Kitabı oku: «It’s capoeira between us. Conversations with capoeiristas. Part 1», sayfa 3

Elisa: At first, I was just going to the university classes to study Chinese but then I thought that I needed to do some sport. He was always going to the park, and I wanted to see what made it so interesting.

Curiosa: And now you are an instrutora?

Elisa: Yes.

Curiosa: Well done. Now back to Shanghai. Did you need to comply with an legal process to rent a space and teach?

Diego: No, in Shanghai you need nothing; you just teach. I paid the rent in cash at the time and I gave classes. Yeah, there was nothing to be done: no status, no registration, no association. Nothing, zero.

Curiosa: Did you have to advertise to attract more students?

Diego: In the beginning, there were just friends of friends that were coming. So, it was more of word-of-mouth advertising. Then of course, we had these magazines for expats where we posted our news. Then through this network… In the beginning it was an amazing network. Do you know that in 2016, during the World Cup, we were performing capoeira in the middle of the night when Brazil was playing? And we were doing capoeira in that place with the Brazilian community. We just had a lot of contacts!

Elisa: We also gave performances in local schools

Curiosa: Did you have children among your students?

Diego: Not in the beginning, but after, we did have classes for kids. My wife started to teach them; I taught a few classes only. But since the only day available was Saturday, she was teaching kids on Saturdays before our regular class. It still happens in Shanghai in the same format. But it was never for me to teach kids.

Curiosa: Capoeira Brasil is now in Shanghai. When they first arrived, did you communicate, did you get along?

Diego: There was Instructor Tanque, a really cool guy. I don’t remember which year they arrived in Shanghai, but I do know that I was a little worried or maybe even scared. But eventually they turned out to be very nice people, I never had any issues with them. I was going to their events and they were coming to ours. We always had a good relationship. And given that their style was different from ours, if was fun training with them.

Curiosa: Have you ever had some sort of crises in capoeira when you had doubts or wanted to stop?

Diego: Sometimes… Sometimes yes, it was overwhelming. Especially when I was training with Ido Portal, I was training four times a day!

In the morning I was working on my mobility and shoulders, then I had work, at lunchtime I was doing my strength routine, then I returned to work, then back at home I would work on my handstand. Then I would go to do give a class, and I was also teaching personal training, (though not for long). So yes, sometimes I was very tired when I considered everything. But most of the time, my thought was just to quit my job and do capoeira. So, the crisis was more on the other side.

Eventually, I decided to keep my job for my stability and to keep enjoying capoeira and not depend on it for my financial needs. Because I realized that it is a risky business anyway, and I don’t want to depend on my body.

Curiosa: You have already said a lot about your students, but your Chinese students, who are they? Why do they come? What are they looking for? Are they young or old?

Diego: They are mainly around 20 to 30 years-old. As to why they come, I think there are a lot of reasons. In practicing capoeira, there is a lot of freedom, improvisation, creativity and Chinese people are good at memorization. They do anything, but creativity. Just to learn to read and to write, they have to memorize a lot of characters, this is how their educational system works. So, they are very good at classes: in how to follow the sequence and how to kick. Although they are not very outgoing, as they don’t do much when they are kids. The problem is when they need to play capoeira, then, it becomes worse than trying to explain to a child what to do. Without rules they really feel lost. So, many believe capoeira can be of great benefit to them, as it might be good for them to have the freedom it offers, to improvise, to create, where they don’t need to doggedly follow rules. It is in the area of expression and creativity that they need most to improve. But then once they get it… I had a strong group of four Chinese students who were really getting it, then all of them stopped, now there is only one, he is also teaching in Shanghai. So what I’m saying is, once they get it, they can be as good as anyone.

Curiosa: And how about the Portuguese language, the songs, the music? Do they understand those easily?

Diego: Not easily; but the ones who want to learn the music, they learn, they memorize. Maybe the pronunciation is not perfect, but they learn the songs.

Curiosa: How are they with instruments? Are they musical people?

Diego: Some of them, yes. When I came to Italy I thought, “Oh, it will be easy now,” but it wasn’t. So, it really depends on the people. They are not worse or better that the others.

