Читать книгу It’s capoeira between us. Conversations with capoeiristas. Part 1 - Natalia Korelina - Страница 3

What is capoeira? It is a large information field covering all inhabited continents of the Earth. Capoeira is the soul. Or does capoeira itself have a soul? I do not know. But when you connect to it, you feel oneness with everything around you, or at least, with those in your sight. This is such a natural, joyful feeling, one that I both love and treasure.

It is felt when you see a person for the first time, you look into each other’s eyes, shake hands, smile and start a dialogue without even saying a word; a few more strangers nearby are playing instruments, singing, clapping, watching your every move, but you are not scared at all, because you are at home.

Here is another one: you are in another city or country, you are taking the subway to a capoeira event, or you are walking down the street, looking for an entrance to the location, and then someone walks by with a four-strand bracelet on their backpack, and just by viewing that, you immediately become so calm and confident. You do not know the name of this person, but you know that you are family. You come up, smile, ask a question or ask for help, and they answer you, they help you.

Or you are passing through a foreign city, you do not know anyone, so you find a coach’s contact on the Internet; you introduce yourself and speak of your desire to meet and practice capoeira, and they offer you a stay at their home if you have not yet found an overnight stay.

Or when you meet up with a person once a year at seminars, but you have a feeling that during these times you have somehow become closer? This is a wow!

I would call all this a miracle, a utopia, a fairy tale, but no, it all happened to me and to many boys and girls around the world. And why? Because capoeira links us. It is between us when we are close, and when far away, it is always between us, if we choose it to be. Capoeira unites us, connects us to the information field, and we, without noticing, soon begin to add to and enrich this field ourselves.

Who teaches capoeira? What kind of people are they? In different parts of the world, they conduct their work, call themselves capoeiristas2, show ginga3, kicks and escapes, and explain the culture of exotic Brazil to their students. They were born and raised in different families, they belong to different cultures and social strata. They could have lived their entire lives on different continents, not knowing about each other’s existence! But no, once they drank from the source, they wanted to share their joy with others. And one day a leaflet from one of these people entered my life and landed on my table.

Then there I was, in capoeira. When I came to the first class, I didn’t really understand the world I had entered. But having entered this world, its art has influenced my life path in many ways.

Several times in my life, several persons have encouraged me to write a book about all my adventures, but it always seemed so pointless to me.

Сapoeira, to my surprise, gave meaning and impetus to this idea as well.

It happened in South Korea in 2019, as walked around a lake, in the mountains, early one morning. At that time, I had been practicing capoeira for only 4 years, and I could already speak Portuguese very well. I had already been to Brazil twice, as well as to Israel and many places in Russia.

While walking, I was thinking about all those people who showed capoeira to the world and brought it to different cities and countries. Some of them had already become living legends, while others were still young, but had already managed to leave their «fingerprints» in the history of capoeira.

I became anxious to learn more about them. I had an irresistible desire to talk to them personally, to learn their stories, their motives, in order to have a complete picture of capoeira the world over.

Capoeira has travelled beyond the borders of Brazil; it has fallen into the framework of other cultures, and has taken root in foreign mentalities. How did it happen? How has capoeira changed in these countries? What kinds of people choose capoeira in this or that country? What difficulties do coaches face? What do Brazilian masters think of capoeira being practiced outside of Brazil? These questions ignited my curiosity!

And it was on that morning, in South Korea, that I decided to write about these people and to share my work with the world.