Firstly, thanks.

Thanks to Mestre Boneco for coming out to Australia for our batizado. It really meant a lot to us. Not only did we get a chance to meet and get to know you better, learn from your extensive experiences, we also got your blessing in the form of a recognition of our skills and commitment and validation of the group. This is no doubt, the first of many great batizados you will supervise from our quality group.

Thanks to Professora Potiguara, for taking the step and organising the batizado for us. Thanks for believing in us, and for giving us the confidence to learn more, to play more. I know that Capoeira isn’t about the colour chord you wear, but our batizado is about the recognition of all the hard work we have done, plus it really does feel good to get a new chord. I’m pretty sure I speak for all here.

I have heard many a master say (Mestre Boneco included) that as you learn more in Capoeira, you realise how much you still have to learn. The first step of course, is realising that this is true in life as well, not just in the roda. I now understand more about what this means, from listening to Mestre Boneco in the workshops, from training with my new chord and from reflecting on the batizado.

I once saw a Capoeira game between Mestre Boneco and Mestre Curumim. The anticipation, as a relative beginner, of watching these two great Capoeiristas go at it with amazing kicks, flips, twists, strength, agility etc was met with a game that even more impressive than all of that. In the entire game, not one kick was kicked, not one flip was flipped, in fact the most complicated move I saw was a ginga switch, and it was not a short game. This has impressed me for a number of years now, but I have finally understood why.

It takes decades to get to the stage where you can go into a roda and just ginga.

There is no way a beginner could enter a roda and not do anything, but Mestre Boneco can! We start with nothing, and we slowly build up our skills, adding kicks, acrobatics, movements, takedowns, etc. The next stage is using all the movements we know in appropriate places sand circumstances until we have mastered the movements and the art of Capoeira. Finally, the minimalist emerges. This is pure art, once you have mastered your particular art, you can start exploring just what you can accomplish with less and less, but only once you know all the fundamentals and complexities. The minimalist movement in art includes some of the most talented and technically gifted artists. The real skill is seeing what you can do without all of that. Minimalist painters know this when they paint a black square canvas. Authors know this when their book is finished, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be taken out. Poets know this when they write a haiku. Musicians know this when they write a song with one note (or even no music).

Less is more

Those who know nothing try to do everything, and those who know everything try to do nothing. A beginner in a roda will try doing all their moves that they know all at once, a Master will do the opposite, they will try and complete as many things as possible with the fewest movements.

I am nowhere near this stage, I am still developing my game, I still have many movements to learn, my technique is not perfect, and I have along way to go before it is. The point of this realisation, is that I now know what I am aiming for. I have a long term Capoeira goal. I know what kind of Capoeirsta I want to be, and will be. Not only has this cemented a long term goal, it has changed my short term goal. I will now try as hard as I can to know when to apply the right movement. The technique of the perfect rasteira is the first step in know exactly when not to apply the perfect rasteira!

So watch out in the roda, I will be trying to do less and less!