Batizado

This past weekend was Kathryns Capoeira groups annual Batizado, so she was busy with workshops and general badassery. On the Sunday it was their big belt changing ceremony and showing off to the great unwashed, so I took my dutiful place in the front row and got some pictures. For those of you that have never been to a batizado its basically 3 hours of the picture below, which is exhausting to watch much less do yourself.
Kathryn also got her double orange belt this year which is her 5th belt and puts here close to the top of her group in experience. She's been very dedicated not only to her practice this past year but also to learning instruments, Portugese and as much Brazillian culture as she can get, so I was very proud to see her hard efforts recognized. Below are the students from her academy that changed belts this year along with the instructors and guests from out of town.
She's in the middle of the picture above, but for those of you that like your Kathryns more than 10 pixels across, here's a closer picture of her. She's gotten very good over the years and I am always proud to see my Little Scrapper strut her stuff.

Halloween Roda

This Halloween we joined up with Kathryn's capoeira group for a Halloween Roda and general wander about and party afterwards. They played and leapt about for a little over an hour both inside the studio and on the street outside, much to the amusement of passing spectators who are unaccustomed to seeing a cowboy fight a pirate in the street. I also managed to win a costume prize by dressing as a capoeirista on the one day of the year that nobody else was.
A pixie fights a man in a dress, just like in the stories.
All under the wise and discerning eyes of Professor Nego
All in all a great way to spend the evening and get to know some of these folks a little better too, great times and hopefully more of the same next year

Summer Capoeira Shows

This summer, Kathryn's capoeira group put on several shows around the city and I was on hand to shoot video. The clip below is the 'best of' from a roda in English Bay, a demo at the Chinese Gardens and a show at 'Deep Cove Days'.

For any of you that don't know, capoeira is a Brazillian martial art that combines dance, music, acrobatics and scrappin' into a single entity. Kathryn has been very keen on it for years now and attends class as often as possible, so its a big part of her life and our free time out here.

NOTE: Anyone that wants to see this video at higher quality can check it out in 720p here.