After our fun day at the beach, it was time to say goodbye to our friends Chicote, Pantera and Caramel. After having stayed for a month in India, devoting themselves to this project, they bade farewell and flew back to France. They would keep in touch with us and the project from there, through telephone and email. It was not easy for them to say goodbye to the children; heck, it was even more difficult for us to say goodbye to them.
So until another instructor flew down (once every three months), it was upto the core Indian team - Chico, Diamant
e, Mandingueira and Espaguete (with help from Sucure) - to keep the spirit of the children alive, with classes three times a week.
While we knew we had big shoes to fill in to, given that the bond between Chicote, Pantera, Caramel and the children was strong, we were excited and hoping to create our own special bond with them. Some had already formed over the beach trip, and some grew with time.
Chico took over the main instructing while the others aided him through the class. In the beginning, order was difficult to maintain, as was the attention span of the children. But soon enough, we developed a comfortable rapport with the children and gained their trust.
Feedback by Chico about our first week:
Update on the class today:
* Fewer children in class (about 20). Seema had not notified the teachers about the 4-6 pm timing and hence the teachers had let them leave. Explained the timings clearly to the children at the end of class.
* Overall an ordered class.
* Seem to lose control when they are not doing anything such as sitting and observing other people play in the roda or on one side. Followed advice and did not start till everyone had quieted down and talked to them. It worked. But at times they got distracted and started getting out of control again. Also, explained that there was no finger pointing in class. If people are making mischief, responsibility is on everyone. We all pay with our time. Gafanhoto, Cantor and Pimenta helped manage the others. :D
* Going to use these kids to manage the class. Have a separate word with them to see what they feel and what can be done in class.
* Some children were little bit more mischievous. Going to keep them busy. will use them for demonstrations and to help others because they are good - they just get distracted easily such as jiboia
* Added music lesson at the end - seemed a hit. Going to continue on this.
* Since there were fewer children, we added animal walk, which they enjoyed
* Additional learnings - letting them play partner-partner is better than playing with us. May be we will play with all of them once two weeks or so.
* Need to add laughter in the routine :D
Update by Chico later in the week:
Great class today. Beautiful teamwork between Diamante, Nileema and me. The children trust us more. They accepted our presence. Almost no issues today. and almost full attendance - gafanhoto and 4 students didn't come. 4 students have to study for their scholarship - this includes supriya and usma. Supriya sneaked into the class anyway and hid away from Seema.
Introduced a new concept of using animal walks with drawings. One kid would draw an animal and the others would do the animal walk. Great drawings by the kids. But the concept did not work as well. Takes too much time for the drawing.
Asked the kids do a solo performance mixing Capoeira, Afro dance and any Bollywood. It was amazing. The kids were wonderful mixing and showing all they could do best. Other kids were mostly sitting silently or laughing or helping each other - but no arguing or talking. Most of the guys focused on Capoeira with stunt moves like handstand and trying the handstand pumping. Some kids tried the headstand and turn on their heads (Medio, Cantor). The girls focused on Capoeira (esp what they were taught today) along with the sequences from the dances. Everybody enjoyed. Sonic was really good in Bollywood. Some kids were dancing to themselves when in the roda but did not show all the moves in the roda. I guess still not as comfortable in the roda.
Music lesson continued. Kids really love it. They remembered from yesterday and even as I was making the roda, they had started the body percussion.
Used a technique to control the kids from getting distracted. Used them in demos. Being next to me looking at the other kids changed them.
This month's capoeira goal is to have the kids do the ginga properly. I had introduced freezes in last class. And in today's class I pointed out correct way while Diamante and Mandigueira helped the kids. Didn't keep the freezes longer than 5-10 sec.
Some children have however gone back one step in their Au. Because we do it in pair, cannot pay specific attention to just one person.
Pimenta still getting teased a lot. She is still standing strong and not reacting. Diamante spoke to her separately.
Some kids wanted class everyday. Tulsi told them why we couldn't come and also that they could use the extra day to practice by themselves.
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| Lua offers to be Gata's partner for one of the paired sequences |