Curiosa: What is capoeira for you? What place/priority does it have in your life?

Diego: Capoeira is a part of my life. It has gradually become more and more important. With time I realized how beneficial it is to my mind, more than my body. My job decisions are taken based on the possibility of continuing training/teaching capoeira. It is definitely one of the top priorities of my life.

Curiosa: How do you see the future of the group in Shanghai and Milan? Any plans or projects?

Diego: The group in Shanghai/China will grow. It’s already growing and with the involvement of locals in teaching and promoting the group it will grow even faster. I was worried when I left, but now I see that Nico, Alex and all the others are doing a good job keeping good fundamentals. It will get bigger and stronger, hopefully not too fast, in order to be able to steer things in the right direction. With regards to Milan, I just want to continue enjoying training and teaching capoeira with my group. I am leveraging on my ten years’ experience in China in order to optimize my teaching, thereby allowing the students to improve at a faster pace. I really try to make the best out of the 90 minutes classes that we have. I want to have more advanced students in order to be helped in teaching classes and guiding other students. A strong core group of advanced students is the key to having a stable group. It will take time, but I’m not in a hurry.

Curiosa: How does it feel not to have a teacher next to you all the time? Who or what gives you inspiration or ideas about your own training and capoeira?

Diego: I have been teaching alone in China with less than three years of capoeira experience (where I only learned just the basics). Nowadays I have a lot of materials, I get ideas for my classes everywhere, from my own students (mistakes or games), from workshops attended elsewhere, from guests, from mestres’ sequences, from videos posted by other capoeiristas etc. What mainly guides my classes is the observation of my students, trying to understand what they need to practice in order to improve their game, what their weak points are, etc. Often their weaknesses coincide with my weaknesses.

Curiosa: What is the most memorable or funniest moment of your capoeira life?

Diego: I enjoy every moment of my capoeira life. I had so many beautiful and funny moments and funny students. It is impossible to recall a specific episode.

Curiosa: Who has had the greatest impact on your capoeira?

Diego: There are too many. I will just mention three: Mestre Marcelo, directly or indirectly through his students; CM Cipo, who was the first guest we had in 2008 and who gave three months of super hard classes: it definitely shaped my capoeira and allowed me to understand what training really means; Ido Portal: his knowledge and his way of thinking has changed my approach to movement and to life in general; I learned so much and my body has been transformed. Nowadays I’m still using his method for my own training and when teaching.

Hong Kong

I set off to Hong Kong in a happy mood – there are two CDO groups in the city!

My trip to Hong Kong from Shenzhen took only 12 minutes by train. Border control – another half an hour. I spent that much time just to get from home to work on a regular day, and then I travelled to another country in just 12 minutes!

I needed to extend my visa to China, and I left for Hong Kong for just a few hours – to wander around the city and, of course, go to a capoeira class!

And I went to monitor Kazu. Kazu was born in Japan and studied in Brazil, where he began to practice capoeira and started working with Grande Mestre Cícero, then he moved back to Japan, opened a group there, then moved to Hong Kong and opened another group here. Fuh! Didn’t seem to miss anything. When I met to Kazu, he had been teaching for only a couple of months. At his class at the time of my visit, there was one girl from Portugal with some past capoeira experience, and 3 students from Japan, they were complete newbies.

After the class, we went to drink coffee and chat. Kazu’s girlfriend also came along. She happened to be a student of the Instrutora Zoinho⁴⁰, who is a student of Mestre Parente and has lived in Hong Kong for several years. It was she that I had planned to talk to, but I’ll speak more to that later. She wasn’t in town that week.

Hong Kong is modern, traditional and dangerous…

Hong Kong is a city on a peninsula, which used to be a part of China, but then the UK rented it for a hundred years. One hundred years passed, and in 1997 Hong Kong returned to China.

