I think that's all of 'em!) - wow! I think everyone's more comfortable with performing now, and we're definitely getting more visibility on campus than we had this year: got a whole article on us in the Spec, definitely an improvement on last year's brief mention under the "Who Cares?" category.

Also this year we got some new members: Tom and Theresa, who will be the first Hamilton College Capoeira Club alumni, and also Henry and Matt. I can't believe Tom and Theresa have only been members for a year - for some reason it seems like a lot longer, and both have gotten so good in their first year! We've moved from the field house to the barn for practices, which is nice because it gets us more confident on harder surfaces than the mat. Emily, Roberto, and I got berimbaus, so now we've got some instruments, which is nice. Still no funding, but hey... we're doing fine so far; maybe next year. What else has happened...? Floreio-wise, Roberto got the folha seca nicely, Phil and Brian (and Ben earlier in the year) got backflips, I'm pleased that I have a back handspring (well, sort of! but still no macaco!), Tom has the most ridiculously impressive au sem mao you've ever seen, and I know Theresa can do au sem mao too, though she denies it. Throw into the mix a bunch of fun times outside of class, and it adds up to a very good year :-)

As for me, I think I've improved as a capoeirista this year. I've learned some new moves and strengthened a lot of old ones, and my sidedness is gradually disappearing. I feel much more comfortable upside down - handstand walking is one area in which I've improved a lot, but I still need to incorporate handstands more in games. I'm practicing playing the berimbau and learning the toques. I've visited a few outside classes and experienced capoeira groups other than my own, and I received a nickname. Most exciting-ly (for me), I was accepted to a study abroad program in Brazil - I CAN'T WAIT!!! All in all 2002-3 has been great... Hamtech capoeiristas, I'll miss y'all over the summer, train hard and keep in touch! :-)

5/27/03 - solo practice

The other day and today I went out to Minor Field to juggle my soccer ball and take some shots against the wall, and both times it of course turned into a half soccer, half capoeira workout. The back handspring felt really good, both by itself and from a roundoff (which I prefer - was even able to do roundoff + two back handsprings in a row!) The "electrocuted frog" back handspring is disappearing; my first attempt was a solid one both times - Phil will be disappointed. Every time I practice it, I get more and more confident practicing it, which is the important part for me.

6/17/03 - aaaahh! I'm rusty! :-(

Today I did my first serious capoeira workout in several weeks (due to injury) and oh, man... I need to train hard! Kicks were off balance, strength and endurance were low, and as for handstand walking - my first attempt I took two steps and my left arm collapsed under me. I spent the next fifteen minutes just handstand walking until I got it back up to a halfway-decent level. Still, it was terrible. I got winded so easily. Yuck. Fortunately, my back handspring was still there, and my au batidos felt pretty good. However, I felt extremely sloppy in the basic stuff, which is what I really need.

Random note: one exercise I was experimenting with was the meia lua de compasso straight from the negativa. How it works is you go down in negativa with, say, your right leg straight. To do the MLdC, you turn to your left (feels weird b/c it's the opposite direction to the one you'd go if you were going to role), rise up, plant your hands, and kick with your left foot. Neat combo, and a good way to get up from negativa.

Anyhow, my goal is to train 2-3 times per week for the rest of the summer. And they'll be the kind of sweet workouts I was putting together towards the end of this school year. That means going hard and staying moving (no long, drawn-out breaks), mixing up the exercises so I don't just do my favorites, and doing everything equally to both sides. If I train like this I'm sure to improve over the summer rather than backslide.

6/21/03 - a MUCH better workout

Okay, I haven't lost as much as I thought I did after last entry's workout. Today I felt solid on the basic kicks to both sides, handstand walking was pretty good, meia luas de comapsso, s-dobrados and au batidos were unusually good! Back handpsrings were not perfect, but still all right. The three things I was disappointed with were the au sem mao (getting no height!), handspin (for some reason balance was way off; I could NOT get up there), and my endurance - I got tired out too easily. Ah well, more training will fix that. It's so hard for me to motivate myself to practice without music and without a class. It's all good though... today's training, although short, was encouraging.

