In exactly 4 months we will celebrate life, capoeira and friendship in an 11-acre nature reserve in Cornwall at JingaFest. We will sleep under the stars, learn together, laugh and enjoy the summer air. To mark this, here is the first of our teacher profiles.
Mestre Joaozinho da Figueira is a legend in his own right, not least for his weekly Friday night roda in West London (he hasn’t missed one for 6 years!) Testament to his good energy, fame and connectivity is the list of high-profile guests he has had in his roda. On this Friday night before Christmas 2012, there were two very special guests. This is one of my favourite capoeira clips because of Joaozinho (bermibau, singing) and the friendship, energy and top level capoeira from these two famous capoeiristas.
Grab a tent, leave the city behind
Take time out, you deserve the best
Play capoeira by the sea, relax and unwind
Enjoy a hot tub, a massage and a well-earned rest
Walk barefoot in the forest, breath the fresh air,
Wake up with yoga, go to bed with Bossa Nova
Feel calm and refreshed
Welcome to JingaFest.
JingaFest Summer Camp 2012 is the UK’s premium capoeira retreat held in Cornwall over the Queen’s Diamond Jubillee double bank holiday weekend: Friday June 1st – Tuesday June 5th.
JingaFest (Summer Camp) 2012 is the UK’s premium capoeira retreat held in Cornwall over the Queen’s Diamond Jubillee double bank holiday weekend: Friday June 1st – Tuesday June 5th.
The 4-day festival will feature over 30 capoeira workshops across all styles from renowned UK masters (including Mestre Joaozinho & CM Claudio Campos) and other guest teachers, as well as workshops in yoga & samba.
The venue is the Chyan Cultural Centre (near Falmouth), an 11 acre nature reserve, woodland and organic garden, complete with its very own stream. There are two modern barns (with high-quality wooden floors) and several tented structures, such as tepees, marquees and yurts, which will house a shop, message therapy centre and tea/coffee room. The site also has natural toilets, wood-fired showers and hot tub.
We anticipate no more than 100 adults on site, plus some children. Tickets are sold in advance so that we can cater as well as possible for everyone. All you will need to bring is a tent, a toothbrush and a chilled attitude.
More info will be uploaded here soon. In the meantime, when people ask you what you’re doing on the Queen’s Jubillee weekend, tell them you’re going to JingaFest Summer Camp.
When yoga was popularised by celebrities like Madonna & Geri Halliwell, yoga classes throughout the world were rammed.
Now that Jennifer Lopez has been pictured (and filmed) on a beach in Montevideo, Uruguay, practicing capoeira, will capoeira teachers receive the same response from people eager to emulate the super-famous singer/actor? Somehow I doubt it, but I would love to be proved wrong.
Of course this publicity (already featured in Hello! Magazine online) will raise the profile of our beloved (but very niche) art form. But when Madonna and Geri Halliwell publicised their hobbies, they were already, I think, experienced yoga students and were happy to shout about the benefits of their new hobby. In this case it seems that J-Lo was practicing the basics learnt in her first class (and doing an excellent job too, esp for a ’42-yr-old with twins’). So I doubt we will see people flocking to our classes.
Furthermore, the quality of capoeira practiced by the muscle-bound, topless chaps in this video (which has thankfully now been removed) is an ugly crime against all that is beautiful in our graceful & fluid art form. If a capoeira game is an interactive conversation, the teacher in this video was just shouting at himself (and poor J-Lo) as he displayed his muscle-bound physique -- the sort you only get from working out in a gym, not from playing capoeira!
But, as I step down from my soap box, I extend warm thanks to J-Lo for this publicity (and to her lawyers for removing the video) She’s representing all the 40-plus yummy mummies and raising awareness for a past-time which I hold very dear to me heart.
It’s a funny way to get to know someone, capoeira!
Instead of having a beer or going ‘out’, you throw kicks and trips at each other to see what they throw back at you. You ask a question and they answer. The content of the answer and the conversation which follows tells you a lot about them -- as well as yourself. Out of this exchange, some of the longest-lasting friendships (amizades) are borne.
This weekend I went to the Winter capoeira festival of Claudio Campos in Bristol (see pic above) and made (and renewed) solid connections with a huge number of very special people purely through capoeira. I wouldn’t remember most of their names (sounds bad) if it wasn’t for Facebook but I do remember the ‘conversations’ and the good vibes expressed through the capoeira games.
I also remember the reconnection I made with with my own capoeira (and personal) character following a period of hard times. The power of capoeira as a therapy never ceases to amaze me.
Here is a short video of the batizado (grading) from the event. You can see me strut my stuff at 4mins50secs:
I used to practice (and teach) this style of capoeira (contemporary) for 8 years. Two years ago I started to learn Angola….
To read the next instalment of this blog, sign up to my RSS feeds or follow me on facebook.
