I remember one day during graduate school at OSU I was walking past a classroom and there was lots of commotion going on; people were gathered at the door watching and listening to what happening inside.  I peeked in and saw students dressed in white and fighting/dancing to drumbeats and music and so I asked the person next to me, "What's going on?"  My neighbor informed me that the students were practicing capoeira - something I had never seen or heard of before.  It makes sense that there was capoeira happening in the Spanish and Portuguese Department that day because capoeira is a form of Afro-Brazilian martial arts.  The area where I live, Bahia, is famous for capoeira because of the large influence of African language, culture and heritage here.



Fast forward five years and I'm standing nervously at my first capoeira class.  This was not my idea.  This was my roommate's idea who happens to be a dance/zumba/fitness instructor and also one of the leaders of the indigenous dance movement in the U.S. and Mexico.  Capoeira is definitely her cup of tea but not exactly mine.  If you know me then you know that I'm not altogether comfortable expressing myself physically in a crowded circle of drum beats and hand claps.  I was also the tallest one there, the whitest participant, badly sunburned and the only one who was sweating profusely because of the extreme heat and humidity before the class had even started.  You can see why I was nervous. 



We "warmed up" and stretched though I didn't think this was entirely necessary seeing as it was a class held in the instructor's backyard and did I mention it was hot out?  Capoeira in this weather is like hot yoga on steroids or dancing ninjas in a sauna.  Seriously.  The instructor took Loni and I aside and showed us some basic movements, mind you it was in Portuguese so I probably only got about 40% of what he was saying.  I was surprised at how hard it was to follow the movements and stay controlled.  Capoeira is all about quick and complicated moves to a certain rhythm with lots of power, speed and leg kicks/sweeps.  Also, you have to stay low so it's like constantly being in lunge position.  It was exhausting.  People laughed at how much I was sweating.  It got worse.



After individual movements we had to do actions in front of everyone followed by a cumulative circle complete with drum beats, tambourines and a berimbau during which people had to pair up and fight/dance in some sort of synchronized harmony while the onlookers clapped and watched.  It was terrifying.  I really didn't like being in the circle because it made me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable; I didn't know what to do and I couldn't really stay with the beat.  It's kind of exactly how I'm feeling in Brazil right now; I can't communicate, I rarely figure out where I'm supposed to be going, I arrive too early for everything and my tan is in the very early stages.  But I'm going to go back to class on Thursday even though my toes are blistered and bleeding and I am already very very sore. I'm hoping that one of these days I'm going to find that rhythm.

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