Edit: Molly said that I should mention that I’m in the video about half-way through.

There was a very nice setup for art projects and the kids spent many hours making and decorating beautiful shapes such as this heart:

River and I collaborated on this hula hoop.

My capoeira group did a demonstration and workshop at the festival.  It was fun to play capoeira in the sun and I enjoyed hanging out with the folk from capoeira outside of our normal training routine.  Sage really enjoyed the workshop.

There was also some elaborate costume making and a semi-successful theatre workshop.  River transformed into some sort of purple monster.

Another thing we particularly enjoyed was the giant hammock constructed in the woods.  Easily big enough for the four of us, we rolled and bounced and played and relaxed.

There was some very good music at the festival as well, ranging from punk to old-time Appalacian and Irish tunes to drum-and-bass and electronica.  In addition to listening to these high calibre musicans and djs, I managed to have a little jam at the campsite with a friend from capoeira who is an excellent violin player.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable weekend.  The weather was amazing, for England.  The moon was almost full and there was hardly a cloud in the sky revealing more stars than I’ve seen in quite some time.  It might have been even better without the mud, but perhaps that’s just part of the experience.

This video features Contra-Mestre Papa-Leguas, who is the head of the Nottingham Cordao de Ouro group, playing Professor Boneco who is based in Brighton. You might notice me watching from the back row. Watch out for the malicia here:

Here is Mestre Poncianinho playing Contra-Mestre Papa-Leguas on Friday night.

Finally, this is Mestre Espirro Mirrim and Mascote, my instructor.

The event started on Friday night, continued most of the day Saturday, and then finished up on Sunday afternoon. During the grading on Saturday, I played against Mestre Poncianinho for my first capoeira belt. I never seem to play particularly well in those kind of situations, and he took me down fairly hard at one point.

It seemed like the batizado helped solidified the bonds of our local group and it was great to meet people in the other affiliated groups. It felt like a really welcoming community, coming together to sing and play the game of capoeira. The folks who knew what they were doing seemed quite supportive and encouraging to those just beginning.

There were Mestres and Contra-Mestres there from all over the world, including Brasil, Israel, Hungary, and England. The skill these people possess is incredible: an amazing combination of speed, strength, agility, and grace brought to the roda with fun, humour and a bit of trickery.

There were many great workshops over the course of the weekend. My favorite was by Mestre Jogo de Dentro, who focused on the details of a fairly simple sequence in the Angola style. There was also a samba workshop, which was a nice break from the capoeria and complimented the live samba band and capoeira demonstration at the Saturday night party.

It was a great weekend and I’m already looking forward to next year’s batizado!

Photos from the Nottingham Batizado flickr pool by jphastings.

I also finally got around to becoming a member of the local group. The most important implication of this is that I now have an official Cordao de Ouro uniform.

I’m also really excited about the upcoming Batizado in April. The Batizado is a three-day workshop with capoeiristas from all over the world participating.

This video is a great demonstration of what the berimbau sounds like.

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