After I finished university I moved back to my home town of Ottawa. I knew I wanted to continue training in martial arts . Initially I was hoping to continue in the Filipino arts and JKD but few schools of these arts existed in Ottawa. I found some schools that offered these arts as classes but were not dedicated to them. This however was not the biggest problem I encountered in my search. I wasn’t able to find a teacher that I felt suited me. One was too arrogant and seemed to look down on me at our first and only meeting because of my previous experience with martial arts. Another seemed too intent on hurting people for me.
Discouraged from my search, I remembered that capoeira had piqued my interest. So did some research and found a group that practiced in a couple of locations in downtown Ottawa. I showed up for my first class at the Arts Court one weekday evening. That’s where I first met Fabio, a capoeirista who had come from Recife, Brazil. A teacher with the group Chapeu de Couro. My first class would destroy the bottoms of my feet, but I persevered and now about nine years later I enjoy capoeira more than ever.
