It all started out last weekend when Vere and I started asking some of our fellow capoeira members if they wanted to go out dancing. We just wanted to spend a little time with them outside of class and get our groove on like we used to back in the day in Korea. That weekend, no one was really able so we started making plans for the following weekend nice and early (it would be my last weekend in Brasilia so it was a now-or-never situation). We really only intended for it to be a few people...whoever wanted to...and to be a simple thing.
A couple days before it, though, we got invited to a group chat called "Samba das Gringas" that included our entire capoeira group. That was already taking it a little extreme because it wasn't meant to be about the two of us and we didn't mean for the planning to be so complex. From that point on though, plans were made and pretty much everyone ended up coming.
Vere lent me some heels (I had to forego mine when I packed my backpack and left Ohio) but they were a little bit too big for me, which proved to be my first problem of the night. We took a bus to the mall where we were going to meet our friends. All-too-excited to finally be hanging out with our friends and all-too-confident now that we were going dancing instead of going to fail miserably at another capoeira class, I happily jumped down off the bus. Bad move. As I landed, something went wrong with the heels and I completely lost balance. On my way to eat some pavement, I grabbed some random girl standing in front of me and kept myself from falling all the way. I'm sure it wasn't a pretty sight but it was HILARIOUS. I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even say sorry or thank you to the girl that I used to save myself from falling on my face. I laughed hysterically as we walked toward our meeting place, through the 30 or so people who were standing there waiting for buses, and didn't stop for quite a while after.
Our friends finally came to meet us and they took us to a live-samba club called Calaf, where we had reserved a table. We sat chatting for a while and then later got up to dance. Our friends were teaching us to samba and life was all good! One friend took some pictures and put up a facebook status with #despedidagringa which was when I realized that this was sort of a goodbye party for me...even though that really wasn't we had intended.
A bit later, our friends decided we should go dance in front of the stage where the band was playing so a large group of us moved over there. After a song or two, the band stopped and the singer said a bunch of things in Portuguese that I wasn't even listening to and then...said my name. All my friends starting laughing and yelling and pushing me towards the stage. I didn't quite know what was going on but I knew enough to absolutely refuse. I said no and planted my feet firmly where I was standing but I was no match for a whole team of capoeiristas. They told me I had to go on stage and all but pushed me up there...some guy that worked there even came and took my hand, dragging me past security and up onto the stage.
I walked out with the singer still talking to me into the microphone, even though I had no idea what he was saying, and I just stood there with the bright lights shining down in my eyes, the band behind me, and my horrible friends standing down below, cheering and getting out their video cameras. Rude. People cheered and the band started playing. I probably would've just kept standing there the whole time but one of my friends down below (the one who'd mostly been teaching us how to samba in the first place) pointed at her feet and started dancing. I just looked at her feet and copied what she was doing like I had been the rest of the night and waited for the horribly embarrassing moment to be over. The song ended, the singer said something else, people clapped and I was finally dismissed.
I got off the stage, face bright red and ready to wring each of my friend's necks. Vere later told me that she'd thought someone was going up there with me or else she would've and I even later found out that the singer had been telling ALL of us to go up. But since I didn't speak Portuguese or know what was going on and had only heard him say my name, they very conveniently could pretend that it was just supposed to be me. Rude, rude, rude, rude, rude. And yet another reason I need to learn Portuguese.
It was horribly embarrassing to dance samba in front of a club-full of Brazilians who actually know how to dance it and to have no idea what anyone was saying the entire time. BUT...I know how important it is to be pushed outside your comfort zone. They pushed me way out and, for that, I have to be grateful. I wouldn't have said that in the moment but, looking back, I'm sure it was good for me.
Once that whole mess was over, we kept on with our dancing and enjoyed the rest of our night together. I'm grateful to my friends in this group, who I haven't even known for a full month yet, for everything they've taught me during my time here in Brasilia. Not only did they help us a ton with capoeira, but I've learned from them about courage, leaving our comfort zones, happiness, peace and health. They've given us tons of laughs, multiple rides, and all came out to party, just because it was my last weekend. This capoeira way of life is really beautiful and I'm glad to be a part of it, even if every time (playing capoeira or dancing samba) is extremely humiliating. This means I'm growing, right?
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