~ Lucas Aurore a.k.a Gavião ~
Lucas Aurore, Gavião, is sixteen years old and a Junior in high school. He first heard about Capoeira at a summer camp when in kindergarten. He shares “that moment changed my life forever. Ever since then, Capoeira has been a major part in my life and of the development of my personality.”
Gavião is one of ACSF’s most engaged students. He has trained consistently for years beginning as a child and then graduating up into the teen’s program. He is a volunteer assistant youth instructor, a performance company lead, and a model student in our community. We asked him to share how ACSF has contributed to helping him during the past year.
“This past year has been quite difficult, being at home for so long and going to school and training from home. Capoeira and ACSF have truly helped, and almost allowed me forget how challenging things really are right now.
Although I have been training on Zoom in the living room (not ideal, and way too small for my legs!), classes have brought a sense of normalcy to my life. Training with ACSF at home has allowed me to keep some resemblance of my “normal” routine. In a lot of ways, it helped me stay sane.
For the past three years I have volunteered as an assistant teacher to Antonio and Miguel with the children’s classes. ACSF’s online programming also has allowed me to keep my connection to the children through the online classes. I may not play as big of a role in the kid’s classes online, but I have still been able to see and talk to them which has been amazingly helpful during this difficult time.
It continues to be challenging to train in my house where I cannot fully do any movements, however, having such a limited space has taught me to control my movements much more than I was ever able to do. Training online was a difficult adjustment at first, as you do not get to train normally with partners, but on the flip side I’ve been able to see and train with people from all around the world, something pre-pandemic I never was able to do.
In this past year, I attended the online Jogos Brasileiros and regularly take live workshops with teachers in Brazil from my HOME, is absolutely an amazing experience, and something never possible before the world moved online!
