Little Capoeirista

I went to the charming, nearby island of Itaparica for a couple days with my friends, Pastel and Ritinha. As we were kickin' it on the beach with the locals, this cute little girl arrived and began playing by herself at the beira mar (shoreline). She was having a good ol' time frolicking about. Then she did what appeared to be a capoeira move - armada de frente com aú (front kick into a cartwheel). I pointed it out to Pastel, who asked her (in Portuguese, of course) if she does capoeira. She shyly giggled and said yes. He immediately told her that his friend (me) also does capoeira. She looked at the old gringo sitting on the beach drinking a coconut (me), and without saying a word, she got a huge smile on her face and giggled again, even louder. I couldn't help but to laugh out loud at her response because I recognized her burst of excitement and silliness - it's the giddy feeling a capoeirista gets when he/she knows a game is close. (At least, that's what I told myself her giggle was all about!) Pastel asked her if she wanted to play me (as capoeira is often played on beaches), and with another giggle, she quickly replied yes. Sure, she was cute and adorable and all, but... "game on"!! (without actual contact, of course) ;-)

The shy, little capoeirista spoke not a word, but instead giggled continuously through her huge, illuminating smile as we played there on the beach!! Her infectious spirit and enthusiasm - the degree of which can only be exuded by the innocence and sincerity of a happy child - enveloped me and my friends alike. Pastel and Ritinha laughed and cheered, adding even more axé to the moment. (Axé is a word used often in capoeira and is difficult to translate. Roughly, it is an energy that is genuine, happy, positive and uplifting.) We were all definitely feeling the axé as the jogo (game) played on.

After 10-15 minutes of play, I had to leave to catch the ferry back to the mainland. When I let my little adversary know of this, her beaming smile became a sad, little frown. She looked at me with big, brown, puppy-dog eyes and, grabbing my hand, asked me to please stay and play some more. But I could not, I had to catch that ferry. So I thanked her for the awesome jogo, and we said our goodbyes with one final armada (kick).

Now keep in mind this brief, though pertinent, side-story... By this day, I had been in Brazil for only 1 1/2 weeks. I am living in Bahia, the birthplace of capoeira, and I came here specifically to study capoeira and music. I had been spending all my time thus far, however, pursuing various music opportunities. And though the time spent on these pursuits has been quite amazing, I was really (REALLY!) wanting to start my capoeira training. But time has not allowed for both yet. I hadn't even seen any capoeira yet, much less participated. Anyway, prior to coming to Brazil, I'd heard lots of capoeira stories - good and bad, happy and sad, exciting and scary, inspiring and discouraging. So as you can imagine, being in the birthplace of this incredibly rich and historic culture of capoeira (and among so many famous Masters and numerous, numerous capoeiristas), I had an equal number of ideas in my head as to what my first capoeira experience in Brazil might be like. I tried to refrain from any "expectations", but my love for capoeira made this quite difficult - I couldn't help but to wonder.

Well, of all the countless possible scenarios that I had imagined for my first capoeira experience in Brazil, this was no where near any of them, and it was absolutely perfect!!!