8/17/03 - Capoeira Mandinga's Summer Camp!!!

I spent last week in California at Capoeira Mandinga's summer camp - it was awesome! Getting out there was a nightmare (took 16 hours - don't ask) but it was worth every minute of transportation and every penny of the cost. I will definitely be back next year, schedule and finances permitting.

Teaching of the movement classes was rotated between Muriel, a soon-to-be-graduating student of capoeira, and Mestres Marcelo, Geraldinho, and Espirro Mirim. Classes usually consisted of stretching, warmup, sequences of movements, partner exercises using the sequences, and a short roda to apply what we'd learned. I liked the way moves I knew were combined in ways I'd never tried before: it enables me to break out of using the same moves in the same patterns over and over in the roda. The partner exercises were great because they helped develop good, close interaction between the players. My favorite of the moves I learned is the volta proxima, a ponte to queda de rins move. I can sort of do it but I need to practice more. Another thing I liked was the opportunity to practice tesouras; I can do those ok in training, but have a hard time pulling them at the right time in games. I really enjoyed the short class rodas. We did a miudinho roda (a very cool style!), a regional roda in a small space (makes you actually dodge kicks instead of just backing out of range) and an exercise where one person "chases" the other, trying to block and restrict their movement, and the other tries to escape and move around the chaser.

One thing emphasized throughout the week was doing things com expressao - with expression. Mestre Geraldinho told us to ginga with the whole body, to move the torso, to sway, to be expressive. We also practiced adding hops and extra steps to the ginga. Not only does this expression prevent your capoeira from being mechanical and robotic, but it throws off your opponent. Mestre Geraldinho is truly a master of using expression in this way: in the roda he's as much of an actor as a fighter, and is constantly using creative fakes to completely confuse the other player. One caution, however, against using too much expression was given by Mestre Marcelo: it's important, especially for beginners, to keep good technique in the ginga. In other words, don't be so creative with your steps that you get sloppy and stop protecting yourself. As for me, creative expression doesn't come very naturally, I have to work on it.

Music classes were fantastic - we focused on a different instrument each day. For the pandeiro and atabaque we started with a simple rhythm, then worked our way up in complexity and added variations. I need to remember to keep my hand relaxed to get a good sound out of both instruments, since I tend to tense up. From the berimbau class I learned several good tips:

- when stringing the berimbau, the distance between the gourd and the bottom of the verga should be less than one handspan, and the distance between the verga and the arame at the gourd should be two finger-widths. I'd been putting my gourd too high.

- hold the gourd high on the stomach, just below the chest. If you hold it low, there is more possibility of hitting the arame at an angle, so you won't get as much sound.

- for each note where the gourd is away from the stomach, move the berimbau out as you hit it. You get a louder sound if the arame and baqueta are moving towards each other rather than the baqueta hitting a stationary arame.

- to practice the buzz tone, hit two buzz tones and an open tone, then two buzz tones and a closed tone, and repeat.

There were some really talented berimbau players at the camp. I couldn't believe they could get such complex sounds and rhythms out of the instrument.

In addition to capoeira classes, we had some special sessions, including

- maculele: RIDICULOUSLY fun! I'd never really done it before, but I think I did well in the roda. I love maculele music, it's so catchy; and I actually knew most of the songs we sang.

- samba: I wasn't that good at it, but it was fun. I found it to be quite a workout.

- massage: Marcelo demonstrated techniques and we practiced on partners. After all the physical activity, this class was a treat.