Hong Kong won me over already at the train station – the contrast with China played its role. All apps and bank cards functioned here, there was free Wi-Fi everywhere, and everyone spoke English. Traffic in the city, like in Great Britain, is left sided. All taxis are painted red and white, fairly old Toyota models. And this all stands against the background of breathtaking skyscrapers, multi-lane and multi-level traffic. It’s a city of the future for sure. And this is so despite the fact that Hong Kong combines, it seems to me, the best that has been preserved from pre-communist China and that which was absorbed during the hundred years from the British mindset.

Traditions are seen in Buddhist temples, Chinese characters and language, which, unlike the rest of China, were not simplified in Hong Kong. At the same time, it has this cute English feature to only use double-decker buses and only allow taxis of a certain color. Hong Kong has an unbelievable number of banks and corporations and the most expensive brands in the world, which causes a feeling of inferiority in an ordinary Russian person, because, I can only go to such stores for an excursion. This I did at the Gucci store. There I was met and followed by a personal consultant, who, like all consultants, was dressed in a black trouser suit. She gave me a welcome speech in perfect English and silently, but with a smile, followed me with a tired look, knowing that I would not buy anything.

Hong Kong is a grandiose city. There you have to lift your head all the way up to see the tops of skyscrapers – I noticed I was holding my breath as I looked up. And the multi-level overpasses, which in new districts are intercrossed with shopping malls and the metro, makes your head spin and does not make tourists’ life easy. Somehow, this small peninsula also has quite a lot of greenery, mountains, beautiful views and wildlife that coexists with a crowded metropolis.

How a trip to a temple almost ended in tragedy.

During my second visit to Hong Kong, I decided to visit an amazing place – the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. And everything seemed to be fine there: it is beautiful, has many steps, many golden Buddhas in different poses on the way to the temple, horoscope and Yin and Yang signs, jade amulets and souvenir coins for wealth. But there is one BUT – I went there on October 1st. Not that I had a choice, but it was the worst day to leave home in Hong Kong at all.

China celebrates its national day on October 1st, moreover, on October 1st, 2019, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 70th anniversary. Why is that bad?

Well, Hong Kong wasn’t at peace already and chaos reigned there due to mass protests. We will leave politics aside, but closed metro stations, closed streets, crowds of people in black T-shirts, uprooted and burnt ATMs created a rather overwhelming atmosphere.

I knew that the metro station next to the temple would be closed that day, so I took a bus. And everything was fine, well, except that the army of policemen on the way frightened me a little.

I was in the temple and had just found comfortable steps to take a couple of pictures upside down, when suddenly the workers began to move actively and close all the doors, saying, “Close door, close door.” It was still two hours before closing, and I didn’t understand why they were closing the doors. I assumed that they wanted to close earlier, and hastened to leave.

I got to the bus stop and started looking for my bus. I couldn’t see it anywhere, and from the information on the signs it was not clear where it was supposed to stop. Remember when I said that in Hong Kong, multi-level overpasses are intercrossed with subways and shopping malls? This was the case: there were overpasses, a closed metro station and the entrance to a multi-storied shopping center around. The bus stops were both a level above and a level below – it was not clear to me where to go.

I went into an empty shopping center, where the lights were dim, the doors to the shops were closed and taped with yellow tape, people were somehow chaotically wandering around, and the same alarming announcement was on repeat. It looked rather like a post-apocalypse…

Fortunately, I managed to connect to Wi-Fi and build a route home. But the stop was still at an unknown level, and I asked people around who informed me in an alarming voice that the buses were no longer operating due to the protests nearby. To my naive question, “How can I get out of here?” they just shrugged.

My brain began to draw scary pictures, but I hastened to get out of the web of overpasses and closed doors. I wanted to walk a couple of stops ahead, hoping that the bus stopped there. The only way out was through the mall. I followed well-dressed guys who were also clearly looking for an exit. It was impossible to see what was happening outside, as there were closed shops along the entire perimeter. Eventually, we got to the escalators that led down to the exit…

Step by step I approached the light… no, instead there were dozens, maybe hundreds of people in black T-shirts and respirators blocking the light. Firemen walked somewhere between them. There were skyscrapers and flyovers all around.

