Kicking their way through capoeira
by Andrew Seguin
 Were the Class 4 girls in Ellie Gerdes’ physical education class dancing or fighting? It was hard to tell, though after watching them circle one another like laughing acrobats, it became apparent that this was no brawl.
It was capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that has its origins in the movements of West African slaves who were brought to Brazil centuries ago and had to disguise their self-defense training as dancing and singing. What looks like fighting is actually a game: Capoeira’s participants are called players, and to excel at it they need grace, agility and rhythm.
Ms. Gerdes has been studying capoeira for two years and decided that her Middle School students would benefit from learning it. “It’s a new way of being physically active,” Ms. Gerdes said. “Capoeira increases strength and flexibility and also improves the girls’ decision-making skills,” she added. Not to mention their sense of fun.
On a recent day, the girls shook hands with a partner, then began to ginga (pronounced jin-ga), the basic movement of capoeira in which players face each other and rhythmically move side to side while incorporating a backward step. It keeps the game moving constantly, allowing fluid introductions of a meia lua de frente, a front round kick, or a queixada, a kick aimed at a player’s cheek. The girls executed these kicks, then dodged them with an esquiva, a move in which they got low to the ground and covered their faces.
Achieving the right rhythm with a partner was an early challenge, but as the class went on, each pair seemed to move as one. After forming a roda, the traditional circle in which capoeira players spar, the girls kicked, feinted and dodged with different partners, responding to each movement with one of their own.
Ms. Gerdes even joined in and executed an aù, a cartwheel that, according to the girls, is pretty much the coolest move ever, and the next thing they plan to master.
Click here to see a photo gallery from the class.
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