Every night we had a big roda for 2-3 hours. I loved these rodas. They'd start with a slow angola and gradually speed up. Later, the berimbaus would change to regional and the games became more upright. Towards the end the roda would accelerate to breakneck speed, the players pulling amazing floreios and kicking and dodging faster than you'd believe possible. Since it was a rather small group, I got to play quite a bit, which was awesome. I got taken down a lot and ran into quite a few kicks, but I had a bunch of good games; in fact, I think my gameplay actually improved from the beginning of the camp to the end. Playing in a roda with a full bateria and everyone singing and clapping and getting into it was a new experience for me, and boy does it add a whole new level of energy! Singing was another of those areas in which I improved. I was able to sing confidently the songs I knew from CDs, and I learned some new ones. I had trouble with the songs which had longer, more complex choruses, but I was able to pick out a few words and make up sounds to imitate the rest. I also played agogo in the bateria a couple times.

I liked Capoeira Mandinga's style of capoeira a lot - they do both angola and regional, but they do keep them distinct. Angola games would be more on the ground and would include chamadas; and the regional games would be more upright and include some acrobatics. Playing with Capoeira Mandinga was also great because there was such a good vibe: there were no bad attitudes, hostilities, or fights in the roda. Everyone was there to have fun, to learn, to play and enjoy capoeira, and everyone seemed to be friends. Going hand-in-hand with that spirit of camaraderie was the friendliness and hospitality they showed towards me. Although I came from out of town and knew no one, I was welcomed with open arms. That is something I really appreciated; it definitely helped make the trip an excellent experience.

So what did I learn this week? Several things. I picked up a little bit of Portuguese; by the end of the week I could sometimes understand the essence of what the mestres from Brazil were saying. I discovered I like the ground too much and I need to stay on my feet more in Regional games. Also, I have to move around more and use more space in the roda, rather than getting stuck in one place. Finally, I re-learned that I have a loooong way to go in capoeira. Although I've been in it for almost two years, I'm still very much a beginner in the movements, the music, the language, everything. This realization was not discouraging, however, but inspiring. Watching the more advanced students play - and playing with them - was fantastic; I hope my capoeira looks like theirs in a few years. And watching the mestres play was incredible. Mestre Marcelo has a strong, solid game; Mestre Espirro is a little guy who's very fast and agile in the roda; and Mestre Geraldinho will look away or even turn his back on the other player, only to catch them with a kick a split second later. All three are also excellent musicians and singers. There is so much of capoeira I have yet to learn and experience.

8/29/03 - some sweeeeet solo practice

The last few days I've had some awesome workouts using the sequences and combinations I learned at camp. This is the format I've been following:

- warming up with the ginga, and also the ginga with added steps, hops, and improvisational steps.

- au up, come back down into negativa and role out

- esquiva to one side, switch weight to negativa, role

- same as above, but chapa de costas out of negativa instead of role

- twist into an armada entry one way, but then turn and armada the other way

- meia lua de compasso to left into queda de rins to the right (and vice versa)

- meia lua de compasso to s-dobrado (same side)

- meia lua de compasso entry, but hop around to negativa and role out

- meia lua de compasso entry, but hop around to ponte and volta proxima to closed queda de rins, then role out

- au de cabeca, stop in headstand, fall back to ponte, volta proxima

Then I'd work on each of my two favorite muidinho sequences:

1) Person A: meia lua de compasso one way, then the other way, stand up, then fall backwards to queda de rins, then tesoura angola

Person B: really low esquiva, then negativa moving away, meia lua de compasso from straight leg of negativa, closed au to escape tesoura

2) Person A: armada, cocorinha, half-handspin into ponte, volta proxima, role

Person B: cocorinha, meia lua de compasso the other way, half-handspin into ponte, volta proxima, role (the two should circle each other)

Practicing all this stuff several times took me a good hour and a half and was a great workout. My volta proxima is improving on the left, but my arm still tends to collapse on the right. Anyway... I can't wait till everyone else gets back and capoeira classes start up again!

