It’s capoeira between us. Conversations with capoeiristas. Part 1

Curiosa: Or with a place or with a metro…

Diego: Whatever may be the case. It’s better that they continue training with someone else than stopping.

I mean in Shanghai, I had up to ten thousand students in ten years who have trained with me at least once. Everybody left Shanghai after a while (I am speaking about the expats) and for me the important thing is that they would continue to practice.

Curiosa: Is this a common experience with expats?

Diego: Yeah, it was tough. They were getting good and then they were leaving, they were getting good and then they were leaving. It’s frustrating but now…

Elisa (Diego’s wife): There were people who were coming and leaving but there was also a core group that was always there.

Curiosa: How did you both meet?

Diego: In Napoli, in the same university. We were not in the same class, but she was studying Chinese. After we met, in the same day, I said to her, “You know, tomorrow there will be a capoeira roda in the street.” So, I invited her to see a capoeira roda, but she didn’t go.

Elisa: I didn’t go.

Diego: And she didn’t go.

Elisa: I knew about capoeira, but I didn’t think of practicing.

Curiosa: How did the move to Shanghai come about?

Diego: I moved first, and then she moved a few months later and started capoeira a year later.

Elisa: At first, I was just going to the university classes to study Chinese but then I thought that I needed to do some sport. He was always going to the park, and I wanted to see what made it so interesting.

Curiosa: And now you are an instrutora?

Elisa: Yes.

Curiosa: Well done. Now back to Shanghai. Did you need to comply with an legal process to rent a space and teach?

Diego: No, in Shanghai you need nothing; you just teach. I paid the rent in cash at the time and I gave classes. Yeah, there was nothing to be done: no status, no registration, no association. Nothing, zero.

Curiosa: Did you have to advertise to attract more students?

Diego: In the beginning, there were just friends of friends that were coming. So, it was more of word-of-mouth advertising. Then of course, we had these magazines for expats where we posted our news. Then through this network… In the beginning it was an amazing network. Do you know that in 2016, during the World Cup, we were performing capoeira in the middle of the night when Brazil was playing? And we were doing capoeira in that place with the Brazilian community. We just had a lot of contacts!

Elisa: We also gave performances in local schools

Curiosa: Did you have children among your students?

Diego: Not in the beginning, but after, we did have classes for kids. My wife started to teach them; I taught a few classes only. But since the only day available was Saturday, she was teaching kids on Saturdays before our regular class. It still happens in Shanghai in the same format. But it was never for me to teach kids.

Curiosa: Capoeira Brasil is now in Shanghai. When they first arrived, did you communicate, did you get along?

Diego: There was Instructor Tanque, a really cool guy. I don’t remember which year they arrived in Shanghai, but I do know that I was a little worried or maybe even scared. But eventually they turned out to be very nice people, I never had any issues with them. I was going to their events and they were coming to ours. We always had a good relationship. And given that their style was different from ours, if was fun training with them.

Curiosa: Have you ever had some sort of crises in capoeira when you had doubts or wanted to stop?

Diego: Sometimes… Sometimes yes, it was overwhelming. Especially when I was training with Ido Portal, I was training four times a day!

In the morning I was working on my mobility and shoulders, then I had work, at lunchtime I was doing my strength routine, then I returned to work, then back at home I would work on my handstand. Then I would go to do give a class, and I was also teaching personal training, (though not for long). So yes, sometimes I was very tired when I considered everything. But most of the time, my thought was just to quit my job and do capoeira. So, the crisis was more on the other side.

Eventually, I decided to keep my job for my stability and to keep enjoying capoeira and not depend on it for my financial needs. Because I realized that it is a risky business anyway, and I don’t want to depend on my body.

Curiosa: You have already said a lot about your students, but your Chinese students, who are they? Why do they come? What are they looking for? Are they young or old?

