Saturday, April 10, 2010

Welcome to My Chicken Coop or "Capoeira" in Portuguese

It was advertised as the International Capoeira festival in Darling Harbour, running from 1-4 today so Clarebear and I wondered down on a gorgeous Autumn day in expectation of colour and dance and drums and samba and flags and all that is Brasil at its best.

Darling Harbour is one of those tourist spots that has a Convention and Exhibition centre, the Powerhouse Museum, The Maritime Museum, Sydney Aquarium and Australian Wildlife park (where the roos live on fake red dust) plenty of eateries and restaurants, some kitch shops where you can purchase your cork hats, bobble-headed kangaroos and digeridoos and an Imax theatre, plenty of buskers and 'spot the Aussie' - today it was totally packed with tourists. I mean, you'd never see an Aussie wearing a "Bondi" T shirt or socks with their sandals! There's little there to attract a local other than the overpriced restaurants. . .well there was the bridal expo but since neither of us have a potential groom, we dodged that one!

The 'festival' ended up being a Sydney capoeira school running their students through the ropes and awarding, well, 'ropes', to those who passed their levels. There were a couple of flags but the music was I have since learned very authentic and true and not a Samba to be seen!

Very interesting though and a great way to keep fit. Still, an excursion in the sunshine is an excursion in the sunshine.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music, and dance. It was created in Brasil by slaves brought from Africa, especially from present day Angola, sometime after the sixteenth century. With little contact, it's very controlled and slow and incredibly powerful. Although we both laid bets that now and then, a foot connects where it shouldn't! Apologies for the quality of the photos, the musicians were in the shade and the 'fighters' in brilliant white sunshine. Bit trixy.


Unfortunate camera angle! Caption that!


Hello boys!


We have lift off!

Being the shallow women that we are, we were hoping for a little more skin . .



33 comments:

  1. That video is really something. What incredible grace and control! I'd never heard of this, but wow...fantastic.

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  2. very cool. seems a really neat art form. i seem to remember it a few years back but never really saw it take off. sounds like a nice outing. either way. have a great one.

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  3. 9 year old Grandson has been going to Karate classes for 3 years now. He has two more belts to go before he makes it to Junior Black Belt. This may happen before he is 10. I will show him this video as soon as I get a chance and let him see what this style is about. I have not heard of it but I know there are many different styles out there.

    He trains with belts that are higher up then him and kids that are a lot older. But he has to tough it out if he wants to stay in. He does the Tae Kwon Do Karate and it focuses mostly on kicks. This was the type that was done during our last Summer Olympics and I think is the most popular style. Someone says this is the style used the most in the military. I held the pad once when he practiced his kicking and he almost always knocked me down. Pretty soon I will not be able to do this. That boy has some freaking strong legs and can even knock down some of the older kids. Some do not even want to fight him because as he is getting bigger he is getting stronger and he hurts when he kicks. I hope he always behaves when he gets bigger.

    Me, I just grab the grandsons ears and pull on them and then they all behave for me and they know better then to ever not behave. Okay, I just grab the ear and hold it, I think the fear of me pulling on it is enough and I tell them that no matter how big they get or how much they learn they will always have to behave. Plus for the one in Karate, I use the threat of telling his Master Instructor about him not behaving. Works like a charm. I will always take him to his classes when I am well enough and if not then hubby takes him. It is worth every penny to have a well behaved kid and maybe someday he will have to protect me.

    And yes, a little more skin to show off those great muscles would have been nice. Ooooh those are some mighty nice muscles in the video. Oh yeah!!!!

    God bless.

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  4. Interesting! I'd never heard of this before. Sounds like you had a great time.

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  5. Anonymous10:10 pm

    How come that you deleted your poo post?

    Today is a quite dark day to me. The Polish president and many polish leaders such as the First lady, Commander in Chief, head of the national Bank, Sejm members died in a plane crash in Russia. They went to commemorate the Katyin massacre. For me it is very shocking because Hungarians and Poles always had good relations and their president contributed a lot to good Polish-Hungarian relations which has been existing for 700 years. On the other hand I have a fear of airplanes so such news are quite shocking to me.

    I have heard about this sport but I have never tried it.

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  6. TOYBOYS and you never told me. :(

    It looks like you had fun.

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  7. See, whoever said that you can have TOO MUCH coffee?

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  8. I'll take anything in the sunshine and good company , good food and drink..Happy weekend kiddo ..send me a job across the seas.

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  9. Here's the caption: "Tickle, tickle."

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  10. neat stuff... seems related to a style called 'sabat'

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  11. The video is breathtaking. I'd never heard of capoeira either. And btw, re Darling Harbour, you never mentioned the wonderful Chinese garden....

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  12. mmmmm I LIKE it!

    have to go backward to Friday Fuckwit. heeeee

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  13. I wouldn't dare print the caption I thought of when I looked at your photo. It reminded me of those photos with unfortunate backgrounds. You know, the kind that something in the background made it look like it was growing out of the head of the subject.

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  14. i love your weekend fun posts...you sure do get around!

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  15. Why is every bone in my body aching after watching those supple moves*!*

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  16. I'm afraid to caption "that." That is a great vid. Such a graceful and powerful art form.

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  17. tee hee hee such a funny first picture, we're oh so immature eh?!

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  18. Anonymous11:54 am

    Baino you are a true tonic. Every time I visit here I'm either laughing out loud or smiling at what you evoke. This one's no different.
    I wish more could have your ability to be so personally sardonic-minded sometimes. Some take themselves so feckin' serious.

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  19. Anonymous4:36 pm

    Ah the human body can be so beautiful, particularly as I've just finished the Sunday papers full of articles on obesity with all those below the head shots.Nice to see this. Adelaide is a bit short on entertainment at the moment - send 'em over!!

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  20. Amazing - and caption... from me? No, can't think of a thing!!!! Watching all that exercise is making me ache - I'm going for a lie down!!!

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  21. makes me feel old and stiff
    great movement in these pics.

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  22. What fun! I wish I had been there.

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  23. I'm hurting just by watching! Ah, to be young again!

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  24. Looks like great fun!

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  25. Is it wrong that the pictures just made me laugh? Maybe I need some culture!

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  26. don't know where my comment has gone... :(

    anyway my caption was... 'what is that?'

    and i thought this was called break-dancing ;)

    love to you and thanks for the giggle
    x Robyn

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  27. That back flip / forward flip - whatever it is looks amazing!

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  28. I think you are cute Baino. I like to observe "stuff" from your angle.

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  29. Yay for excursions!

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  30. Some Incredible Sharp Photographs that keep bouncing off my monitor!

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  31. I've not seen this before but enjoyed the muscles!! Does take some talent doesn't it??

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  32. Well you certainly learn something every day. Until I met you I had never heard of "capoeira". You have widened my horizons indeed.

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