one month before B2B starts

Mestre Curisco's Batizado is on in Seattle. Grupo Candeias led by Professor Fenix participates. It's wonderful to see the cooperation between different Capoeira schools. M. Curisco has been a strong supporter of Professor Fenix for a long time. From my first days training and at my first Batizado I noticed this incredibly hard working, funny and all-around good human. I also noticed him doing headspins on people's back after a rastera (pulling your legs out from under you). Needless to say that even though he was slowed down somewhat by a nail that he wanted to remove from a piece of wood with his foot he was still faster than everyone else, other than Mestre Acordeon of course.

We are at the old Rainier Brewery every day all day, training, stretching, BBQing and learning about Capoeira. (fact: 99% of Capoeiristas stop trainiqng before they reach 5 years). Its the usual heady mix of martial art, rodas that last for hours, excitement and learning. Always learning. The remodel of the Brewery is originally Papagaio's idea. He convinced the powers that be that it would be better to put a bunch of artists, artisans and straight up hippies in the place instead of condos. And a capoeira school. The structure is a labyrinth of color, box like structures, amazing views of the Seattle skyline and of the harbor cranes marching into the foggy distance. Or did they escape from Starwars?


    old Rainier Brewery and Seattle

 



Eric Pixador's work at Seattle Males Capoeira

The days start early. Stretching out the kinks from the previous day like one day old fresh laundry. Everyone is in tight white pants and shirts. OII BELEZA!!! You can take the Capoeira out of Brazil, but you can't take the Brazilian tight white pants out of Capoeira. Flat stomachs bend backwards to open up for ponchos. Long, sinewy legs spend time suspended in splits. European closet-sized shoulders push their owners up and down, our slow minds think of our own feeble bodies and that pure will alone suspends them. But if you spend half your days doing handstands and one handed, two handed, no handed variations thereof your shoulders would be fairly door frame busting as well. After the stretches we start on kicks, 50 legs knife-cutting the dense, hot air in precise choreography, at least in the first two rows. Sequences, take-downs, escapes, backflips and triple Axels follow.

Mestre Mindinho's workshop presents Capoeira fighting techniques in a theoretical framework that even my slow academia-overloaded brain can digest. The plateau I have been stuck on for six month dissolves in my mind when he tells us to watch the opponent instead of thinking of our next move. This is so important for my self confidence in the roda. I stop thinking about my game and just play - only what Professor Fenix has been telling us for two years. Sometimes you don't hear what your parents tell you. I also get smacked in the face a bunch of times. Parabens!

Then Mestre Acordeon makes an appearance and I take my first workshop with the man. He seems exhausted but keeps on moving. Only after having gone through preparing for the B2B trip does it become clear how important M. Curisco's event must be to M. Acordeon, because Mestre's preparations must have been 100 times as difficult as mine. Yet he still came out. Life was KA-RAZY and Karate would not have helped! After the workshop M. Acordeon gives a little talk about his upcoming trip. And he drops a bombshell that may have been meant for my ears only "If you want to join us for some time, just come along".

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