The only street went straight, my bus went along it, I had to go along it too, but it was blocked from my side by the protesters!

I still hoped that I could just walk past them further down the street, but that was not the case. Looking closely, I saw that part of the street was completely empty, and that a very large army of policemen was standing far ahead on the other side. Imagine this: I am in a bright yellow suit between protesters and an army of policemen going to look for my bus. Absurd, of course. I didn’t go anywhere, but for a couple of seconds, together with those guys, I looked around to understand where to run…

Nothing seemed to be happening, but that was clearly the calm before the storm. This was the case when intuition and subconscious worked more clearly and faster than usual. I analyzed dozens of scenarios in a minute. There was tension in the air. People around were talking, some were sitting and watching those who were in the forefront.

I remember the mixture of insecurity, calmness and fear in the eyes of the protesters. They were all very young, many did not want to be there – this was evident from the detachment in their eyes and the obvious body language: they sat sideways or even almost with their backs to the main activists, as if they were preparing to escape from there.

I was torn apart by curiosity and my self-preservation instinct. I wanted to stay, film all this and just watch – the picture was very impressive. But of course, the consequences of such curiosity could be sad. I decided to leave. I went back, not inside, but around the mall to find a way around it. There were three levels of flyovers and there were still a lot of people in black, there was no way out.

Some kind of suspicious movement began behind me, the rumble of voices was alarming, I walked faster. Ahead, I noticed those same guys, they were moving confidently towards the overpasses. Shouts were heard from behind, I turned around, and someone, looking at me, shouted in English, “Run!” And I ran.

Right near the overpass, I saw a road that went behind the building to the right and was supposed to be our way out of the danger zone. We climbed over a barricade of bags, tires, bicycles, and furniture and turned into a parallel street. Only one row of buildings separated us from the crowd. But there was another problem: there was a river ahead and it was necessary to cross the bridge. That was where my cherished bus stop was supposed to be.

And now, coming close to the crossroads, I saw a closed gate of a small square. It linked us to the bridge and to that very street with the protesters and the police. Slogans, claps and shouts started to sound. I looked at the closed gate and thought, “How strange, how did the water get into my nose? Maybe I had a flu? It was stinging inside.” A girl came out from behind the buildings that separated us from the crowd, and gave me a wet tissue. She told me: “Put it to the nose, they are using the gas.”

“Holy shit!” I thought, and with a brisk step I walked in the opposite direction, just to get away from all this. It got really scary.

There were almost no people around. Then I saw a bus stop, a bunch of people trying to leave, cars being turned around by the police. I kept walking. Judging by the map, there was another metro station nearby. I asked the locals if it was open. Yes! It was open. In total, I walked for about an hour.

In the metro, everyone was warned that 3 or 4 stations along the way would be closed. When we passed the very station from which I ran away, the train was passing above, and the very crowd was perfectly visible. It was like watching the news, but only from the window. Not bad.

I stayed alive and well, got home and cooked buckwheat for my hosts.

The next day, Zoinho finally returned to Hong Kong and I went to meet her!

Instrutora Zoinho – Hong Kong

***

A Filipina with an American accent who grew up in Asia, spent her youth in the UK, and who fell in love with and absorbed Brazilian culture so much that she became a source of it for her students in Hong Kong, the uncatchable Zoinho.

When I came to Hong Kong for the first time, she was celebrating her birthday in the Philippines. When I came for the second time, she was somewhere in the United States for a capoeira seminar with almost the entire capo-crowd from Hong Kong. However, my patience paid off and I met her. This was my last day in Hong Kong. She landed at 6 in the morning and went to work, and then gave a capoeira class in the evening. This’s impressive!

Zoinho suggested that I stay with her in the first 10 minutes of our WhatsApp conversation (oh capoeira, thank you for that!). I did so. I came to her in the evening before the class with my three suitcases. I tried to come by foot but gave up 5 minutes later when I realized I had to climb 300 meters of a very steep hill, got sweaty and out of breath…. I caught a taxi hoping I would have enough cash to pay for it. When I arrived, I met Zoinho and her friend, also a capoeirista, Emily, but from a different group. Later, I learned that Emily was supposed to move to London, but decided to stay to support Zoinho during a seminar that took place a week after my departure.