Diego: They are mainly around 20 to 30 years-old. As to why they come, I think there are a lot of reasons. In practicing capoeira, there is a lot of freedom, improvisation, creativity and Chinese people are good at memorization. They do anything, but creativity. Just to learn to read and to write, they have to memorize a lot of characters, this is how their educational system works. So, they are very good at classes: in how to follow the sequence and how to kick. Although they are not very outgoing, as they don’t do much when they are kids. The problem is when they need to play capoeira, then, it becomes worse than trying to explain to a child what to do. Without rules they really feel lost. So, many believe capoeira can be of great benefit to them, as it might be good for them to have the freedom it offers, to improvise, to create, where they don’t need to doggedly follow rules. It is in the area of expression and creativity that they need most to improve. But then once they get it… I had a strong group of four Chinese students who were really getting it, then all of them stopped, now there is only one, he is also teaching in Shanghai. So what I’m saying is, once they get it, they can be as good as anyone.

Curiosa: And how about the Portuguese language, the songs, the music? Do they understand those easily?

Diego: Not easily; but the ones who want to learn the music, they learn, they memorize. Maybe the pronunciation is not perfect, but they learn the songs.

Curiosa: How are they with instruments? Are they musical people?

Diego: Some of them, yes. When I came to Italy I thought, “Oh, it will be easy now,” but it wasn’t. So, it really depends on the people. They are not worse or better that the others.

Curiosa: What is capoeira for you? What place/priority does it have in your life?

Diego: Capoeira is a part of my life. It has gradually become more and more important. With time I realized how beneficial it is to my mind, more than my body. My job decisions are taken based on the possibility of continuing training/teaching capoeira. It is definitely one of the top priorities of my life.

Curiosa: How do you see the future of the group in Shanghai and Milan? Any plans or projects?

Diego: The group in Shanghai/China will grow. It’s already growing and with the involvement of locals in teaching and promoting the group it will grow even faster. I was worried when I left, but now I see that Nico, Alex and all the others are doing a good job keeping good fundamentals. It will get bigger and stronger, hopefully not too fast, in order to be able to steer things in the right direction. With regards to Milan, I just want to continue enjoying training and teaching capoeira with my group. I am leveraging on my ten years’ experience in China in order to optimize my teaching, thereby allowing the students to improve at a faster pace. I really try to make the best out of the 90 minutes classes that we have. I want to have more advanced students in order to be helped in teaching classes and guiding other students. A strong core group of advanced students is the key to having a stable group. It will take time, but I’m not in a hurry.

Curiosa: How does it feel not to have a teacher next to you all the time? Who or what gives you inspiration or ideas about your own training and capoeira?

Diego: I have been teaching alone in China with less than three years of capoeira experience (where I only learned just the basics). Nowadays I have a lot of materials, I get ideas for my classes everywhere, from my own students (mistakes or games), from workshops attended elsewhere, from guests, from mestres’ sequences, from videos posted by other capoeiristas etc. What mainly guides my classes is the observation of my students, trying to understand what they need to practice in order to improve their game, what their weak points are, etc. Often their weaknesses coincide with my weaknesses.

Curiosa: What is the most memorable or funniest moment of your capoeira life?

Diego: I enjoy every moment of my capoeira life. I had so many beautiful and funny moments and funny students. It is impossible to recall a specific episode.

Curiosa: Who has had the greatest impact on your capoeira?

Diego: There are too many. I will just mention three: Mestre Marcelo, directly or indirectly through his students; CM Cipo, who was the first guest we had in 2008 and who gave three months of super hard classes: it definitely shaped my capoeira and allowed me to understand what training really means; Ido Portal: his knowledge and his way of thinking has changed my approach to movement and to life in general; I learned so much and my body has been transformed. Nowadays I’m still using his method for my own training and when teaching.

Hong Kong

I set off to Hong Kong in a happy mood – there are two CDO groups in the city!

My trip to Hong Kong from Shenzhen took only 12 minutes by train. Border control – another half an hour. I spent that much time just to get from home to work on a regular day, and then I travelled to another country in just 12 minutes!

I needed to extend my visa to China, and I left for Hong Kong for just a few hours – to wander around the city and, of course, go to a capoeira class!

And I went to monitor Kazu. Kazu was born in Japan and studied in Brazil, where he began to practice capoeira and started working with Grande Mestre Cícero, then he moved back to Japan, opened a group there, then moved to Hong Kong and opened another group here. Fuh! Didn’t seem to miss anything. When I met to Kazu, he had been teaching for only a couple of months. At his class at the time of my visit, there was one girl from Portugal with some past capoeira experience, and 3 students from Japan, they were complete newbies.