Happy Holidays! With the season now upon us, have you found something for everyone on your list? Yes, you say? Oh, except for one person, you say? That one person for whom you have no idea what to get, except maybe something to do with that crazy Brazilian capo-whatsit they do because it’s all they ever talk about? Well, look no further! Even if they already have copious amounts of abadas, t-shirts, street wear, and DVDs, by the end of this post, you’ll have a handy list of ideas for what to get for the capoeirista in your life (or, as a treat, for the capoeirista in you)!
1. A Book about Capoeira
If a capoeirista isn’t thirsting for water after a hard day’s workout, they’re probably thirsting for more knowledge about capoeira. Believe me, learning about it beyond moves and techniques adds infinitely to your experience of practicing capoeira. A good place to start would be Nestor Capoeira’s The Little Capoeira Book, or Capoeira: Roots of the Dance-Fight-Game (Newsflash! –> A second edition of Little Capoeira Book comes out this Boxing Day!). For those already with some base in the knowledge, history, or philosophy of capoeira, consider A Street-Smart Song: Capoeira Philosophy and Inner Life, by the same author. Note that these books are about capoeira-its history, philosophy, relevance, social implications, role in society, growth, development, key figures, ideals-and not principally written in order to teach the reader how to do capoeira. Although there are books out there that focus on the latter, I would say books such as Nestor Capoeira’s are a better choice, as presumably the capoeirista is already learning moves from their academy classes, and the style of movements in a particular book may not match the style of the student’s grupo, so it might not be very practical for everyday training. Of course, an exception to this is when the technique book has been authored by your grupo, as recently became the case for anyone in Capoeira Brasil. Still, a book like this would mostly be ideal for someone dedicated enough to use it in addition to the training they already get within class.
2. This Book about Capoeira
I highly recommend Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form, by Bira Almeida (Mestre Acordeon), and don’t think the recipient already owning one of the books recommended above should bar you from getting them this one, which is why I listed it as a separate item. As someone put it to me, this book is a “friendlier read” than Nestor Capoeira’s work (though I have only read Roots and a bit of Street-Smart Song to date, so I’m basing my opinion off that), more unassuming and with less of a bias/agenda showing throughout the writing. There are some beautiful stories in here, as well as good writing and a generous helping of song lyrics and their (English) translations, which helps with the Portuguese!
3. Capoeira Music
Nothing helps with learning a song more than being able to listen to it over and over (and over and over and over) again in one’s own home or car. (And if the CD comes with a booklet of lyrics, even better!) If the person you are thinking of already owns all your grupo’s CDs, help to expand their horizons and get them a CD recorded by another mestre or grupo. Or if you’re in a regional group, you could get them a CD from an angola group, and vice versa. Alternatively, the person might enjoy some Brazilian dance (e.g. samba, xaxado, coco de roda) or general Brazilian music (e.g. Sergio Mendes, Caetano Veloso) instead!
4. Capoeira Artwork
On a list floating around the Internet titled “You know you’re capoeira-crazy when…”, one of the listed criteria was “…when all your hard drive space is used up because all of the capoeira pics and videos.” Well, there’s a reason for that! Whether it’s printed onto our clothes, sketched inside our notebooks, inked into our skin, or floating across our computer monitors, we just seem to want to soak up capoeira wherever we go! With that, a nice painting or drawing of an image or scene to do with capoeira would be ideal for anyone who is into the sport. (Warning: You may want to hold off of any life-sized portraits of people unless you know the person is that devoted to a particular figure…)
5. Make It Personal
If you want to make someone really happy, give them something to do with their apelido. It can be as loud and clear as a stuffed animal for Gato, or as subtle as a charm-embellished notebook for Mariposa. Artwork would be a hit in this case, too. We all fail what my friend christened the “capoeira nerd test” at some level, and getting a thrill out of anything that highlights our personal capoeira identities is just one great way to do it!
6. Teach Them Something You Can Do
Offer to spend a day or several sessions solely helping someone learn or perfect one of their goals that you’ve achieved and would be able to help them with. A cool floreio movement might be ideal for this. Alternatively, you could help them with learning songs, or music. Offer to teach them how to play the pandeiro or atabaque, how to arm and play a toque on the berimbau, or teach them more advanced rhythms and variations on any of the instruments. This gift is useful, long-lasting, hopefully will be paid forward, and would definitely be greatly appreciated (I know I’ve been dying to learn how to play maculele on the atabaque since forever, and the first person to successfully guide me into a correct au amazonas will be my god[dess]).
7. Portuguese for Dummies
This one is pretty self-explanatory! Any Portuguese-learning book, even a good Portuguese-English/English-Portuguese dictionary, will eventually become useful for anyone who wants to seriously pursue capoeira into higher and higher levels-or anyone who just wants to know exactly what it is they’re belting out loud in front of 30 people every roda!
8. A Holiday Rasteira (alternatively, a Festive Vingativa or Yuletide Tesouro)
Because that’s the greatest gift of all-learning from experience!
Picture Source: http://www.cdol.co.uk/homepage_gfx/bbc_ident.jpg
In any case, the bottom line seems to be the need for constant thinking in the roda, whether it’s evaluating the immediate past, analyzing the present, or synthesizing information to use in the immediate future. It’s not enough to just react instinctively to each separate action of your opponent, with knee-jerk reflexes (although being able to do so probably helps), without fitting your (and maybe their) movements into the larger picture of the game…organizing them, I suppose.
Have you ever seen something happen, take hold, and spread as you helplessly looked on, thinking, “Something has gone very wrong here”?
The green Brazilian flag. The black African slaves. The orange of a rising sun. You cherish your corda–train with it, don it before every class, and no matter what you tell people, at some level you aspire for the next one; but do you know exactly what you’re wearing around your waist when you tighten that hand-dyed knot?
Mandingueira 
