Happy News Year Roda at Passing Clouds

Hola Capoeira community,

Once again we have celebrated the News Year with a Roda de Capoeira. This time we had the support of Passing Clouds.
Many Thanks to all that made it to the passing clouds roda last 1st January, the idea for this roda, with a variety of rodas in London means people can learn and enjoy this diversity of the art of capoeira, its richness.

The preparations for this roda began with the initiative to keep the flame burning that was already ignited at the Southbank new year roda in 2010. Although responses from capoeiristas to involve and create this roda were always reserved and few , with a core of enthusiastic and crazy folk we were able to secure the venue of Passing cloud and began our plans.Mestre Carlao suggested to me in Rio ,” Dont worry if people dont respond to be involved , just create the roda anyway and people will come ! “We are so fortunate to have been given access for our rodas to this upper space at Passing clouds its a wonderful bohemian room , like a mix between an antiques’ bric a brac’ market, art studio and an Indian backpackers retreat ! As always with the enthusiasm of the ‘crazy duo’ the preparations of mopping , sweeping , instrument tune’ing began early on the Sunday afternoon with much vigour, excitement and New Years delirium. We lit candles around the room, formed the many sofas and chairs and placed the bateria at the summit of the egg!
Capoeiristas began arriving on a rainy new years Sunday a bit late but as a few arrived , then arrived a dozen then twenty a mix of family, friends and new strangers of all styles of capoeira. We began the ritual with games in pairs to a soundtrack of Mestre Manoel’s Ypiranga de Pastinha. As the numbers grew and the anticipation arose I felt my nerves as I gave the first Ladainha of the year to ignite the capoeira for the day. Appropriately the roda began with a female game between different styles of capoeira , such is the growing larger enthusiastic female prescence of amazing female capoeira at rodas today ! The games flowed smiles and rabo de arrais passed over us all as energy grew together . A bateria made up of so many different groups represented and games almost always between capoeiristas of different groups gave for an amicable and relaxed roda. The arrival of Urban ritual capoeiristas half way through gave only more energy , and as the spontaneous guests of the day they gave there musical ideas, formation of the roda and jogos to add to the richness of the day . The roda remained animated , friendly, expressive and lively until the end after approximately three hours of vadiacao , it was time to chat , dance and smile more together .

Until the next vadiacao in passing clouds , Thank- you to everyone.

Charley and Kabula Capoeira community / family of London

A great space deserves a great Capoeira Vibe. Passing Clouds has been established as a very important space for new talents at the London scene. Capoeira is also part of this scene and to the movement which promotes the art and culture in Dalston area.

Hannah (Kabula Arts) and Prof. Toca (FICA, London)

The idea was so successful that we are working to make a monthly Roda in there. The main objective is to support the whole community of capoeiristas and to collaborate to the spirit of Capoeira in London.

When many fronts coming together to make things collectively, the energy naturally raises, everyone wins and capoeira stands out more than the individuals or groups themselves. This is the great advantage of the many Community Rodas in London.

Até a próxima Roda … see you next Roda!

I Encontro da Memória da Capoeira Angola do Rio de Janeiro

clique aqui para ver o video

O I Encontro da Capoeira Angola do Rio de Janeiro, que aconteceu nos dias 8 e 9 de Outubro de 2011 concentrou a energia e as estórias da capoeira angola do Rio de Janeiro no coração no Largo dos Guimarães, no coração de Santa Teresa.
Foi um fim de semana regado a muita capoeira e conversa com convidados especiais e alunos que tiveram muito tempo para trocar ideias e relembrar fatos e vivências em comum da Memória da capoeira carioca e daqueles que dela participaram e ainda participam.
O evento que contou com a presença de Mestres que a muito não se reuniam para jogar, tocar e participar de uma celebração que agora entrar para o calendário cultural da capoeira do Rio de Janeiro.
Quem não pode vir dessa vez poderá então participar em 2012 quando mais um Memória acontecerá!
Parabéns a todos o participantes, visitantes, Mestres e demais lideres de Grupos, mas principalmente a Capoeira Angola, que agora ganha mais dia no calendário cultural do Rio de Janeiro!

