How to Esquiva Role in Brazilian Capoeira Martial Arts

Video Transcript

"GRADUADO ADVOGADO: Hi, my name is Advogado on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're going to talk about a basic--what I like to usually teach people for their first basic capoeira sequence. It's called esquira, nevagtiva, role. Okay? You're stating with a dodge, which is the esquira dodge. You go to esquira. If you look under the clip esquira on Expert Village, we have another clip that shows esquira and it breaks down the movements, so it's correct and you have all your legs and arms where it's supposed to be and all that type of thing. So to learn that, you might want to check out that clip first. So you go into esquira first. Once you got esquira down, you want to hop switch your feet and go ahead and sit down. That's the nevagtiva position. Okay? So we're going to start by dodging to the right. So let's start with your right leg back, right arm up, switch to the base, switch to the other side. Now as I shift my weight and I'm going to the right side on the ginga, my left leg is moving back. My left arm is moving up. I'm going to go ahead and take a deeper stance back with my left foot than I normally would in the ginga, so I'm low. I'm going to rest. I'm going all the way down bending my right knee until my chest is resting on my right thigh. My right hand is going to go on the floor, flat on the floor right next to my right foot. My left hand is going to stay up protecting my face and I want to tilt my head to the right. So it's like I'm trying to put my right ear on my right shoulder. Okay? Once I've done this, I'm in the esquira position, rest my weight. I'm going to rest my weight on my hand, the right hand, and then I'm going to hop switch. Then I'm going to sit down on my right heel. Okay? So my right knee is completely bent. I'm sitting on my right heel. My left leg is forward and mostly straight with the left foot flat on the floor. Okay? Once I'm in this position, I'm in the nevagtiva position. My right hand is still on the floor. I'm going to go ahead and change that. I'm going to move my left hand to the floor and I'm going to turn my right arm is going to go to protect my face. Okay? So my left hand is on the floor. My left leg is straight. My right arm is up protecting my face and I'm sitting on my right heel. You want to make sure your knees are together. You're hunched over forward. Back is still straight, but you've leaned forward at the hips. You want to make a smaller target as possible in this position. You're in a weak position as far as attacking and defending. Okay? So you want to make sure, you're in a small position. Okay? Go ahead. And now from this point, we're going to do the role. Think about it like a cartwheel but your feet stay on the floor. You're just going to roll to your left. Come back up, left leg back, left arm up, back into the ginga position."