Our very 1st Batizado is coming up and I am sure that you are wondering about a lot of things, I know I was excited when it was my time, so maybe we can address what Batizados are, what they involve, how they are important and what to expect now that you are having one.At ABADA Capoeira São Paulo group, our teacher ‘Mestrando Peixe Cru’ does Batizados about once every year. The event was always very special and emotional for people like us that love Capoeira, and participating in the baptism of new students in our school, as well as having the opportunity to watch visiting teachers and graduated students play together, was a tremendous experience. It was also accompanied by a “Troca de Corda” (change of cord), where students would reach their new graduation level (or, on occasion, beyond that!) and get recognized for the hard work they had gone through all year. Everybody is happy at Batizado time, it’s a time of celebration, not a test.
So what should you expect if you’re about to have a Batizado? If this is your first such event, you are probably going to get a Capoeira name, or “Apelido”. This is the nickname that you’re known by throughout your Capoeira ‘career’. Apelidos are generally given out by someone of the group after we have got an idea of what you are like as individual. They are names like Cobra, Amarelo, etc, which represent an aspect of your character. You likely won’t get the nickname you expect though, I assure you that, and sometimes you might even be thrown off by what you are named. In these cases, you usually grow into it, so don’t stress.
It was different in back then, but in our case ABADA Capoeira Australia, that time of year is the only opportunity we will get to see a Mestrando live. Needless to say, this adds even more intensity to the few days we will have with him; we will have workshops where we will be taught directly by one of the best Capoeiristas of our school, get to speak to him at length afterwords, maybe even get to know him on a personal level. For a new student, particularly a non-Brazilian one with limited exposure to the roots of Capoeira, this is incredible. We would recommend taking every opportunity you can to go to every class during this period, since they don’t happen that often.
The story of the Batizado, like many things in Capoeira’s pedagogy begins with the creator of Capoeira Regional - Manoel dos Reis Machado, also known as Mestre Bimba. Mestre Bimba introduced the Batizado as a naming ceremony for beginner students who had been training for long enough to have partial mastery over a predefined series of movements. In the original Capoeira Batizado there were no sweeps; Mestre Bimba considered the rasteira too dangerous a movement for this level. After the Batizado a student was named and given a coloured silk scarf. The colours changed as the student moved up through Capoeira’s ranks, with the final colour being white and indicating Mestre. Why silk scarves? This was in homage to the sharp dressing Capoeiristas of old times who wore silk scarves around their necks to protect from razor slashes. Silk will stop a razor slash. Over time silk scarves became belts – “cordas”, then as Capoeira organizations formed and diverged so did their systems of belts. Today, each major group has its own system.
Next edition we will talk a bit about our Batizado special Guests Mestrando Peixe Cru and Professor Eberson. We hope you have enjoyed the reading.
Cheers,
ABADA-Capoeira Australia Team
Official website: www.abadacapoeira.com.au
ABADA-Capoeira e-mail: info@abadacapoeira.com.au