Dr Matthias Röhrig Assunção

This text was kindly provided by Dr Matthias Röhrig Assunção (Univertisty of Essex)

Capoeira presentation/history to Kabula website.

African slaves and their Brazilian-born descendants (called Creoles) developed capoeira in port cities like Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife and others. They built on earlier African fighting techniques and combat games, mainly from West Central Africa, as well as musical and rhythmic traditions. They merged and transformed the energy of their dances, the excitement of fighting duels, the vitality of rituals and the hypnotic percussion of their ancestors to create one of the most original cultural practices of Brazil, also known at the time as the ‘sorcery game’ (jogo de mandinga) or ‘vagrancy’ (vadiação). Capoeira development reflects the new social and cultural context of plantation societies in the Americas, where cunning (malandragem) became a core strategy of survival for the enslaved as well as for the free poor, relegated to second-class citizens because of race and class discrimination. For that reason the elites always considered it as a dangerous practice. Police chiefs made sure that any person caught in the streets playing capoeira was arrested and harshly punished; slaves were savagely whipped. Nonetheless, capoeira survived by adapting to, infiltrating and subverting existing power structures. In cities such as Rio de Janeiro, capoeiras established strategic alliances with the powerful, who used them as their private militias. The association with political parties during the Brazilian Empire collapsed with the establishment of the Republic in 1889. The first Republican police chief arbitrarily deported hundreds of capoeiras to a distant island in the Atlantic. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Capoeira in Rio de Janeiro was significantly weakened, although not extinct. In other regions, where repression had been less systematic, capoeira survived better. In Salvador and the surrounding Bay of All the Saints, in particular, capoeira remained more embedded in its African roots, and associated to other Afro-Bahian forms such as samba-de-roda. The best capoeira players could be seen on Sundays in working-class neighbourhoods or during the annual cycle of celebrations of saints between November and Carnival in February.

During the first decades of the 20^th century, capoeira had to face new challenges, in particular from Japanese martial arts that were brought to Brazil. As Jiujitsu champions challenged Brazilian fighters in the ring, various martial artists in Brazil recognized the need for capoeira to modernize. Mestre Bimba stood out among them, because he transformed capoeira into a modern and efficient fighting style, without relinquishing its Afro-Brazilian heritage. His capoeira Regional style incorporated new kicks and developed a systematic training method, but maintained the capoeira music, rhythms and songs as well as the ritual of the roda (the circle where capoeira is performed). Regional contributed decisively to the successful modernization of capoeira. Since the 1950s, Bahian capoeira, mainly in its Regional form, spread to other Brazilian cities. More traditionalist capoeira mestres – among which prominently figures Mestre Pastinha – developed an alternative path of modernization from the 1940s onwards, which they baptized capoeira (de) Angola. Angoleiros emphasize theatricality, traditions, musicality whilst criticizing excessive sportivization of the art.

From the 1960s onwards, Bahian capoeiristas migrated to the main southeastern Brazilian cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. They taught both styles, and capoeira started to be widely practised by a whole new generation of Brazilians from various social backgrounds. Ever since capoeira has spread to the rest of Brazil, and is now practiced in every state of the Federative Republic. Capoeira also started to expand to the US and Western Europe in the late 1970s, and to other continents since the 1990s. It is now practised in most countries around the world. Capoeira has also evolved further, to the point that the traditional distinction between Regional and Angola is no longer sufficient for the understanding of contemporary styles. Contemporary capoeira has incorporated many features from both styles, and the most important groups have all developed their own, distinctive style. Some fitness gurus teach capoeira as a kind of extreme sport, whilst others use capoeira techniques in free-style fighting competitions . Capoeira techniques are also widely used by theatre groups or dancers.

Since the 1960s capoeira has gradually obtained wider social recognition in Brazil. Capoeira became a popular theme in movies and music (MPB). This process was intensified by the spectacular growth of the art and its globalization. More recently capoeira has been recognized an intangible heritage by the Brazilian government.

Cycling Friendly Cities film

We are changing in that way and there is no other way to go. It’s quite urgent and the examples given from the cities which have done this choice are the proof that it’s possible!

