sex and culture
I have been studying different world cultures since about 1998 with my involvement as a DJ on a World Music radio station. Shortly thereafter I began dancing Brazilian Samba, and in 2000 I began training the Afro-Brazilian martial art/dance called Capoeira. Such activities have allowed me to embrace the culture, and to become familiar with many facets of the lifestyle such as language, music, and social traditions. Because the primary emphasis in both Samba and Capoeira is on the body, its easy to overlook other cultural norms that come along with this. Due to sexual pressures and interpersonal dillemas resulting from such, I cut off my ties to various groups I had been involved with over the years. I decided to continue my practice of these Brazilian arts, but on my own for fitness, without a particular group identification.
When I moved to Israel, I began training Capoeira with Cordao De Ouro (my original group from 2000 to 2002) which gave me a familiar outlet in this strange country. The class was taught as a university recreation class, more of what I had been sticking to in recent years (like at SDSU) rather than a formal group with many events. Because of the university strike we stopped meeting on campus, and our training was more integrated with the high school level and younger kids' class. The kids are really good Capoeiristas and a lot of fun to be around, good energy. They have brought me joy, laughter, and a new element to my training = purity. This week we had our batizado/troca de cordoes, a semi-formal event where everyone advances to the next cord level, and spends the entire week together. I commented to some of the other university-level students that it was really different training with kids, because we are accountable to engage in different types of conversations and behaviors than if we were around all adults.
The other night we had a barbecue at the home of 3 of the kids (brothers and sister who all train with the group). We ate niknikiot - HOT DOGS inside of pitas, with the standard hummus and vegetables (Israeli-American crossover meal). Dror put on a CD of Forro music - a Brazilian country-style music with close, sexy "couples" dance - which no capoeira party is complete without. I had been longing for Forro, as some of my main friends in San Diego are in a Forro band which performs regularly at local Brazilian parties. I became disturbed when no one was dancing, and discovered that not only did no one know HOW to dance Forro, no one was even familiar with this music, other than that it was Brazilian, and kind of hokey. My first thought was: how can these people call themselves Capoeiristas without a first-hand understanding of other facets of Brazilian culture? The day before I discovered that the girls didn't even know the difference between Axe Bahia-style Samba and Rio-style Samba. I told Dror everyone needed to start dancing, because they were just sitting around. He said, "maybe later, we just ate". It took me a few days to understand what he meant.
Throughout the week I was baffled at how different this Batizado week was than those I had experienced in America and Brazil. While we had many workshops and group activities, the parties lacked the "Brazilian" flavor. I believed this was due to being in Israel, and I DID embrace the Israeli culture more than ever with this group (good for my Hebrew). I have grown to feel so comfortable with them, as this is the first group in 4 years that I have actually been able to identify myself as an official PART of. I even bought a pair of pants with the group name (a big step for me), and earned my next level cord with them - my first cord since 5 years, and my 3rd cord in my total 7 years of training. This Batizado week helped me recognize not only the familiar territory of group comraderie, training, and changing of the cords, but the cultural dimensions that come with the territory. Because of the special environment with the kids, and being in Israel rather than America or Brazil, there were no "other" pressures that I associate with the Capoeira culture. No close-dancing freaky Forro, no scantily-clad Samba gyrations, no Brazilian men all up on my business, no major focus on the human body, just a wholesome, pure, new childlike perspective on the arts and culture of Capoeira that I have loved for so many years. This has been a truly amazing and unique cultural learning experience, that I will take with me much more than my yellow-level cord.
When I moved to Israel, I began training Capoeira with Cordao De Ouro (my original group from 2000 to 2002) which gave me a familiar outlet in this strange country. The class was taught as a university recreation class, more of what I had been sticking to in recent years (like at SDSU) rather than a formal group with many events. Because of the university strike we stopped meeting on campus, and our training was more integrated with the high school level and younger kids' class. The kids are really good Capoeiristas and a lot of fun to be around, good energy. They have brought me joy, laughter, and a new element to my training = purity. This week we had our batizado/troca de cordoes, a semi-formal event where everyone advances to the next cord level, and spends the entire week together. I commented to some of the other university-level students that it was really different training with kids, because we are accountable to engage in different types of conversations and behaviors than if we were around all adults.
The other night we had a barbecue at the home of 3 of the kids (brothers and sister who all train with the group). We ate niknikiot - HOT DOGS inside of pitas, with the standard hummus and vegetables (Israeli-American crossover meal). Dror put on a CD of Forro music - a Brazilian country-style music with close, sexy "couples" dance - which no capoeira party is complete without. I had been longing for Forro, as some of my main friends in San Diego are in a Forro band which performs regularly at local Brazilian parties. I became disturbed when no one was dancing, and discovered that not only did no one know HOW to dance Forro, no one was even familiar with this music, other than that it was Brazilian, and kind of hokey. My first thought was: how can these people call themselves Capoeiristas without a first-hand understanding of other facets of Brazilian culture? The day before I discovered that the girls didn't even know the difference between Axe Bahia-style Samba and Rio-style Samba. I told Dror everyone needed to start dancing, because they were just sitting around. He said, "maybe later, we just ate". It took me a few days to understand what he meant.
Throughout the week I was baffled at how different this Batizado week was than those I had experienced in America and Brazil. While we had many workshops and group activities, the parties lacked the "Brazilian" flavor. I believed this was due to being in Israel, and I DID embrace the Israeli culture more than ever with this group (good for my Hebrew). I have grown to feel so comfortable with them, as this is the first group in 4 years that I have actually been able to identify myself as an official PART of. I even bought a pair of pants with the group name (a big step for me), and earned my next level cord with them - my first cord since 5 years, and my 3rd cord in my total 7 years of training. This Batizado week helped me recognize not only the familiar territory of group comraderie, training, and changing of the cords, but the cultural dimensions that come with the territory. Because of the special environment with the kids, and being in Israel rather than America or Brazil, there were no "other" pressures that I associate with the Capoeira culture. No close-dancing freaky Forro, no scantily-clad Samba gyrations, no Brazilian men all up on my business, no major focus on the human body, just a wholesome, pure, new childlike perspective on the arts and culture of Capoeira that I have loved for so many years. This has been a truly amazing and unique cultural learning experience, that I will take with me much more than my yellow-level cord.
posted by :: Lisa :: at 1:37 AM
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