I left my bags at home, attended the class, met her students, and then her student gave us a ride back home.

In one evening with Zoinho, I heard and learned so much about her life, about her history in capoeira, that I couldn’t remember everything. This meeting was special. Firstly, Zoinho was the first female capoeira coach that I had talked to during my travels, who after the move to another country continued to practice capoeira and opened her own group.

Secondly, and even more importantly, she knew my master, Papa-Leguas, much longer than I did and could tell a lot about his years in England. And she did. My first message to the master was: “I met Zoinho, she is amazing. Thank you, mestre, for giving us so many topics for conversation.”

In short, we were on the same wave with her and could hardly lay ourselves to sleep, because chatting with her was much more interesting.

I flew away the next morning, having arranged an interview with her on Skype.

I was in Hong Kong in October 2019, and the interview with Zoinho took place in April 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, when everyone was at home and Zoinho was no exception.

Conversation with Instutora Zoinho

Curiosa: Tell me more about your background: where are you from? What did you do before you started capoeira?

Zoinho: I am from the Philippines; I was born in the USA but my family moved back to Manila where I lived until I finished high school. I did a lot of sports when I was younger but nothing like capoeira. I did concur jumping and represented Philippines in competitions. I was on a football team and did a lot of sports at school because I wanted to travel with a special program for athletes.

Then I went to a university in the UK where I hardly did any sports, I was going out a lot and was literally just a club kid for a few years. I went to the gym once so often.

I was in the music industry; once I finished university, I moved back to Philippines, worked in media and was partying professionally almost every single night. That lifestyle wasn’t so great and I was burned out. Then I moved back to the UK to do my master’s degree in Public Relations and to start my life all over again. I moved to Manchester only because my boyfriend at that time was there – “Complete mistake” – I was in the bottom of the barrel; nothing was going well. I knew nobody there, but it was the time when I remembered one girl from a Brazilian Musical Band who kept telling me about capoeira. I kept saying that I would try but never did.

So, I found myself in this situation in England and decided to give it a try. I sent a few emails and found out there were only 2 groups in Manchester at that time. I got a lovely message from Parente and thought, “Ok, he’s the one.”

Curiosa: So, what year was it?

Zoinho: In 2008. I started capoeira in my early 20s; that’s why I have such happy memories of my first capoeira years: I was young, I was nimble and all things my body was able to do! It was a good thing to find it, I think, for it changed my life.

Curiosa: For how long had you been doing capoeira before you moved to Hong Kong?

Zoinho: Crazily it was only for three years! Actually, at that stage, I was away from Parente and my group for longer than I was there.

Curiosa: So, did you move to the Philippines or directly to Hong Kong?

Zoinho: I moved back to Asia. I wasn’t just ready to leave England, but I couldn’t renew my visa, I didn’t have any plan or any job prospects. I had some money saved up, so I settled all my stuff at home and went to Brazil. I had planned to stay there until my money ran out which I thought would be in about six months. But the exchange rate was so bad, and I had gone there around Carnival time when all prices were through the roof, so it lasted only for 2.5 months! Then I had to return to Asia to live with my parents until I found a job!

This living arrangement lasted about six months, then I ended up in Hong Kong.

Curiosa: What was the situation with capoeira back than in Hong Kong?

Zoinho: Back then it was really just starting out. There were three groups at that time: a small Capoeira Brasil group, Capoeira Camara, also a really small group, and a guy from what used to be Axé Capoeira but he’d left the group. That was it.

We were struggling to put up rodas at that time because there were not enough people who played music. I came with just three years of experience; and surprisingly, I was one of the better ones and I was pretty bad actually back then.

Curiosa: How is the situation now? Are there more groups? Are they bigger now?

Zoinho: Definitely. We had really good dynamics and a lot of groups popped up. We all are relatively small though which in a way is good because we are more motivated to work together and collaborate. We support each other’s rodas and events. It’s nice because we see that a lot of groups are doing well. There are also more advanced students now and they are contributing more.

