Queda de rins

Damn queda de rins.
It's portuguese and means 'fall on kidney', which is a capoeira move appropriated by the breakdance scene. I used to love queda de rins, especially on the right hand side as my right arm is a lot stronger.

Here's me doing a version of it back in the day when I was a b-girl. All the weight is on the right hand/wrist which is tucked into your kidney area, hence fall on kidney.


BUT

During the first part of the year my fabulous teacher Lorem got us doing queda de rins flips, where the legs flip over from the front to the back, and since then my wrist has been rather unhappy. A strange design the old wrist; lots of little bones nestled in together with tendons and twisting forearm bones - it's a bit of an intersection.

In my case the intersection is jammed, and I've been having a lot of pain lately, which is bad because my right hand is essentially my shoe making hand. Even though I am left handed, I'm a bit of an ambidextrous gal, and my left hand is only really used for writing. My right has always been stronger, and I use it for everything else.

This week I'm finally tackling some tango shoes for my pal Helen, and so far I can't believe how much everything hurts! Hand-skiving - ouch, using pincers - ouch, hammering - ouch, also my evening pastime, beloved crochet - ouch. Glad I'm not lasting 8 pairs of shoes per day. Can't take anti-inflammatories when pregnant either.

So queda de rins, I used to love you, but now I'm not sure that I could ever do one again. This ol' wrist of mine can't take the weight. Must be getting old.....boo hoo!

Listening to: Boa Voz - Porque Sera

Taskmaster Lorem

My feet are bruised, my wrist is strained, my legs are heavy.
Ran 10kms on Sunday, smelling the freshly cut fennel along the train line, feeling pretty good until 8kms when my rhythm started to go. Had to really concentrate, it was a case of mind over matter.

Have been at capoeira training Monday and Wednesday, and am feeling a few niggling injuries which I hope don't turn into anything more serious. That's the killer with training towards a goal, maybe you'll get injured or over train and completely lose the plot before d-day. My day in question is the 28th June, when I'm hoping to run 10kms in the fest that is Run Melbourne.

Lorem is going to Europe for a few weeks, so I've been getting as much training in with him as I can, and last night I started to feel that the more I learn about Capoeira, the less I know. Sometimes the flow just won't come, and last night was one of those occasions.

Need a big rest, maybe a massage, definitely a night on the couch drinking cups of tea.

Listening to: Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut

Jam packed day

Well I have crossed a few things off the list today, but it took me so much longer than normal. I lasted these uppers, it usually takes an hour, but with all my visitors, and amazing conversations it took me about three times as long.

Plus I kept going out on the fire escape to use my stinky glue, and then the door closed and I was stuck outside, so I had to go down all the stairs and around the block and come back in the front door, I'm sure Kim and Rose in front of house wondered if I was an escape artist!

Thanks Pene for the delivery of Haigh's treats, and to Nella for all her laughing, such a great sound, I have been cracking jokes just to hear her laugh.


The gallery has serious mood lighting, hence the darkness of my photos.



Speaking of lighting, get thee to the Klippel show at the NGV, a visitor who dropped by yesterday urged me to go, and it's amazing. The first room, above, is very dark, with what appears to be hundreds of tiny colourful maquettes made of found objects, bits of detritus and metal scraps, all housed in subtly lit cases. Mr Klippel's son, who is a composer, has produced an accompanying score, which makes some of the maquettes vibrate ever so slightly. My Leo would love to get his hands on them, he would probably pull them apart and re-figure them in his Lego-esqe way.


The second room is hardcore, and you need to prepare your eyes before you enter. The entire ceiling is one huge light, and the whole space is the brightest white you will ever see. Similarly there are a lot of cases housing maquettes, but these are all bronze, and so the shapes become much more obvious as they are silhouetted against the starkness of the room. There is a combination of really delicate with blunt, as the above photo shows.

It really is a clever exercise in contrast, completely opposite moods to display works which are quite similar. And it's free, and you can take photos.

To cap my busy day off, I went to a Salon discussion at the CAE City Library, about Craft and Design, where a few different makers and curators were talking about the 'intersections and connections between design and craft practices'.

Phew, it's been a barmy week and there is still more to go, tomorrow I'll be working away till three and then jetting over to the museum for the tail end of another Craft and Design as a Career seminar. These are always worth attending, and tend to sell out, so put it in your calendar for next August.

And there is a mini capoeira festival this weekend, with workshops from two different styles of capoeira. I am worn out already but will be learning some Capoeira Angola moves on Saturday afternoon. Then I'll probably collapse in theatrics.

Northside Muzenza

Yes indeed folks, we are teaching capoeira in Brunswick! Ever since I moved to Melbourne 10 years ago I have lived in or adjacent to Brunswick, and am very excited to be able to ride my bike 5 mins to class.

