Do not be afraid to get close to your opponent. The closer you are, the more you will learn.
– Mestre Bimba
What is Capoeira?
Capoeira, an Afro Brazilian dance fight martial art and cultural form created by slaves on plantations in Brazil hundreds of years ago was a way for people with many hardships and limited personal freedoms, to co-create an environment of celebration, vigor, discipline, unity and strength in the face of adversity.
Capoeira is now considered a healing force for adults and especially children facing adverse life conditions.
Research shows that children from all types of backgrounds and socio economic
conditions benefit greatly from the life skills capoeira “muscles” develop.
Across the globe Capoeira practice stimulates and develops players ability to communicate and solve “creative problems” through gesture, dance, music, emotional expression, songs, games and personal improvisation.
Capoeira is a cultural tradition passed down through the experiences of teachers. Our knowledge is traced to elders in Brazil who came from many traditions who shared the values of communicating authentically through body expression, poetry, music, dance and martial arts.
Our first priority as teachers is a safe environment of mutual respect where each member or the capoeira “Roda” wheel is recognized as having unique contributions to offer the whole.
We teach all students that everyone has a capoeira “talent” which might be singing, writing songs, acrobatics, flexibility, sneakiness, strength, tenacity etc. “Listening with our Eyes” is
fundamental to all classes, the practice of listening with our whole bodies, respecting neighbors and knowing that there are moments to be loud, and quiet, forceful and delicate, and to focus on
cues is primary.
For thousands of years, survival was linked to our ability to kill and destroy. Today and in the future, survival will depend on our capacity to live in peace with other men and nature. We think Capoeira can make a contribution to this process.