The Ark

Capoeira at The Ark is a 12-month project to deliver free capoeira classes to 5-18-yr-olds in Bodmin through The Ark, a youth charity outreach.

The project started in March 2011 at the ‘Bass’ project on Fore St, Bodmin for 14-18-yr-olds. The group performed in front of a live audience at Bodmin College during the summer of 2011 and  had their activities accredited through the ‘Youth Cornwall Activities Award.

The project also delivered a session to obese children and parents at Robartes Junior School in July 2011.

In September the project moved to Berryfields as an outreach project for the 5-10-yr-olds and 11-14-yr-olds. By october, the 5-10-yr-old session had 20 participants.

Below is the first quarterly report for the project. More will follow on this project. The next report will follow shortly.

Extreme Dance Project Progress Report – March to June 2011 – Pete Garcia & Colin Martin – 11th July 2011

We are pleased to report that since commencing earlier this year, the capoeira sessions have been going really well. As we started in March, only three sessions fell into Q1 (Jan to Mar 2011), but we managed to engage 17 participants in this period. During the three months of Q2 (Apr to Jun 2011) we have engaged a further 19 participants, bringing the total to 36.

Although most participants have only tried it a few times, a core of six to eight have committed themselves to taking part regularly. The rapidly developing skills of this core group are a reflection of their dedication to the art. In the last few weeks, this group led a taster session for overweight and obese young people and their parents. This required a combination of confidence to perform for others, along with inter-personal skills to encourage self-conscious audience members to try out the activity themselves.

Also just last week the group performed at a dance evening in front of an audience of around 70 young people and their parents at Bodmin college. They received rapturous applause, and we are working with the young people to get their activities accredited through the ‘Youth Cornwall Activities Award.

The instructor now divides each session in half – one part to continue the development of this core group, and the other to provide an accessible entry point to beginners. Over the summer, we hope to take the activity to other venues and groups in order to continue engaging new participants.

We are pleased and proud of what the group has achieved, and some of their parents have told us that the capoeira sessions are turning them into more confident young people.