Ari-Mazing

In Greek mythology, Ariadne is a princess of Crete who provides Theseus with the means and method to slay the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster imprisoned in a labyrinth. The Minotaur had been chowing down on young Athenians sent as sacrificial tribute to King Minos on a quarterly basis (although technically, classical texts list the frequency of sacrifices anywhere from annually to every nine years). Ariadne gives Theseus, Athenian homeboy and on the menu for that evening, a skein of red yarn, which he uses to trace his way into the labyrinth, and a sword, which comes in handy to hack off the head of the snoozing Minotaur. Ancient Greek texts do not describe if the Athenians had beef stew for dinner.

Fast forward about 35 centuries and we meet our modern day Ariadne, whom all of us in Joao Crus’ BJJ class know as Ari. Roll with Ari in BJJ practice and you will understand that she is a one-woman labyrinth, ensnaring your arms, legs, and other random appendages (like your head?) in the complex twists and turns of her form. No Minotaur lies waiting in Ari’s labyrinth, but many of us have blundered into her lurking [insert your favorite submission technique here]—sometimes sequentially, in close succession.

The maze is ever changing when we train with Ari, a perpetual mental and physical puzzle, and we always learn something new. While everyone has benefited from training with Ari, she has been a particular source of inspiration and helpful instruction to the women in class.

Ari returns the sentiment and says, “I’m really happy to train with you guys and I hope you do continue; it’s been an honor. Also teaching you, I’ve learned a lot about myself. It’s been my first experience really teaching people. It helped me with my patience immensely, because I get to see your game change. I get to see you changing your movements and learning more. That gives me all kinds of patience that I don’t have with myself.”

Unlike her Greek namesake, Ari spins yarns not made of wool, but of words, in her poetry, her rashly funny and insightful blog prose, and as an author of several comic books, including 21 People Revealed, Please Excuse My Girlfriend, and Velvet. Ari collaborates closely with the comic book artists in each work, penning not only the script and dialogue, but also envisioning the artwork style, panel layout, size and placement of dialogue bubbles, and the attention grabbing cover.

Also unlike the mythology of yore, Ari does not require the services of some Homeric hero, as this woman can not only wield her own blade as a fencer, but is on the path to crafting her own swords as an apprentice sword maker. Her interest in sword making is as a craftsperson controlling the metallurgy that controls the balance, hardness, sharpness, and flexibility of a working blade, not as a visual artist pattern welding together an objet d’arte.

“A blade is always a tool,” Ari says. “You can do more than that, but if it loses its functionality, it is no longer a blade. It is a pretty blade shaped thing.”

Hailing not from Crete but from Australia, Ari’s sojourns inscribe a global labyrinth. “Australia, Kenya, Australia, Texas, Hong Kong, Australia, Texas, Sri Lanka, Australia, Texas, New Mexico, Texas,” this daughter of an oil man lists. And now, we are soon to be bereft without her, as Ari is set to return to New Mexico.

When asked how many of the places she’s lived she remembers, Ari is circumspect.

“I have a really good memory because if I don’t remember, so many people have come through my life and I haven’t been able to meet them again. I had to remember it or else I have no history.”

“I came here for my job as an apprentice sword maker and the real reason that I thought about staying was because of Joao’s school. I’ve trained in a lot of martial arts here and there and I’ve found that learning from Joao, not just the style, [has] been the most effective learning experience and just a wonderful personal experience; I’ve been able to grow a lot outside of class because of what we do in class and because of how we’re treated.”

While training with Joao Crus, Ari has competed in several in-house tournaments and two of Carlos Machado’s open tournaments in Dallas, Texas. Her domination at the women’s white belt level in the Dallas tournament last year earned her the promotion to the blue belt level from Joao. This past February, Ari competed in her first open competition as a blue belt in Carlos Machado’s Winter Wars tournament. Many of the women competitors were substantially heavier than Ari, by 20 to 30 pounds, but she declined the opportunity to compete in a smaller split division.

“I was there to get the most experience out of it and I would get that from rolling with people rather than having a smaller group where maybe I would have a better chance of getting a medal,” Ari explains.

In the first bout, her own nervous energy caused her to change positions so rapidly that the final score was 25 to zero, in Ari’s favor. Her second bout was lost by one point, which Ari attributes to an error in her own patience when she abandoned a position in which she had her opponent locked for nearly 2 minutes in a triangle choke from mount. Ari decided that her side control needed strengthening during her third bout with a much larger competitor, lost also by one point.

Ari attributes much of her ability to hold her own against the larger competitors in the blue belt tournament with the training she has gained with men in class.

“I don’t have to worry about when I’m going against someone stronger. It really does help, like when I was in the blue belt competition. Those women were a lot heavier than me. Some of the guys that I roll with are substantially heavier, 70 or more pounds on me, so it’s been great training. And none of them have wanted to beat me up or needed to prove themselves, which has been really great because you can get hurt easily with someone with that kind of attitude.”

As Ari continues unwinding the thread of her experiences through new challenges and opportunities, new places and faces, we wish her only the best and hope that she may follow her trail back to us again sometime in the future.