If you can't read the fine print details are as follows:
Arroz and myself, Maria Trovao are teaching beginners capoeira
7:30 - 9 pm at The Playspace
290 Albert St Brunswick,
which is between Sydney Rd and the Safeway carpark.

Separate identities

A quick hello to say that I have a new blog which is strictly for capoeira, Muzenzamelbourne. It's such a big part of my life, so I think it deserves top billing, and not having to share the limelight with all this shoe/fashion/art business.
Hope you'll visit!

1st Muzenza Batizado

Well I said it would be a big week, which was true indeed, it was exhausting, a bit emotional and I definitely feel very much like I am a member of a great family.
During the week we started each class with music, lots of Ginga Mundo students keeping us company and celebrating Melbourne capoeira with us. On Wednesday we had a workshop with Professor Vira Lata from Ginga Mundo, a lot of students crammed into the studio, but the Brazilians always remind us that "in my country you have to fight for your space every class".

Friday was amazing in that Australians were doing capoeira on Friday night, not at the pub! And our Muzenza pants arrived just in time, fresh whites are always so good. Mestre Cicatriz from Sydney's Associacao Sinha Bahia de Capoeira gave a regional workshop focusing on armada, check out his kick below. He is so softly spoken and shy, has been playing for 26 years, has got awesome control and precision, and is so humble, it was so good for him to share his skills with us. (Check out Animacao giving thumbs up in this photo!)



Everyone hard at work.


Saturday our Batizado was held in Brunswick at the Playspace, for me it was so good to ride my bike for less then 10 mins to get there, I am a Northsider for sure! The studio was beautiful and has such a great floor, a strict no shoes policy which meant we had clean hands for a change!

Contra-Mestre Borracha from Sydney's Capoeira Acre led the warmup, which included a wheelbarrow walk in pairs across the room, a great way to break the ice. Then we were introduced to Mestre Goioere from Muzenza in Perth, who had flown all night to be with us. He is 2 or 3 times World Capoeira Champ, and is also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. His workshop had simple elements but was complex in arrangement, different ways of putting it all together which had us all guessing. Beleza!

We then worked in pairs practicing takedowns, namely vingativa, tesoura and how to escape. Thanks to Simon from Canberra who repeatedly landed on his ass in the demonstrations.
Here is Boomi and Mestre Goioere.


Everyone got their new t-shirts and had a rest, it looks like we are on Capoeira Camp in this photo!


I didn't take any photos of the presentations, there will be ample footage getting around soon. It was quite emotional watching everyone receive their belts, finally finding out how we all did in the written test, and then playing all the Mestres, including Gingaginha the Angoleiro. Mostly they put us on our collective ass for the afternoon, pants not so white now!

We were there for about 6 hours in total, hands completely red from so much clapping, pandeiro playing and fierce berimbau action. Boomi and I received yellow/orange cords, which was one better than I thought I was getting, I'm glad I shared it with her, bless you Boomi! Also especially glad that Canela is finally officially down with our posse, that Valerio/Duende came to play (good to see you Val) and what a revelation to see Marco in white with his shoes off. I actually prefer him in his street clothes, which show his personality more than whites.

Yay Arroz getting his 5th belt, and a super surprise for Pantera, my capoeira buddy from way back, getting her 6th belt, truly well deserved for the 2 (or 3) of them! Pantera sang some great songs including Chama Yo Yo, and after the rhythm got into a frantic Sao Bento Grande pace it was capped off with some Samba de Roda, Garoa and Canela showing us how to shake that booty!

I was quite moved to recognise that it wasn't just us students cementing our appreciation and love of capoeira, but it was our whole school, and particularly Lorem. He is such a dynamic young man, (when I found out what year he was born in I burst out laughing, he really is young), he has really inspired us, and we all feel very strongly about wanting to train with him and be part of his Melbourne family.
It was amazing to see all the Mestres, Contra Mestres and Professors supporting him and celebrating his achievements in starting and sustaining our school, may this be the first of many Melbourne Batizados, Viva Lorem!


Sunday the Brazilians were late to Elwood Park, my boy Leo and I didn't mind, we were at the playground till everyone arrived. We couldn't stay long, but managed to see a creative capoeira hack game, check out Fominha in action. Mestres Goioere and Cicatriz provided gorgeous rhythms on the atabaques, we were musing that all parks should have drums installed.

It was a great way to finish off the week, the end of summer, and a new posse of Muzenza capoeiristas.

We came, we saw, we conquered

We were told we had an endurance test, no clues, no venue, some of us no sneakers, no breakfast, meeting at 10 am on Sunday in Richmond. Apparently it was meant to take us 25 mins to get to the secret location, in real time with plenty of roadwork detours it took an hour, destination Mt Dandenong, poor Formiginha and Pular Muita squished in the back with my son's carseat!

