Random Questions about Capoeira

Friday, September 28, 2012

Love, Life, Joy and Conversation in Circle


I find Capoeira more interesting day by day. Last night I went to one Capoeira workshop at Fairview International School in Wangsa Maju. The workshop is actually part of ‘Capoeira Camara Festival’. It is tiring but, it was exciting and I had fun there. It was not enough for me and I believe for other Capoeiristas too. The workshop started at 730pm and as usual, we started with a warm up and after that Mestre Bola trained us with some movements.

For those who don't know about Capoeira, let me share with you some of the basic movements. Anyway, below is the source that I took from ArodaCapoeira.

Ginga:
The most basic movement of Capoeira. Instead of fixing position on the ground, the fighter is always moving, almost looking like is dancing.

Au:
Au is basically a windmill, practiced normally is gymnastics. Also Known as Au Regional it's used in Capoeira as a quick way to escape or trick your opponent.

Au Angola:
Au Angole it's a Au, but this one is only used in Capoeira Angola. Is difference to the Au (above) is the fact that the knee are bent.

Cocorinha:
Cocorinha it's an evasive move, which consists in a way to avoid circular kicks made in a close range. In this movement, it's necessary that the hand that touches the ground mantains balance, and, such as in all the other movements it's always necessary to mantain eye contact with your opponent.

Source from : ArodaCapoeira

 
My Second Life In Circle.
Yesterday, during the Roda, Contra Mestre Bola talk about few elements and details which related to Capoeira. Exercise, food and the most interesting part for me is ‘breathe’, ‘communicate’ and ‘face expression’ in Roda.  
 
Roda. It is a Portuguese word meaning circle. It's a physical circle made up of Capoeiristas clapping and singing or playing instruments. The roda is where the Capoeirista fight or Jogo (the fight in Capoeira is called a Jogo) takes place. It's within this circle that the Capoeiristas (two players) use the movements they've trained to both attack and defend. The entrance, leave and the restart of the Jogo’s point is in front of those Capoerista who playing the instruments, specifically in front of the Berimbau player. Capoeirista can hurt each other, but Jogo is more like physical game, each movement has purpose and effect both players. And from there, where the Capoeirista started to interact and communicate with each other. It could be either being picked or buying the game, setting them up for your movements and using their movements to determine your moves. It is very interesting because all of that happen without saying any words. Capoeirista communicate and interact through face expression and body language. And those Capoeirista who is not playing in Roda, it is important for them to keep the circle besides participate in the clapping and singing to keep the positive energy going, making the Roda better for all within it.

 
Communicate in Circle
 
When first I joined Capoeira, (Capoeira Camara Malaysia) class in Havana Studio, TTDI, everything seems alien to me. And one of the senior Capoeiristas, Fadinha (which means Little Fairy) taught me the basic movement in Capoeira which is Ginga. After that, the Instrutor, Soldado – Brazilian guy came and checked my Ginga. Fadinha and Soldado made me feel like it wasn’t my first class that day. They were so nice, and I felt welcomed. Plus the rest of Capoeirista, all of them were so nice too! The first day I saw all of the Capoeiristas in Roda, I felt excited and the second day of the class, during Roda, Instrutor Soldado signated to me to get into the Roda. Honestly, I didn't know what to do and not confident at all but I just stepped into the Roda.




And guess what, the moment I started ginga inside the circle, I fell in love with Capoeira. Because,

Capoeira for me, it's more than a martial art, more than an exercise, more than a workout. Peace, joy, music, love, dance, beach, life… I felt this inside the circle, the Roda.
It’s fun to ‘talk’ inside the Roda without saying any words. The eye contact, the body language, the face expression, When people clap while me and other Capoeiristas enjoy the game, I felt alive, I felt being surrounded by love because everyone actually give you joy while me and other capoeiristas inside the Roda having fun ‘communicating-with-no-words’ & do many kind of movements with peace and joy. With the music and the ginga movement it felt like dancing but at the meantime, while having ‘fun’ I have to be careful and alert, that’s ‘life’. It is symbolic for me because everyone want to have fun and want to have a happy life, nowadays - you have to be alert, you have to know how to defend yourself. And if you read my first & second post, I did mention that I love beach and first I saw Capoeira was through "Only the Strong". For me, Capoeira is synonym with beach, and everytime moving around in Roda, i feel peace and relax. Felt surrounded by music & beach. =)


Time management & measure the distance

For me it sounds a little bit like doing business logic or some calculation, don't you think so? When we play inside the Roda, Contra Mestre Bola keeps on remind us to measure the distance between the opponent. Well, yes, we don't have time to measure *takkanlah nak ambil pembaris atau measurement tape nak measure jarak, ye dak?* - because if we stay too close with the opponent, we are the one who will get hurt instead of the opponent. And also, budget the time - when to kick (Martello), when to defend (Esquive), when to avoid (Negativa) the kick or anything else. My Instructor Soldado once told me, 'We, Capoeiristas - we think differently from others." Now, I'm truly understand what makes he said that. To be a Capoeiristas, we have to be smart, we have to think fast, we need to be fast, we have to score 'A' in Maths because we need to measure the distance without measurement tape *okay, joking*, we have to know when to kick, when to defend because there's more than thousand skills in Capoeira I must tell you and the opponent could be smarter or faster than you. *wink*
 Well, that’s all for now – about Capoeira.

Eh? Before that. If you ever wonder how  and where to Ginga with us, it's HERE.
When? This is the DATE & TIME.
 
Xoxo,
Gillette Flores
 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Only The Strong, Childhood & Capoeira


In my previous post, I did mention about that I love reading the collections of the quotes. And this morning while browsing and 'googling' some quote, I found this,



“Only the strong hearted can resist temptation and only but a fool would resist love.”


