For those who are wondering what a ‘capoeirista’ is, read up on Capoeira here.

This footage is from back in 2007. An old friend needed to do a project for her graphics course, and she had a vision of a fighting game-esque scenario with an intro, followed by a match between two capoeiristas of different styles and outfits. So she assembled some of her friends and recorded a number of solo routines as well as an improvised Capoeira game. Turned out to be a good experience, bringing together students from several different groups.

Back then, we all got to know each other through the common passion for Capoeira. Nowadays hardly anyone in the video still train, but most of us still keep in touch through Facebook and the like.

Although the main fight video only shows a couple of minutes of footage, the recording took place over a couple of weekends and altogether probably contains over several hours of acrobatics, solo routines and numerous Capoeira games. But for project purposes, the main video ended up with just snippets of the solos and one main “fight” scenario.

I play the part of the formal student wearing white uniform and corda (belt), and my old friend Kim ‘Sabao’ Cheng represents the streetwise aspect of the capoeirista. As the recordings took place at Bondi Beach in Sydney, which is a tourist hotspot, we had a bit of random luck – as we were about to start shooting the second ’round’, a busload of japanese schoolgirls provided an unforeseen but appropriate background.

This may not be spectacular compared to other material found on the internet, but for those of us involved it’s a reminder of good times, good people and good memories.

– Lobo