So the task turned out to be a brisk climb up the 1000 Steps Kokoda Memorial trail, very slippery and steep, too busy concentrating on the steps too look at the beautiful ferns. At the top we jogged uphill and then down, Lorem scampering along in his half jog, half fast walk, like a monkey on a mission. The loop was about 800 mtrs, and we did it 6 times in total. It was worth the uphill to get to the breezy downhill, the wet clear air, fragrant in a way that is incredibly nutritious, and good for the soul.

After some stretching and a strange ear massage/torture session from Arroz, for dessert we had 240 x 2 push ups, 240 x 2 tricep dips, and 240 x 2 situps. All in a days' work! Formiginha then declared that he felt fit, which was endlessly amusing, and at the bottom of the hill we congratulated ourselves with some rousing speeches.

The best part was the tiny Ferntree Gully market on the way home, we stopped off and got delicious apples, raspberries, fresh nori rolls and cakes, the perfect rewards for our efforts.
It took us hours longer then expected but was well worth it, hey we're worth it, and lets hope that there are many more!

I though that my knees would seize up yesterday afternoon, but I pushed through with some late afternoon gardening, and today am surprisingly still able to walk. The hip flexors are a bit twangy, and I'm sure that tomorrow I will be bed ridden.

It's a big week, workshops, hopefully a kick ass music session on Wednesday, last week I finally figured out how to play berimbau and sing, what joy! On Saturday our Batizado is in Brunswick, 12pm at the Playspace on Albert St, so expect to see a lot more pics this week. Energia!

Bruised

Lorem, our teacher, guru and fearless leader, Batatinha and Lua Branca on the atabaques.
Sushi, Garoa, Torrada, Cabeca, Babalu and Olho de Mel playing Angola rhythm on the berimbaus.
Arroz, Lua Branca and Boomi, blurred hands working hard.

Another Wednesday class, full of uplifting music and singing, and people concentrating so hard that they make strange faces on the instruments. Some new songs, a tricky one that sounded a bit bogus, but there were a few that we nailed quite well.

This one is getting better -
Tiririca tucum e navalha
Jogo de Santa Maria
A mandinga nao falha
A mandinga nao falha

Then acrobatics, I am always dreading it a bit as I have a few gaps in my acrobatic experience. Never know what to expect, if it's au (cartwheels) then I am OK, but we did some queda de rins exercises; meia lua de compasso into a kind of au queda de rins, flip the legs over one way, and then back the other way. Lots of grunting, falling to the floor with audible thumps, wrists giving way and red faces due to holding of the breath.

Must sound completely confusing, especially as (presumably)not all of you are fluent in Portuguese. At some point I landed extra heavily on the ball of my right foot, which has now resulted in a gnarly bruise all over the inside edge of that foot, tres attractive!

The roda was a real task, Lorem wanted me to play 20 times, to work hard, which meant I had to forget about playing the instruments or leading the singing. I think I ended up playing 10 times, must have played everyone there, Lorem mentioned that my ginga was missing so I played 2 games of straight up ginga, which was quite relaxing and peaceful. A valuable lesson learned.

So many facets to this capoeira, and its hard to work on one when they are all so important. Right now I think my stamina needs a boost, I feel I am lugging around a few extra kilos. I'm blaming it on the recent birthday which involved a lot of cake!

O Meu Deus!

Am staggering around with a sore body, training has well and truly resumed!

One of the reasons I love capoeira so much is that it's a whole body workout, but when you've been out of the loop even for a week it's agony at first.

We have our Batizado, which is a grading and celebration of achievements and progress, on the 1st of March, so it's full steam ahead, and I'm determined to work as hard as possible. Unfortunately the slightest injury can really set you back, so it's a fine line between working hard and working too hard.

On Wednesday we do music, acrobatics and a roda, it's always so inspiring to hear our voices together. With my child-bearing hips I often find acrobatics so difficult, but we did these awesome au walkovers (au is a cartwheel) which I can actually do! So I might practice those and add them to my repertoire.

Forearms are aching from the over exuberance in class, legs are dead, feet are punished, but I am so addicted!

So I'm trying to chase Leo around, grimacing a bit here and there, working on a few projects, compiling a never ending to do list which loks a bit like this:
- sample and instructions for Pip
- finalise patterns for cowhide project (more on this later)
- organise wedge soling for Hong Kong sandals
- wet mold insoles
- finish trainers
- assist my plants in their quest for moisture
- entertain Leo
- voraciously consume tennis and cricket results

Will let you know how it all goes, now where's my arnica cream?