9/01/03 - a new semester... and for me a new floreio :-)

The HamTech capoeira club is back and ready to kick off a new semester! Yesterday we didn't have official class, but went to the field house to work out and mess around with moves. Everyone looked pretty good, no one was terribly rusty. Andrew and I were working on the roundoff-back handspring, and mine felt really good - I'd gotten a lot of sleep the night before so I had a ton of energy. I was getting a lot of height and I started thinking about throwing the backflip... Roberto gave me some pointers: jumping straight up rather than back, tucking in the air as soon as possible after my legs had fully extended from the jump, getting spring off of the roundoff and the mat. I did one where I sort of landed in a crouch; I was told my feet hit before my hands, but I wasn't sure - but the next one I landed solidly on my feet, no hands at all - a backflip!!! The next step for me is to work on the BHS without the roundoff (since those are pretty rocky for me) so that I can get the standing backflip, but I was thrilled to land one yesterday - it was so cool!

Anyhow, it's really nice to have everyone back; it's so much better than practicing alone. Soon we'll start our advertising/recruiting campaign to get some new members. According to Roberto, there will be some changes in class structure this year: class is extended to an hour and a half. We'll start off warming up with some yoga, and end with actually playing capoeira. I'm looking forward to this semester, it should be really good - and it's my last semester training here before I go to Brazil, so I've gotta make sure my capoeira is solid!

9/12/03 - startin the new year with a bang!

There's some exciting stuff happening with the club lately. First of all, we're determined to get recognition/funding this year. We've written the constitution, filled out the necessary forms, and just need to get the membership roster together and hand it all in. Later we'll have to draw up a budget.

The club is also being more active with advertising and recruiting this year. We manned a table at the student activities fair, handed out flyers, and did the occasional handspin or backflip in the middle of Martin's Way. The cool thing about capoeira is that since no one knows what it is from the name, they stop to ask, "what exactly IS that?" and then we get to explain it and convince them to try it. We got a lot of people to sign up; hopefully some will actually join the club!

Speaking of new members, we already have a bunch: Stu, Evan, and like three guys named Mike. They're all really cool and eager to learn. I love the dimension that new people bring to the club: classes are a little more focused, which I like. Also, we get to go back to the basics rather than just working on flips... I still feel like my basics need work, so this is good. Finally, I just like to see more people learning and enjoying capoeira.

9/13/03 - what an awesome class!!!

Class was so sweet today! First of all there were around 14 people there - in addition to everyone I mentioned in last entry, Cory and Aaron came, and Mike brought Sarah, Laura, and Nancy. We did all the basic kicks and dodges, worked on aus, then had a short roda where everyone played a game or two. Watching all the new folks jump in brought back memories of my first few times in the roda - it's tough, but everyone did a good job today. My game felt a little rusty; I've gotta play more. Then we did a maculele roda, played the maculele track on my CD three times 'cause we couldn't get enough! All the new members seem really natural with the maculele, they were able to pick it up a lot faster than me.

After class everyone stayed and played around until after 5 - was cool to see everyone experimenting with new moves. I did a couple of standing back handsprings to force myself not to be so scared of them... those need a lot of work. Also did a few elbow batidos and got a picture of one. All in all it was a terrific class!

9/15/03 - ...and another great class :-p

Today we had 15 people yet again - Lou, Adam, Grant, Nate, Alan, and John showed up for the first time. Class followed a similar format as last time: ginga, ponteira, bencao, meia lua de frente, quiexada, esquiva, cocorinha, queda de tres, and queda de cuatro, then some au practice and handstand walking... all the essential basics of the game. After class, Roberto, Ben, Phil, and I played some sweet games of Angola. I felt like I was moving very well - I pulled off this crazy move, it was queda de rins to au to queda de rins, or something like that - and interacting nicely with the other player. My endurance was solid too; I think those long Angola games in Cali definitely helped me improve it. But eventually Roberto threw a tesoura that I just couldn't react to in time, and that was that.

9/26/03 - some sweet rodas

Roberto's gone this weekend, so Phil, Ben and I are teaching classes off of a lesson plan that he left us. It includes meia lua de compasso drills, quiexada/armadas, au control, and a big focus on Bimba's first sequencia. Also, at the end of yesterday's and today's class we had a roda in which we got all the beginners to give playing a try - I'm impressed with how well everyone is getting the hang of it. Especially Angola, since we really haven't taught many ground moves besides negativa, role, and meia lua de compasso. However, they watch, imitate, and improvise, and end up looking really natural.

