This year Capoeira retreat programme is all about communication. Each teacher will be given a whole day to be able to dive deep in the themes of their sessions and pass on the principles, philosophy and their vivid persona. Sessions will be going on during the day and after break for food, swim and talk there will be a looong rodas where we will put to practice the new perspectives gained through their sessions.
M. Versátil‘s session
Full Bodied Takedowns
What we will be doing can be seen as an extension of the work that we began last year with connection. We will now use that as a basis to move to move through three stages:
Approximation
Finding the comfort and the time to be close.
Unification
Joining mass with your partner and taking the lead.
Execution
Putting your partner where you want them, according to what your specific intention is (protecting your training partner or defending yourself).
These principles will help us to perfect the execution of our takedowns effectively and safely.
Prof. Caatinga’s session
Communication is everywhere in Capoeira. From the musicality to the thinking and “jogo” everything is about connection and communication. We will focus on some of the different codes that allow us to understand this rich language inside the roda.
Dynamic of jogo de dentro:
– tools to connect with my partner
– building objectivity without stiffness
Instruments playing :
– Conversation between Musicians and players. “Jogar conforme ao pedido do berimbau”
– harmony in the Conversation between instruments
Contextualisation of the singing :
– listening to the message
– sending a message
CM Hiena’s session
We will start with some basic conceptions of musicality in Brazilian culture.
Then we will work with some Warm-up exercises, singing techniques and vocal tuning, while practicing I will give some individual tips. Then we’ll talk about types of voices and how to use them to sing in capoeira. We will explore exercises that help to adapt the types of voices to different types of capoeira music and put them to practice.
The second part will be about working on some handling exercises and improving the pandeiro and berimbau techniques. With that knowledge we will make some group exercises of how to play and connect with others instruments and with the roda atmosphere.
CM Vaqueiro’s session
Intention: constructing tactics
In my approach to teaching capoeira, intention represents one of five basic concepts that make up a capoeira game.
While it might seem to be the most insignificant one compared to the others, its importance grows with the level and depth of interaction you aspire to have inside the roda and in your daily practice.
To gain awareness in how your intention affects your presence, your game, your whole communication inside the ritual of capoeira.
We’ll try to wipe the slate clean and start on a very basic level, developing our understanding for the interaction that happens in a roda.
We’ll approach the topic of trickery/malicia and the use of body language to construct a dialogue rooted in the uncertainty and inherent ambiguity of capoeira.