A 500-Year Old Street Roda
A few terms before we begin:
Roda (Pronounced as “ho-dah” the “ho” is a short “o” not as in “hoe” – don’t get any ideas.)
According to Wikipedia, the Roda is a circle formed by capoeiristas and capoeira musical instruments, where every participant sings the typical songs and claps their hands following the music. Two capoeiristas enter the roda and play the game according to the style required by the musical instruments rhythm. The game finishes when one of the musicians holding a berimbau determine it, when one of thecapoeiristas decide to leave or call the end of the game or when another capoeirista interrupts the game to start playing, either with one of the current players or with another capoeirista.
Today, me and my man are going to hit the department stores to buy a vacuum cleaner. Whereas in years past, the thought of going to a department store fills me with dread (I hate shopping), this particular department store, I brings feelings of warm fuzziness and axé (for lack of a better definition, axé is all good things, all good vibes). I like this particular department store because it’s where our school, and many other capoeira schools have their street rodas several times in a year.
My school, Capoeira Singapore, Argola De Ouro( http://www.adoclife.com/) has classes all over the island but a few times in a year, we hold our “games” on the street to share with the world the music, the culture, and the art of capoeira. For 3 solid hours, we play, we sing at the top of our lungs, we strike our instruments with so much force that we frequently get blisters and we play among ourselves and sometimes with random strangers who “buy” our games.
The energy in the street roda is amazing. It’s what I imagine the street games in Brazil used to be or are currently are. As we’re not in Brazil, I’m guessing their rodas must be more intense and competitive. But our rodas are so inclusive – which is what I really like about capoeira overall. There are no elites really, there’s no derision for newbies.
It’s all a community. At the start of a street roda, all the seniors, the mestres (masters) and instructors play with each other in turn – each game lasting anywhere form 30 seconds to 3 minutes. They show off their best stuff. And then, after a while, us newbies come in.
Let me tell ya, the first time you step into a street roda, it’s petrifying. It’s bad enough that you have to overcome your fear of playing in front of your class on a regular day, now you have to get over playing not just in front of your class, but in front of capoeiristas from your entire school and many times from other schools from all around Asia PLUS the entire Saturday afternoon Orchard Road foot traffic population. Eeps.
Nevertheless, the second you step into the roda, the energy is electric – everyone’s singing and clapping, the Bateria (musicians) is going and all the games before and after you lend a sort of continuous string of energy, playfulness and even slight aggression that can go on for hours and hours.
I don’t know about other capoeiristas but whenever I step into a roda, especially a street roda, I have a sense of continuity – a sense that I’m stepping into a game that started, not just when our school started back in 1980 but into a game that started with the first African slaves started training themselves to rebel against their Portuguese slave owners in the sugar cane fields of Brazil that began over 500 years ago.
(Video Credit -- Street Video Credit from Edwin Pramudita Wikanta)