*Wah! Kemain, lovey dovey gitewww* I’m not gonna talk about love today. It's actually a quote from one movie, "Only The Strong". The first things cross in my mind when I saw the tittle of the movie, was my childhood time. :) I can’t remember when I'm exactly watch "Only The Strong”. But all I can remember was, there’s a lot of the scene in that movie amazes me.




Plus most of the scene was on the beach side *I looove beach!* … Well, there are a lot’s of movement which is something like acrobatic, flip, kick and similar with dance as well and with the music. It attracts me because I’m the type of person who loves beach, dance, music and sports. But during that time I didn’t ask anyone what exactly is that. But all I know, it is some kind of martial art because there a few men who fought in that movie. Some of the movement in that movie reminds me to my childhood bf! Ahahah! He’s my neighbour and we always walk to the school together, play together, ‘main masak-masak’ together.
 
I still remember, one of my favourite movements that I always did is quite similar with some movement in “Only the Strong”. It’s like an acrobatic movement, where we put both of our hand on the ground and move our feet with straight leg and make one full rotation to the other side. You can see the image below.
 

 
And then, when I was 17 years old. There’s one time where ‘Anak Ayam’ by Too Phat quite famous during that time. One of my classmates a.k.a my good friend indeed (and he’s getting married soon with my ex-classmate too!), he always do all those kind of acrobatics movement in front of the class. Well, it is actually a breakdance. At the meantime, my brother joins this one model search for ‘Maskulin’. And happen that I chat with one of his friend about ‘Capoeira’ and Only The Strong. And I started to know about Capoeira through arcade game ‘Tekken’ and there’s one fight scene in ‘Ong Bak’ whereby one guy (not too sure whether he’s Brazilian or not) fight with Tony Jaa – and it’s Capoeira!
 
Basically, Capoeira may simply look like a kind of ‘mock fight’ or dance circle. Surrounded by a musician (bateria) in a circle called the ‘road/wheel’. The capoeira game (jogo) is played by two capoeira practitioners (capoeiristas) at a time, inside the Roda, which is made up of other capoeiristas or onlookers, Capoeristas move around each other using arcing kicks, stealthy dodges, crouching movements, cartwheels, teasing gestures, sneak attacks, headbutts, and the occasional acrobatic leap.

 
That’s basically what I can share with you guys about Capoeira AT THE MOMENT. It's gonna be more and more in future. *wink*

And hey! I almost forgot! It’s gonna be one Street Roda tomorrow! And Brazilian Night bebeh!
The Street Roda will be at Central Market Kuala Lumpur (in between Masjid Jamek & Pasar Seni LRT Station) & Brazilian party will be at Doppel Kafe (Address: Level 2.04, Mezzanine Floor, Central Market Annexe, Jalan Hang Kasturi 50050 Kuala Lumpur).
 
 
For more info, you can check out this website, Capoeira Camara Malaysia.


Tata for now!
Xoxo,
Gillette Flores

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Random Facts about Gillette Flores

Muslim. =)




“Família para sempre”… Means Family Forever in Portuguese. All I can say about my family... I love both of my family to the maximum! 'Both'? ;)

Capoeira. Some of you might know what is capoeira, some of you might heard about it before but not too sure what exactly is that and some of you might have no idea at all, what is capoeira. It is actually some kind of martial art like taekwando, silat, jiujitsu etc. Well, I can tell and share with you more in the next post if you guys interested to read this simple blog. *wink*

Fashion is my obsession... I'm into fashion... and I would call myself an impulse shopper for the last few years. And I dont really care about the brand or the price. Most importantly, the quality, the design and the color. I would wear any kind of fashion, style and trend but most of the time, I would wear those attire or style which suit my height and my body shape. And did I mention that I love dress? Yesss, I love dress! *wink*

Music is my boyfriend.. =) ... I love ‘him’ and will always love ‘him’. I can’t live without ‘him’... ;) I'm  more into violin & piano tunes, guitar acoustic songs, pop ballads, r&b, sentimental, oldies, korean, rock ballads songs... hmmm... I must say I love almost all genres of music. Any specific artist? Hmmm… a lots! (^^,) ... And hey! Live band too!

Dancing is my passion... and hobby. I'm not a professional dancer, I just love to dance.  Dancing, it will always be a part of my life... =)

Drawing is another kind of languange... Agree? =) I love sketches!

Love is cinta. =) ... Everyone needs love. So am I. =) ... I do believe in TRUE LOVE and always will.

A Friend Is Like A Good Bra Hard to Find Supportive Comfortable Always Lifts You Up Never Lets. LOL! I do have lots of friends, but there's just a few friends that I can trust. :)

  I love beach, sunset & photography. Photography, I wish to have one big room where I can hang all of the collection of my favourite photos took by myself from all over the world in there. Especially the collection of sunset and beach photograph.
 
Few of my fav movie, “P.S, I Love You", “Iron Man”, “Shooter”, “Looser”, “A Walk To Remember”, “She’s The Man”, “Deception”... And there are few more. :)

FOOD & DIET. =) ... I looooove food but I have a big problem with that. I can't eat chicken, seafood, choc, cheese and I can't eat any food which contains black pepper, belacan, dry shrimp, chicken paste and I even cannot eat tuna or sardine. Sounds miserable isn't it? LOL! But it is actually good for me as my metabolism is low, so thanks to sinus! Because of it, I can control my diet and maintain my weight. ;)
 
I love reading the collections of quotes. Any quotes… =)

Last but not least, I love flowers (flores in Portuguese) & COLOURS!

Xoxo,
Gill