Evil-Monkey.org

Even though I should be in bed right now (going to the balloon races in the morning), I felt I needed to get down a few things while they are still fresh in my mind.

Playing capoeira tonight was great as it usually is.   I really love how it can just bring people together.  The usual gang and I were doing our thing and people just kept coming up and asking what we were doing.   Everyone really seemed to be interested in the berimbaus we playing.  I forget how exotic they really are to most people.  Good thing I’ve been practicing so I could kind of show off a little.  We all had a nice little laugh when a group of kids came up to us.   They were probably in the 13 to 16 age range.  They were kinda mocking what we were doing for a bit.   We decided they should just join in on the fun and invited them to join the roda.   A couple of the kids were brave enough to do so and mainly just jumped around all crazy like.   In hindsight, I wish I would have take a few pics of them.  It was fun having them around even though I don’t think they were really interested in learning the art.

After we wrapped up for the night, I decided to stick around and just work on the berimbau a bit.  Everyone else had left, so there I was just out working on some tunes and then this girl walked up.  She asked if I was doing capoeira and I told her yes.   I asked if she played at all and she said she picked up a few things in her travels.   She wanted to try playing the berimbau so I handed it to her and gave her some pointers.   She did pretty good for a newbie, I was impressed.   After our little lesson I thought we would part ways but she hung around for a bit.  She seemed interested in working on some moves she had learned before so I started showing her the ginga and some kicks.   She started off kinda shakey but seemed to get the hang of things pretty quick.   As we were talking and kicking and such, another guy came up and said he wanted to get a little lesson.  So I showed him one of the kicks and we were practicing away.   We played and talked a bit.  The gal, Elisa, said that she was in town because she went to Burning Man.   She said she goes every year and has been for like the past 4 years.   She really made it sound like an awesome place to go and commune with other people.   I’m certainly going to have to go one of the days.  After telling us about Burning Man, she said she had to go.   I did think to take a pic of her.  I’ll have to edit this post and post her pic.   She was bit of a cutie I must say.  She is Brazilian.  Got to make sure I note that so I don’t forget.  As she was leaving another gal came along and asked if we were playing capoeira.   I told her yes and asked if she played.  She said no but her sister does and was looking for a place to play.  I said she could come play with us anytime and I gave her a flyer.   I also invited her to play with us.  She declined but said maybe she’ll come to a class with her sister.  As I was wrapping up for the evening I met one other guy that said he had played a little.   I think he was a little drunk or high or something but he was pretty nice.   It was kinda of funny because he said he didn’t want to play because he was a bit self conscience about people watching him.

All in all, it was a really good night.  I had a lot of fun and it was great to meet new people.   That’s what I really love about capoeira.   It’s such a friendly and fun atmosphere.   It just kinda of brings people together wheither they play or not.

The one other thing I wanted to mention about tonight was that it felt so good to teach others.  I’m far from being a master at this myself but I think I have a nack for explaining it to people and helping walking them through how to do the movements.  I really want to stick with this and learn more so I can teach more.   Who knows, maybe one day I’ll become a mestre and have my very own school.

Here is Elisa.   She went by another name but I can’t remember it.