There were also some nice individual accomplishments during the last couple classes: both Phil and Evan pulled off the back walkover from a bridge; all of Sarah's kip-up practice paid off 'cause now she's got it; I landed two solid backflips yesterday and am getting better at the standing back handspring, also I actually landed au sem mao to the left for the first time since last spring - yay! What else... Phil's been working on queda de rins and Ben on back handsprings; both look like they're improving. It's been a good two days.

10/9/03 - a solid class

Yesterday's class was interesting - it was a little different in that we only did a few moves, but in those few moves we really worked on good technique. I enjoyed it: there was a high level of mental focus because we were all concentrating hard on doing the movements correctly and with control. I'm reminded of Mestre Espirro's constant reminders to pay attention to the small but essential details of technique in the movements he taught us. Yesterday we focused on the following:

- negativa rolling: having your weight forward, not back; sweeping the straight leg out in order to roll in a straight line and not a circle; looking at the other person the whole time and staying in sync with them; keeping the feet close to the ground and not lifting them as though to kick
- armada: keeping torso upright during the spin; twisting torso and head first so as to stay looking at the target the whole time; having the kicking leg straight, foot locked, and toes pointed up; bringing the kicking leg all the way back to base
- compassos: planting hand first, then kicking; keeping the planted leg bent and the kicking leg straight (not turning it into a hook kick); leading with the heel of the kicking foot; always looking behind you, either through the legs or under the arm; keeping the free arm in a position to protect yourself on the one-handed compasso
- combinations of kicks: no extra shuffle-steps in between, instead being able to throw a second kick right from the completion of the first. Bringing kicking leg back to base is essential for this.

Although class was a little short, we got a lot done. I definitely felt like I worked some of my weak areas, namely control on the compassos and on consecutive kicks. I appreciate Roberto's increased focus on technique and I hope more of our classes have that kind of character.

After class I worked on kicks from a handstand, head-only stands, and the roundoff-back handspring off the mat (I was able to pull it off fine, though with a little extra impact on my wrists. I think I just need to adjust to it psychologically). I'm also starting to feel a little more comfortable with the standing back handspring on the mat - again, more practice is all I need.

11/2/03 - first performance!

Hamilton Capoeira gave a sort of surprise performance for our first of the '03-'04 year - half an hour before That's Gay 2003 was scheduled to start, we found out that they really needed more performers, so we agreed to demo some capoeira. The performance crew was me, Roberto, Phil, Ben, Andrew, Grant, Stu, Sarah, Evan, and Nate - everyone played, and played well! The games were smooth and beautiful; Roberto reminded us beforehand that in performances you want to play cooperative, not competitive, games. We did two songs of capoeira and one of maculele, which was a lot of fun. Not a bad performance at all, considering it was on the fly!

Maybe it was all the sugar I had last night that got me so pumped up, I don't know, but I was hardly nervous at all last night. Actually now that I think about it, I get less and less nervous with each performance; guess I'm getting used to it, which is kinda nice. The concrete floor didn't seem to bother me as much this time - well ok, I was slipping all over the place in the ginga, making it really sloppy, but au sem mao, headstands, handspins, au batidos... all my other moves were fine despite the floor.

Anyway, it was a good time; I'm looking forward to performing again!

11/15/03 - gaming, and the BHS

Between last weekend (family weekend) and this one, we've been doing a decent amount of playing, and it's opened my eyes to some of my strengths and weaknesses in the roda. My angola game feels solid. I'm confident and comfortable with moving around on the ground, and I can interact closely with the other player. I've noticed that I'm mixing it up and using a larger variety of moves, avoiding that repetitiveness that I tend to struggle with. Also, I like the way I looked on video - more controlled, less awkward. A slight improvement, but still improvement.

