The RHYTHM of playing

My teacher, Iuri, told me the other day that I played a good game (even though I got kicked and fell several times). He said that I got the "rhythm."

I didn't really notice this rhythm thing until Iuri made it clear to me. And then I saw it everywhere. Of course, capoeira is all about rhythms. We play the instruments with rhythms. We move our body with rhythms. But the rhythm that Iuri talked about was the moment-by-moment, back-and-forth interaction between the players in the roda--the flow of energy. It takes two to capoeira. This is so obvious, yet so easy to forget.

Onlookers of capoeira often take it to be a sort of dancing at first sight. Sure it looks festive. We sing, we play the instruments, and everybody seems to enjoy it very much. But it ain't dancing. It is fighting. It is making the fighting look good. No malicious kicking or grabbing. Little physical contact. We attack and escape and attack again and escape again. But it is crucial to do so beautifully. It is an art.

It is like a dialogue. You don't talk to yourself. You don't just listen either. You listen, and you talk, and you listen again and then you say something back again. Learning to capoeira is like learning to talk. You got to know when to say something, and you got to know what is appropriate to say. To beginners, this is often very hard. We often just listened and feared to speak. We are often afraid that we may say something stupid. Worse yet, we don't really know what to say. OR often times, we don't have a chance to talk at all. This happens when the more experienced person talks too much.

The nirvana of capoeira is reached when the Axe flows between the players, when the energy comes back and forth between them, and fills the roda. That is the rhythm of capoeira.