starting over

well, i haven’t written anything about capoeira in a while. i’ve really been focusing on other goals for this blog in the past while, like promoting my podcast, but i would like to get back to writing every little while about this subject, which has continued to fascinate me ever since i discovered it at burning man in 2003. i suppose i should start with where i have gone since i started studying it.

in the past two years, i have been playing a version of the game called capoeira regional with a local group. this is a fast, aggressive game which i enjoyed a great deal while i practiced it. despite this, some things have changed. i have, in the past two months, begun to go to capoeira angola classes instead of doing my regular thing. while i don’t want to exaggerate the impression it has on me, i will say that watching and playing in an angoleiro roda is a significantly different experience from playing regional. i would almost go as far as saying that they are at the edge of becoming two different disciplines, so much are different skills required in each.

i am also starting to get the impression that playing capoeira angola is a more complete experience of what capoeira, as a game, dance, sport, and/or martial art, can be. i see so much more trickery and fun in angola than i have in regional – it really does make it feel like playing. it will be interesting to note that, for the uninitiated, capoeira has often been brincar (jokingly playing) or vadiar (slacking off) in the language of its country of origin, Brazil. It leads one to believe that more play is a positive thing, though i could have told you that from the enjoyment i get from it when i attend rodas (the weekly ritual in which capoeira players gather).

i find it interesting to note that, right now, if i type ‘capoeira blog’ into google, i get almost no hits whatsoever that describe personal experiences as relate to the game (although planet capoeira just gave itself a nice makeover). i found this frustrating when i started a little over two years ago, and i’m finding equally frustrating now. so my new personal goal is to get myself onto the first page for these kinds of searches. i want to give valuable information to people looking for it on the web. i’ll start working on this, slowly. i want to give people some knowledge to drink, of sorts, from the well i’ve found, although i myself may never end up finding the bottom of it.