Trips, slips and flat out falls

This week has been jam packed with exciting things, many of them involving the floor.  It was kicked off at the academy by me completing my first ever bande em pe, a foot sweep which is actually very easy if the timing is right.  I didn't for a moment think I would pull it off, and I felt pretty bad afterwards for doing it.   Earlier that night I played a good, long game with Ralil and at the end of it, he kicked martelo and I got out of the way but my arm came up automatically to grab his leg for a queda (which is a way to grab someone's kicking leg then sweep their standing foot out from under them).  I didn't grab him, but I thought afterwards that it would have been better for me to have shown a bande em pe.  I thought to myself that I need to make the bande em pe attempt as automatic as the queda attempt.  So, in this other game, when the other person threw a martelo, I remember what I had said to myself and went in for the bande em pe at the exact right moment. It was mostly luck that caused the other person to fall, almost entirely luck.

I guess luck was sort of on my side at the start of last week because the next night when we had a big roda at Nagi's class, I was the one to fall.  Lots of people came from all the differnt classes in Brasilia and we trained maculele first, then did some movements across the room.  Then we were separated into two rodas, one for graduados and one for the rest of us novos. At the end of the night the novos joined the graduados and I decided to just watch.  No one under a blue cord was buying the game, and I wasnt exactly sure if we had been told we could play or not, so I found a good spot to view and enjoyed the games. But then, I'm not sure what happened, I thought I'd give it a shot and go in to play. So, I bought the game with a girl who trains with Zezinho and we had a good game.  Very fast, but totaly controlled.  Beija Flor bought the game with me and we continued the speed.  She tried to give me a vingativa, but I wrapped by leg around hers just as she started to lift me off the ground and I got out of it.  I returned to my ginga, we exchanged a few more kicks and after one of my kicks, the next thing I knew I was flying across the roda after being pushed somehow by her. I landed on my butt and my right elbow pretty hard and everyone holding down the roda on the at side had to quickly get out of the way.  I found out the next day that my elbow had landed on someone's foot and broke his toe in three places.  He said that his docotr said my elbow would be shattered if I hadn't landed on him. When I told Nagi, he said it was because of an intervention by god and that it's better to break a toe than shatter an elbow, whch I know is true, but I still feel terrible (even though it's nobody's fault).  It was the first time I've been taken down in since I arrived, and until I found out about the toe sbreakage, I was actually really happy about it.  I had defended one attack perfectly and got taken down by another.  A good balance for me, I think.

'But luck has to run out sometime and in order to notice that things are balanced, sometimes they have to get unbalanced first.  The next two days were spent rehearsing for the big show at the National Theater.  I had been rehearsing for maculele since I arrived and was really excited because I was picked as one of five pairs of people who'd play in the open roda at the end of the choreography. Papiba had even pulled me aside after he saw a rehersal to tell me that he really liked my maculele style.  I also was going to be the orchestra de berimbaus and got talked into doing Maracatu.  All went well at the rehearsals and all went well at the show.  Except for the fact that as I was running across the stage to meet up with my open roda partner, I slipped and fell.  Doh!!! I got up right away with no injury anywhere other than my pride and did my bit with as much confidence as I could muster.  Later I found out that two other girls slipped and fell during the choreography for the principals, the result of a dry wood stage floor, I think.  So I didn't feel so bad.  But I should have banged my sticks on the floor for the 3-4 count on my way up to make it seem like the fall was on purpose. Oh well. Next time. Maracatu went perfectly, so I'm trying to focus on that success.

 I gave my camera to a friend in the audience who took millions of pictures so I'll post some sometime soon.

This weekend will hopefully involve some water/pool action and a pagode party.  I leave very early on Tuesday morning to start my excursion to the beaches.  First -- Itacare, then Barra Grande, then Morro de Sao Paulo, then Salvador.  I'll be gone for two weeks and will return to Brasilia for about two more weeks.

I'm savoring every moment, but time is still flying by....

Untul next time!!!