![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capoeira club
Feb. 1st, 2011 11:40 pmSo this Saturday, I went to Dodge Gym to burn some excess energy. After a long set of stretches, I decided to go running. The running track here is surrounded by glass-walled classrooms, and it feels slightly voyeuristic. But one of the classrooms wasn't just visible. It was very audible, through most of the track. I stopped to look from outside the classroom, and the teacher invitingly gestured me inside. I saw that they were making music with sticks, hitting their own and each others' sticks while dancing. Fun!
Capoeira, as you may know, is an Afro-Brazilian style of playfighting. But apparently, it is much more than that, at least in this group. It is a mixture of playfighting, bootcampish exercises and music lessons (drums + singing), i.e. the ultimate fun in work-outs. They invited me to join the roda and play with them. I blushed a lot, but kept the rhythm and did ok. I had a huge smile throughout.
Today I went again, for the whole two-hour session. I noticed how collaborative the group is, it really felt like a community. One girl (who turned out to be a beginner) led the stretches in the beginning. One guy, known by his capoeira name of "Jesus", kindly took me aside to teach me the basic ginga. Other people were also keen to help me. The teacher was really more of a leader and facilitator. Afterwards, a student who is a yoga instructor improvised a mini-lesson on how to target one's abdominal muscle, and taught me where my "ovaries" are.
Musically, the group was quite good, and more than one person demonstrated their talent for learning syllable-sequences. Our Venezuelan teacher taught a couple of songs. Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing /e/ from /ɛ/ and /s/ from /z/, so I got to hear Americans sing Afro-Brazilian songs with a Spanish pronunciation, as if on a museum exhibit on historical linguistics. It was epic.
They meet 3 times a week (Tue, Thu, Sat) for 2 hours, and a real bargain at $100/month (price may be for Columbia students only). It conflicts with my Pilates, but I'll see if I can schedule around that. If I do, I may exercise 5 days / week, which is unprecedented for me.
Capoeira, as you may know, is an Afro-Brazilian style of playfighting. But apparently, it is much more than that, at least in this group. It is a mixture of playfighting, bootcampish exercises and music lessons (drums + singing), i.e. the ultimate fun in work-outs. They invited me to join the roda and play with them. I blushed a lot, but kept the rhythm and did ok. I had a huge smile throughout.
Today I went again, for the whole two-hour session. I noticed how collaborative the group is, it really felt like a community. One girl (who turned out to be a beginner) led the stretches in the beginning. One guy, known by his capoeira name of "Jesus", kindly took me aside to teach me the basic ginga. Other people were also keen to help me. The teacher was really more of a leader and facilitator. Afterwards, a student who is a yoga instructor improvised a mini-lesson on how to target one's abdominal muscle, and taught me where my "ovaries" are.
Musically, the group was quite good, and more than one person demonstrated their talent for learning syllable-sequences. Our Venezuelan teacher taught a couple of songs. Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing /e/ from /ɛ/ and /s/ from /z/, so I got to hear Americans sing Afro-Brazilian songs with a Spanish pronunciation, as if on a museum exhibit on historical linguistics. It was epic.
They meet 3 times a week (Tue, Thu, Sat) for 2 hours, and a real bargain at $100/month (price may be for Columbia students only). It conflicts with my Pilates, but I'll see if I can schedule around that. If I do, I may exercise 5 days / week, which is unprecedented for me.