Saturday, October 04, 2008

Self Dominance

The following piece was made to showcase some of the ideas I have been playing with in the last year.
It all started from a place of stagnation and boredom with the state of modern capoeira, my own practice and the future in which it is all heading.
I was desparate for some inspiration, motivation, something new and interesting that goes beyond spinning on my hands one more spin or kicking that old Meia-Lua a bit faster.
I needed a new physical and mental challange and also wanted to renovate, create and express while at it.
That is the beginning of the journey. I started to cross train heavily in other arts, diciplines, movement systems and also worked hard at mental aspects such as cultivating creativity, concentration, emotional expression, associative flow and more..
At start it was full of enthusiasm. Later on it became frustrating as I realized, I'm just a baby in those new and foreign places. I had to push through. Believe in my choices.
After a while things started to clear out. New possibilites were revealed, in movement, in thinking, my body and mind started to change.
This whole process was accompanied with quite a bit of isolation from the 'normative' world I was so determined to escape from and exposure to a new world, different from my own, at the time. This isolation allowed me to experiment, drift away and innovate without getting stuck back into the box of what is a normal progression of an artist (or capoeirista) should be.
My nightly classes and workshops became a hit. Not only due to new, inspirational material that was a result of a lot of work and thought, but also because of the complete and total submergence I went into this material. I truly 'bathed' in this, it was ME and people tend to get attracted to original things. I think..
Every aspect of my work was influenced by it: pair work, solo trainings, group trainings, strength and conditioning, flexibility, music, rythem and movement. Everything was examined and reexamined in a filter of 'is this moving me in the right direction?'
Sometimes painful choices of elimination were made. I rejected the useless and made a choice.
This first published clip is only a tiny bit of my work displaying certain aspects of it. Please, dont put me in a box after watching this, it is just playing around with something interesting, it is far from the 'big picture' of my art. It is the first of many clips and only the beginning. The future material will include some of my students work, (what I call 'homework' in our nightly trainings and also the training themselfs) my own work and developement and application of our practice.
The clip won some awards on Youtube, and the response to it was something I didnt suspect, even in my wildest dreams. (full mailbox and comments from not only friends but professional in the field of capoeira, circus, gymnastics, dance and more. I hope you like it, but dont realy care... please post your comments below.
Check back here soon, subscribe to the blog and my youtube acount and send me your email if you want me to add you to my mailing list. This will allow me to stay in closer contact with you all, thank you,
Ido.


24 comments:

Gittit Szwarc said...

There's something amazing and completely unique growing here. I just wanted to say how lucky I feel to be along for this journey.
Gittit

Ido Portal said...

Thank you, Gittit. Even after all these years and knowing that you guys value what I put into this, hearing it is super important to me. (and not only to my ego)

Ed X said...

Hey Ido,

I love the video, nice moves, good transition between moves and camera angles! Do you approach skills in the same manner as conditioning (strength training) or do you just tend to have fun with them and do 'em freebase it?
Also how's the site coming along?

Ed

Ido Portal said...

Hello, Ed.

No, movement training is not strength work, although there is sometimes a grey area between them, and specific strength is a skill, basicly.

There are many ways to aquire movements. I believe in what I call 'weak link' training. I find the problematic part in a movement, the one not allowing me to perform it and try to concentrate my efforts there. After solving the weak link, the whole move can be completed in general ease.
www.hacasa.co.il is being worked on as we speak by my web designer. This blog and other content will be transfered there, and instructional videos, demos and more will be present.
Also, some of my advanced students will also hold a blog there and share their own content.
Stay tuned.

Ed X said...

Sounds Good!

Anonymous said...

Couldnt agree more with the post.
How they say - the geniuses build the way which the smart ones follow..... im pretty sure ts not how they say it but you get what i mean.

Tal said...

Like I said in YouTube, the video is amazing, and I'm very glad to be one of your students.

Eightyeightdays said...

When I began dancing around 5 years ago I wanted to be a B-boy and couldn't see anything beyond that. As time passed I saw that I was trying to fit myself to an image that was not me, or that did not allow for all aspects of my personality or what I wanted from dance. As I broke away from the constraints of this image I became interested and influenced by all forms of movement and music as well. Now my aim is to train to build a mind and body that can be used for any type of movement, whether you choose to label it or not, and eventually teach the same principles and techniques to others.
Reading your post and watching your video reminded me of my own exploration of such things, and I feel that ultimately there is a point at which all of these roads converge and everyone is just having fun, being creative and testing the limits of our bodies.
Good luck on your journey, your short clips on this blog have been an inspiration for me.

Peace.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ido,

That was beautiful to watch. Pure art and skill. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds from you.

This is really going to inspire a shift in my own training and for that I thank you.

Chris

Unknown said...

It's brilliant, Ido!
Nice technique!
Have a question: where did you get such portreits of Bimba?

Anonymous said...

Hi and Salve!

After i saw your clip Self Dominance, i became your biggest FAN(well at least in Norway)I have been training capoeira some year now, but like everything i got stuck in my game and tricks, but after i saw your clipp i began to train more capoeira angola. And now am getting a little better. I have som questions i hope u can PLEASE answare them.1. How long have you done capoeira? and where do u live? Whats the name of your group? Can u please show us a clip of your capoeira game on youtube soon?

And what should i do to get strong like u on the handstands and on the qainda de rinz(freez)??
my mail: manim3@hotmail.com

THANKS U!!
Kindly Regard and AXE!
Imran(almirante)

HeyArco said...

hello,
I`m Korea young capoerista Arco-iris. I like your movement. 'Self Dominance' Video is an inspiration to me. i set a goal, Haha!

Joe Togo said...

Going back through your historical posts and stories provide a great insight into your journey from then to now! This is great readings and learnings:)

ahmed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ahmed said...

الحشرات من الأشياء التي ينزعج العديد على إثرها بقرب الرهاب والفزع التي تسببه للكثير بجوار الخسائر التي تنتج عن وجودها في أي مقر تتواجد به، فهناك عوال كثيرة يقع تأثيرها على وجود الحشرات في أي موضع ومن أهمها النظافة وأحوال الأحوال الجوية والمناخ .
شركة مكافحة حشرات بالطائف
شركة رش مبيدات بالطائف
المبيدات الحشرية الكيميائية
شركة الانوار لرش المبيدات

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