In the beginning, it was harder also because there were not any Brazilian teachers here. There was an Australian and a Canadian guy. I am not discounting at all their skills, they obviously could speak Portuguese and they brought a lot knowledge with them, but it really is kind of different. The dynamics change when you do have a few more Brazilians who can help to lift everyone up with all the music and the cultural side of things. Luckily, we had a few Brazilian teachers who have moved here in the last few years and it really has helped. They come to all events and give a lot of support. I think we are pushing each other a lot. I just think about the events that I was running – they just couldn’t happen without the other groups. My group is far too small.

Curiosa: It’s great to hear that you work together like this.

Yes, working together is the way it grows!

And I think that starting CDO here was a good thing because we were neutral. You know what I mean? There were other groups here that didn’t communicate with each other before I arrived, but then they were young guys, a typical kind of man, kind of Brazilian-macho-culture, sort of “We have not talked with each other for ten years.” And we were a young group with a woman who had no attitude.

For me honestly there was never such thing as ego either: there are people who don’t come to my events or rodas – I don’t get bothered – I still always invite them, I don’t take it personally.

We brought Mestre Parente here first. I was actually in partnership with Capoeira Brasil, yes, I almost forgot that Mestre Joa was still here when I came. She was the only Brazilian teacher here at that time, it’s been a long time since she has left. She is an amazing female capoeirista; she moved back to Brazil not long after I came. She was the first person who kind of worked with me to do workshops here. She knew I was Parente’s student, and I had a really good relationship with him, with Papa and everybody. So, her take was, “If you want to organize something, we could do something.” I think I spoke about it so much that she could see I missed my group so much. That started it.

So then with Mandinga group we brought Mestre Marcelo Caveirinha. It was the first workshop where actually every single group showed up including the guys who hadn’t spoken in ten years. I was a little nervous because they all came into the room and… You know one of those tense moments, I wasn’t sure they were all going to come, but I could see that when the guys from Axé came and Capoeira Camara came, there was a little bit of a quiet pause and I thought they would either ignore each other the whole time or would have a fight in roda or that maybe somebody would hopefully break ice. But luckily everybody started shaking hands; it was rather nice.

Curiosa: How did you start teaching?

Zoinho: It was more out of necessity rather than anything else. I am obviously very biased being in Cordão de Ouro. What we do is just so different. The essence of our capoeira is different. I got a lot out of training with other groups here. Historically, I have always been very close to Capoeira Brasil, they gave me a home to train when I first came here. And for the first three years in Hong Kong, I trained with them, but I always maintained connection being a Parente’s student, they are my family. And I was going back to England a lot because after a period of time, I felt there was something missing for me with regards to where I wanted to go with capoeira. And I realized that if I wanted to go down this root, I can’t rely on the Capoeira Brasil guys to take me there. I realised that it was the next step that I had to take.

I went to Brazil with Parente; I spent a month with him. And after returning to Hong Kong, I became so depressed, having been so inspired again, I was so in love with capoeira again, with the vibe of the rodas, with the music we were learning, with the fire of the group. I couldn’t continue without feeling that feeling, so I spoke to Parente about it and asked for his opinion and advice.

He said that I was ready. And that I didn’t have to start a group right away, that I could start training, so I could do what I wanted to do and get people to start training with me. That’s literally how it started. My ex-boyfriend, who at that time was in CDO, along with 2 other friends, who were training with Capoeira Brasil that were also from CDO, decided that they wanted us to train together. I then informed Capoeira Brasil people that I wanted to organize CDO training sessions where I’d give some real CDO sequences. So, this initiative was started with a help of my friends. Once a week, we would meet and train in the government’s sports center. Later on, I decided to bring some other people in, the next thing I knew, we were having some beginners and had formed a group.

Curiosa: Nice.

Zoinho: Indeed, a few years ago, the same year that Parente visited, we were handing out the first green belts. This occurrence was very unexpected, but welcomed, considering… I think of all the things we managed to do together… Especially given that I still have a day job.