Capoeira Connection | Conexión Capoeira
"A Brazilian martial art brings together two women who find harmony in movement and each other"
Capoeira Connection
Conexión Capoeira
Capoeira found me before I found her.
"New student," the mestre announced. "Treat her well."
She was all grace and power, moving through the roda like she'd been born for it. I couldn't look away.
"You're staring," she said after class.
"You're incredible."
"I've trained for fifteen years."
"I've trained for three months. I'll never move like that."
"Not with that attitude."
Her name was Renata. Born in Salvador, raised in Los Angeles, fluent in the language of the berimbau.
"Why capoeira?" I asked.
"Because it's everything. Dance, fight, music, history." She demonstrated a move. "And because it connects me to home."
"Brazil?"
"The ancestors. The resistance. The joy that survived everything."
She started training me separately. Extra sessions after class.
"Why help me?" I asked.
"Because you want it. I can see hunger."
"Hunger for what?"
"For belonging. Capoeira gives that."
She was right. The roda became family. The music became language. And Renata became something I couldn't define.
"You're watching me again," she said during practice.
"I'm learning."
"You're admiring."
"Both."
She kissed me after a jogo—a game—when we were both sweaty and exhausted.
"I've wanted to do that since your first class," she admitted.
"Why wait?"
"I was your teacher. Ethics."
"And now?"
"Now we're equals in the roda. Different rules."
We moved together in capoeira and in life. Training became a conversation; the roda became our stage.
"People watch us," I said.
"They should. We're worth watching."
We opened a school together. Teaching what she taught me. Passing on the gift.
"To the ginga," we toast—the fundamental movement of capoeira.
"To finding rhythm together," she adds.
Capoeira connection—where fight becomes dance, and partnership is the ultimate move.