My Angola game is the good news, but when it comes to Regional - bleh. I feel extremely sloppy, uncontrolled, and like I'm too far away from/not interacting with the other player. The only thing that I did right today was that I avoided staying on the ground too much, and was able to play more upright, on the feet, as I'm supposed to in Regional. So how can I remedy this? Well, in terms of control, I think I'll go back to that drill of doing kicks slowly and then gradually working up in speed, so I can pull off kicks with control at higher speeds. Another thing I can focus on is ways of getting up from the ground, just so I don't find myself stuck down there as often happens. As for interaction with the other player, that can only be improved by actually playing Regional, so I'll try to do that as often as I can. Oh yeah - and in both styles but especially in Regional, I need to work on moving around the other person and playing less linearly.

I did some back handsprings during class, but they weren't feeling all that terrific... however, right at the end, I started throwing some awesome BHSs! They were SUPER high; I felt like I had a ton of flight time, and yet they put less impact on my wrists than the ones I was doing before. Technically, what made the difference was relaxing more, letting my body completely sprawl out in the air, and jumping UP rather than BACK. However, what really got me to actually do all these things was to stop overthinking and simply get psyched about the move. I'll have to remember that, since it helped immensely - those BHSs felt amazing!

11/23/03 - Culturefest 2003!

This was a good capoeira weekend! Friday we had a large class; my brain has gone on vacation so I can't remember everything we did, but we covered quite a bit. After class everyone flipped around a bit; my back handsprings were about half amazing and half so-so. When I tried to flip I just couldn't get the height though. Again, I need to work more on standing BHSs and get that move solid before I try the full flip.

Capoeira was the second act for Culturefest. The performance crew this year was Roberto, Phil, Ben, me, Evan, Nate, Nancy, Lou, Slice, and Greg (a visiting capoeirista). After an introduction by Roberto, we played to "Bate Palmas Luana" (a samba song) and then Donovan's Mix from Only the Strong. It was a pretty good performance - most everyone got in there and played, and it looked nice on video: tight games, good interaction, plus some high-flying floreios. Unfortunately the crowd wasn't quite as into it as I'd have liked. Probably if capoeira had been later in the lineup, after the crowd had been warmed up a little more, we would've gotten more energy from them. Anyway, everyone who was performing for their first or second time did very well! I felt ok about my games... managed to pull some BHSs, handspins, and headsprings. However, I still felt a bit repetitive, and some of my moves as well as the transitions between moves need to be smoothed out. This is why video feedback is great; I can see exactly what I need to work on. I do see improvement from last year, though I still have a long way to go.

12/18/03 - more gaming and flips

Yesterday we had class in a raquetball court, and spent a good amount of time playing. I was doing ok - still felt a bit repetitive, I think I did more roles and compassos than anything else. However, I had quite a few games where my interaction with the other player was good; I was staying close and responding to their moves rather than off on the other end of the roda doing my own thing. It was good to see all the newer folks jump into the roda, and I played some solid cooperative games with them. I found I was also able to get off the ground and stay on my feet just a little bit more than I usually do, which was encouraging. The main two things I need to work on are 1) variety in movement; and 2) endurance! I kept getting tired out too easily again. It could be because I'm still getting over a cold, but... gotta work on being able to keep up my energy level for longer games.

Flip-wise, Phil helped me identify my problem on the back handspring (and looking at the video, I can see this) - my body isn't aligned properly when I take off, and that's why I tend to launch myself back rather than up. I have to make sure my hips are over my feet and that I don't bend my knees more than necessary on the takeoff. Just more practice I guess... I'll go work on it this afternoon if I have time. Also in the flip category, the boys have all been working on the front flip on the pole vault mats. Ben and Grant can actually do it on the regular mat, and Ben is just a few inches away from being able to do it over me - how crazy is that?

Well, it looks like Diney isn't teaching capoeira in Danbury anymore, but apparently a bunch of the guys have been going down to Grupo Esporao classes in Bridgeport, so I plan to join them.