Saturday, May 19, 2012

An interview with Mestre Cobra Mansa

Mestre Cobra Mansa is the founder of FICA, and a great, wise elder. This is a great video with a little bit of his history, and his current project Kilombo Tenode.


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

3rd Afro-Brasilian Festival!

The third annual Afro-Brasilian Festival, organized by the WWU
capoeira club/Bellingham study group of the international capoeira
foundation will be held on Sunday June 3rd in WWU's Carver Gym.

Below is the schedule:

10am opening/ registration/ capoeira angola workshop with ContraMestre
Andrea from Oakland (from FICA: an amazing woman capoeirista)

11:15am to 12:15pm  brasilian dance with lisette austin

12:30 to 1:30pm  west-african dance with manimou camara

1:45 to 3pm capoeira angola workshop with contramestre andrea

3pm capoeira angola roda

at 4pm there will be a catered Brasilian dinner in VU 565.

The event is FREE for WWU students; $5 for the general public.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

At Vaudevillingham

Here are some pictures of our brief participation at Vaudevillingham, the monthly fundraiser for the Bellingham Circus Guild.





Thank you to everyone who came: Shelly, Randy, Chris, Elli, Ethan, Matteo, Devin, Skya, Nick, Cedar, Sarah, Molly and Cory!

And thank you to the Circus Guild for putting on such an awesome and record-breaking event! (look it up...)

Monday, May 14, 2012

What is a roda?

I found and translated this from the website of FICA-Salvador:
Played in a circle, Capoeira Angola is infinitely varied with unlimited combinations of movements that involve legs, arms, head, feet in the air, a smile and a spark in the player’s eyes. The game is completed by humor, grace, agility, and seriousness.
It is in the roda that the ritualistic aspects of capoeira angola are most represented. In training, the intention is to prepare the student physically so that they may put things into practice in the roda. Therefore, practice consists of trying the movements and the attacks that are used in the game, progressively introducing more complex movements, whose execution requires specific abilities (such as acrobatic moves, for example). Students acquire this muscle memory through repetition, with the goal of attaining an increasingly smooth execution, in the measure in which the student develops strength and equilibrium. Even when it is accompanied by music and singing, training is different from the roda because the goal will not be met during practice.
Training, only training, is not enough to be a capoeirista. The most important moment in becoming a capoeirista is the roda, and so it is imperative that students participate in rodas, even if only as spectators, even though they may not know how to play, how to sing, how to play the instruments. In this sense, practice sessions, music sessions, or occasional theoretical discussions about aspects of capoeira represent the path that lead to the roda, which is the most important event in the daily existence of the group, and the necessary condition for the existence of capoeira.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Students learn Brazilian martial art

The Western Front published another article about us, this time under the sports section, not under features.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

What Capoeira means to us

I found (and slightly paraphrased the English version of) a beautiful description of what Capoeira Angola is all about on the website of Grupo Nzinga.
 - - - - - -
Capoeira Angola is an expression of the Afro-brazilian tradition based on exercises of group (co)existence. Its practice represents the bringing together of different cultural events that include dance, music, dramatization, play, game and spirituality.

In its ritual everyone participates and each person is fundamental and unique.

To play Capoeira Angola, the 'capoeiristas' make a circle representing the world with elements of order and mutual support: the instruments, the music, the songs, the foundations and ethics of the game.

In the space of the circle there is a dramatized fight that transforms potentially powerful blows into gestures that are contained exactly in the moment of touching the opponent. The individual's movements in this warrior-dance are strongly related to the movements of the other 'capoerista' in the game, in reflexive processes that enhances self-esteem and seeks to end stigmas.

Playing Capoeira Angola is a process of raising one's self-awareness; it is not limited to the physical activity and it seeks to restructure the individual starting from these collective experiences.

Thus, when practicing Capoeira Angola we intend to interact individually and collectively with the world, by participating in its social-cultural dynamics. So, in the education of the 'capoeirista', debate and reflection are as important as the physical training and playing.