Look to your street full of cars and with no space for you kids to play around. Look to your city and get annoied by the fact that you have (every day) to spend much more time to go and come then would be necessary.

Why? Cars in excess! Who is doing that? You are and it’s you decision which can change that situation.

Watch this film and spread the word!

Cycling Friendly Cities

Bike sign in the street of Lectoure, France

Se você um dia passar por cidades como Bogotá, Amsterdam, Copenhagen ou em Beijing você poderá se surpreender com a quantidade de pessoas de todas as idades pedalando para o trabalho, para a escola ou pelo simples prazer que esta atividade proporciona ao ciclista.

Ao contrário dessa realidade, aqui no Brasil o que vemos nas ruas de duas das mais importantes cidades das Américas (Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo) é um amontoado de pessoas enfrentando filas e as normalmente se engalfinhando para acessar os milhares de ônibus das incontáveis empresas que abarrotam as vias publicas e promovem o caos no meio urbano.

A população que utiliza esses meios de transporte, está literalmente nas mãos daquilo que se chama máfia dos transportes e da indústria automobilística, que envolve grandes empresas de ônibus, politicos, interesses imobiliários, Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Petrobrás. Enfim, uma monstruosa armadilha onde o cidadão é apenas massa de manobra mexida e remexida, e por fim triturada ao gosto do poder e da manipulação de uma pequena elite de multimilionários que dominam o Brasil e o mundo.

Do outro lado dessa cena está o ciclista, o skatista ou o patinador que heroicamente conseguiu se libertar de anos da “escravidão” engendrada pela lavagem cerebral de campanhas de marketing e propagandas. Planos de desenviolvimento do Pais que envolveu negociatas historicas. Manobras politicas escandalosas manobradas pelas grandes companhias automobilísticas. Isso sem falar das Rede Ferroviaria Federal Sociedade Anonima  – RFFSA extinta, sucateada, e destrocada por diversos periodos de desgoverno do Brasil.

Essas mega corporações mancumunadas com as gigantes do petróleo conseguiram dominar o planeta já há algumas décadas através da força, da corrupção e do poder. Mas assim como existem a ganância e a sede de poder, existe também o ciclista, que como Platão em seu mito da Caverna ou Morpheus e Neo do filme Matrix, dirigido pelos irmãos Wachowski, conseguiu enxergar para além da software que foi implantado em nossas mentes. De escravos se tornarnaram hackers do sistema, preferindo viver nos interstícios do programa. Pedalando valente e  ”inocentemente” por entre carros e ônibus ferozes.

A bicicleta, como a democratização da informação atraves da internet, pode ser o reverso do mito da caixa de pandora. Quando finalmente a abrirmos vamos com isso libertar o conhecimento e a inteligência numa tentativa de contra-sabotagem de toda essa força destrutiva que despeja anualmente um numero incessante de milhoes de carros * nos asfaltos de nossas cidades.

O ato simbólico de pedalar todo dia para o trabalho, para a capoeira, academia ou de ir pedalando para o parque ou para a praia com nossos filhos pode incitar uma transformação real que ainda não mostrou  em nada sua força e poder de mudança.

Veja como a fórmula pode ser simples:

Menos automóveis nas ruas = mais espaço = menos stress = menos violência = menos policiamento nas ruas = mais policiais onde são necessários = menos corrupção = menos automóveis nas ruas …

Menos automóveis nas ruas = menos indústrias automotivas = menos consumo de petróleo e derivados = menos dinheiro nas mão de poucos = mais dinheiro para o desenvolvimento de alternativas ecomômicas sustentáveis para um mundo possível = menos automóveis nas ruas …

Menos automóveis nas ruas = mais bicicletas = mais saúde/menos doenças = mais sorrisos = mais contato humano = mais dinheiro no bolso = mais lazer = mais tempo livre = memos automóveis nas ruas …

Essas fórmulas parecem ingênuas? Sim parecem! Mas, não custa nada tentar, visto que aquelas antigas e decadentes criadas por banqueiros, economistas, sistemas religiosos e fraudários estão deixando países inteiros na bancarrota, como já se sabe. Basta olhar para o que está acontecendo nesse segundo em diversos países do globo!

