MY AMAZING CAPOEIRA SUMMER!!!

Hi Family!

I thought I'd tell you guys about some of the amazing stops I had on my capoeira journey last summer.

The picture above is of my Capoeira teacher, Charles Williams, took when he was promoting a capoeira roda he held in Griffith park last August.

But I'll talk about that later. I've had a couple of other encounters with capoeira before that wonderful day, so I'm gonna list them in order.

Right now, I wanna talk about a roda that happened around the beginning of summer, in a park (which name I can't remember for shit) in midtown Los Angeles, near the Hollywood area.

It was a small, but grand roda we went to after Sunday class, hosted by members of ANGOLEIROS LOS ANGELES.

There were some good games, good energy, and lots of axe. And after the roda, a guy named Lev Coracao, a Capoeirista from the east coast, led us in some stretches.

I took no photos of this roda, because I lost my phone that day. A couple of weeks later, Charles and Ian found it under the passenger seat of his car, while looking for Ian's phone.



Now on Sunday, August 2nd - August 4th, Mestre Joao Grande came down to San Diego to teach some workshops.

I had intended to go for all 3 days, but due to some financial problems, I ended up staying only 1 day. But it was a great day. Me, Anna and Ian all piled into Charles's jeep, and we went on the 2-hour drive to San Diego, stopping only once for gas and snacks.

When we got there, the workshop had started already, with Mestre leading us through some movements. That went on until a little after 12:00 p.m., when we broke for lunch. Some local Capoeira Angola students took us to a great Mexican Restaurant where we ate lunch.

After lunch, we had a music class, followed by another movement class where the teaching was done in a roda, then around 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., there was the roda itself.

I only played in the roda once because my knee started acting up, but I did sing and play instruments.

If you want to see some pictures from the workshop, and check out the Capoeira Angola community in San diego, you can click HERE and go to the Capoeira Angola Center Study Group of San Diego's Facebook group page. Yes, it was a great day, and I got reacquainted with some old friends, and met a lot of cool people, especially the mestre himself. I wished I could talk to him, but I hate to admit that I really suck at portuguese right now (as a side note, www.duolingo.com is a great site for learning a new language).

I'm gonna have to wait until the next conference or workshop to train and learn with the Mestre again. However, one of my dreams is to go and pay my respects to the man and learn at his academy in Harlem, NY.

Anyway, if you want to know more about him, check out his web site at http://joaogrande.org



O.K., now I can talk about Charles's roda in Griffith Park, which happened a week after the workshop.
Below are some pictures I took at the roda. The first 3 were taken in the beautiful Griffith Park...

And Here's Charles, along with Gregory Bickham and Jelani Ticum Lateef, playing berimbaus before the roda began. Jelani also taught us a variation of the CAVALARIA toque around this time.

In case you're wondering, Cavalaria was created during the time when Capoeira was illegal, in order to warn capoeiristas during the roda when the police were coming.

Charles also taught us a variation of the SANTA MARIA toque. which in the past it was a game with marked movements...so a precision game, where one learns how to properly measure actually now translated to the more larger angola game and philosophy of movement...

And here's some pictures of the Roda itself. Charles keeps telling me I should go to a pawn shop or something and get a camera so I could film these rodas, and one of these days, I will.

I also had pictures of the potluck which followed, but I lost them... along with the photos of a deer which came by during the potluck.

But all in all, it was a very positive, wonderful event, and not to mention, a great way to spend a sunday afternoon.

We've got to do it again sometime... preferably on a warm day.



And now, I'm gonna to you about 2 more special stops in my capoeira journey.

Watch this video.



This is a video of an event called THE CAPOEIRA EXCHANGE.

The Capoeira Exchange event was organized by 2 Capoeiristas based in Los Angeles, Saracuru of CAPOEIRA BRASIL DTLA and Muito Tempo of CAPOEIRA BATUQUE PASADENA to share and exchange capoeira for teachers and students of all schools and styles. This event is for the capoeira community to come together, share knowledge, and grow together.

In over a year since this event was started, . It has grown to New York, Paris, Colorado, and soon Tokyo. I first heard about this event last January, when it was held in Los Angeles Union station.

Here's a video Of Jelani singing at the start of this event:



Unfortunately, I didn't get to see a lot of this event because I had a capoeira class in Culver city, then lunch with my teacher, a fellow student, and his girlfriend in little Tokyo. Now here's a few pictures I took at the event. they had about 4 different rodas set up, one for beginners, one for intermediate, one for the advanced (Professores, Mestres, etc.) and one for children.

Now in case you don't like pictures too much, here's a highlight video of the event:





Now that all happened last winter, in the beginning of this year. Nine months later, on September 6 to be exact, They had another Capoeira Exchange.

Here's a highlight video of this event, check it out!



Yes, it was AMAZING to see... About a hundred or so capoeiristas, playing our hearts out, no fighting, no "My school's better than yours", or any incarnation of that type of silliness. We were ALL there to just celebrate Capoeira.

With PURE LOVE.

Here's 2 videos someone took of the teacher's roda. In the first video, you can see Jelani playing...



and in this one, You can see my teacher Charles playing. He's the short guy in the white shirt and the camoflauge shorts.



Of course, as a beginner, I stayed away from that roda... even though in just about every open roda that I've ever played in, nearly all the people I've played with were teachers, or someone at that level.

In the Rodas that I DID play in, I admit it was pretty hard adjusting to the way the regional/Contemporary were playing. For instance, they did a lot of what is called, "Buying the game". I posted the video below to show you guys what that is, and how they do it:



However, I practice Capoeira Angola, and in Capoeira Angola, we don't buy the game (except for the times when WE DO buy the game)... So it was hard for me to get into that flow, to know when to cut in on somebody, and to have to adjust to another player when he/she cuts in on that nice game you were having with somebody else. I was also afraid to call any chamadas.

Now in case you don't know what chamadas are...



Which in Capoeira Regional, they don't really seem to do too much. I was afraid of getting kicked by someone who may not have been familiar with the chamada aspect of the game.

All in all, The Capoeira Exchange was AMAZING, and I can't wait for the next one!

And I want to give a very special thank you to my friend BAMBU MORALES and his girlfriend, MIMI SCHIRM from CAPOEIRA BRASIL DTLA, who called an UBER driver to take me to the Lincoln Heights Gold Line Station.

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!



And now, for the last event of the summer, not nearly as large as the Capoeria Exchange, but one very dear to my heart.

Take a look at the picture below:

Just a group of capoeira students, relaxing with our teacher after class, right? Well, what's special about this picture, is that it was taken a day before my birthday.

And in the capoeira world, when you have a class on or near your birthday, then that means you're having a birthday roda.

Check out the video below to see what a birthday roda entails:




Yep, that's right, y'all. I had to play everybody in the class that day. And they didn't all come to class at the same time, either. Class started with about 3 of us, and as the class went on, more people were arriving, then at the end of class and the start of my roda, the only thought on my mind was, "WHERE IN THE HELL DID ALL THESE GUYS CAME FROM!!?"

I'm always telling Charles, I want more classmates; This was the only time I ate those words.

But it was a great class though, and thankfully, the guys took it easy on me.


And I wanna give a shout-out to Marques Hardin, the guy seated across from me in that picture.

He made this video of our class one Sunday...



He's going to school in england, and we of the Capoeira Collective would like to say,

Marques, life is filled with unexpected adventures. As you continue to move on in life and face new events, adventures, and challenges, we wish you the best of luck.



Well, that was my amazing capoeira summer. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed living it.

I have yet another special event to write about, but it's bedtime, and I'm sick as a dog... So to everybody, goodnight.