Comecemos então pela bicileta e deixemos o efeito dominó acontecer!

Bike sign in the streets of Lisbon, Portugal

* Em 2006,  a China produziu perto de 40% / 4.1 milhoes de unidades de automoveis. A China se tornou o segundo maior do mercado de autmoveis em 2010.

Kabula Journeys is happening again!! The 3rd cultural trip to Rio starts on the 8th of February 2012 with special activities (see bellow)! We are in search of the authenticity present within the cultural manifestations of Rio and other Brazillian locals.

This journey  is a celebration of culture and community, visiting a social project, street carnival and involving of course fun, lots of fun!

We will be visiting local and older capoeira schools and training with respected masters from across Rio de Janeiro!

Going to Capoeira street Rodas! Learning jongo! Cycling touring! Drumming the rhythms of  Candomblé in a traditional cultural context! Playing pandeiro (the brazilian tambourine) in the exquisite street carnival Bloco É do Pandeiro, with Percussion Master Pedro Lima, during the official Carnival of Rio … This is of course not to be missed!!!

The full Program is going to be confirmed on the beggining of September. So, keep watchingthis space!!

Some activities are already confirmed:

. Rio de Janeiro street Carnival:

Carnival with É do Pandeiro Cultural Group :: Sunday the 19th Feb. at Praça São Salvador
(Official Carnival days for 2012 are from the 18th to 21st Feb.)

Percussion:

. Percussão do Candomblé/Candomblé Percussion :: Espaço Musical Laranjeiras (admin. by Pedro Lima)
. Pandeiro Popular Brasileiro :: Espaço Musical Laranjeiras

Capoeira Master Classes:

. Mestre José Carlos: at N’Golo venue, Mercado das Pulgas Rua Almirante Alexandrino – Santa Teresa
. Mestre Carlão: at N’Golo venue, Mercado das Pulgas Rua Almirante Alexandrino – Santa Teresa

TBC / a ser confirmado:

. Mestre Marco Aurélio
. Mestre Neco
. Mestre Lumumba

Cycling tour (2) :

. Rio seaside cycle route (see map bellow) – from Leblon beach to Leme beach

. Paineiras

when: from the 8 Feb to the 22 Feb 2012.
where: Rio de Janeiro City
what: capoeira, jongo, Rio cycling tour, drumming, carnival and more …
for booking and more info: contact us at info@kabula.org
co-ordenation: M. Carlão

full info coming soon at www.kabula.org come and join us in Kabula Journeys.

Mestre Neco Kabula Journeys 2006

Mestre Neco during his Mucic Class at Mercado das Pulgas in Santa Teresa, RJ.

Bloco Céu na Terra, one of the greatest Cultural Groups of Rio performing during the hot Carnival of 2006!

M. João Grande's interview

Hi Everyone,

From this week the beginning of July we will be posting informations about Mestre João Grande and Mestre Gato for the those ones which are courious to know more about them as they are coming soon to the Movement for CHange :: The Capoeiragem Conference 2011 in London, July the 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Enjoy!

—-

Mestre João Grande’s Interview:

Interview part 1
Interview part 2
Interview part 3
Interview part 4
Interview part 5
Interview part 6
Interview part 7
Interview part 8
Interview part 9

Some of M. João Grande memorable games :: Alguns jogos memoráveis de Mestre João Grande

M. João Grande plays M. Cúrio, 1968

M. Cobrinha Verde plays M. João Grande, 1968

M. João João Pequeno plays M. João Grande, 1968

M. João Grande plays M. João pequeno, 1986

M. João Grande plays Boca Rica, GCAP 1997

Capoeira Angola game 1960

Short film documentary (click bellow to watch it)

Bahia
Voyage sans passeport – 09/01/1960 – 12min46s
Discover the North Atlantic coast of Brazil from the port and authentic living in Salvador de Bahia, through the heavenly beaches of the region of Pernambuco, where dancers compete capoeira, surf rafts “raft”, and ended in Fortaleza area and attend a traditional collective fishing scene, with the rhythm of a traditional song.

Production
producteur ou co-producteur:
Office national de radiodiffusion télévision française