CAPOEIRA
At its heart, I have come to see the Afro-Brazilian art of Capoeira as a social tool and a method to form community. Capoeira is a medium that gives us an opportunity to discover and celebrate ourselves and our individual human potential. With joy as fuel, Capoeira brings us movement, dance, martial arts, music, language, songs, philosophy, crafts and new lenses to look at our world through. It empowers us to discover our own individuality and become the authors of our unique stories, yet together as a group we also find our common ground, our shared humanity and power.
CONTRA MESTRE PALHAÇO
Capoeira found me in 2002, towards the end of my senior year of high school, at Germantown Friends School (GFS), in Philadelphia. I was in the .01% of my private quaker school, who would not pursue college and university. The man who would be my teacher and trusted mentor, Mestre Doutor, came to do a workshop and performance, and in the way that Capoeira has spread to exist worldwide, I was intrigued, and became a practitioner for life that day. Capoeira offered me a continued education. I was a musician, athlete and artist. I also had a passion for wilderness, native mindset and lineage based education. Capoeira put a check mark next to all these things and more simultaneously. Its has been a driving force in my life ever since, taking me to Brazil, to further my education, as well as giving me community and a receptive base of fellow practitioners to teach, wherever I end up in the world. I ran a movement studio in Sebastopol and taught in Sonoma County for 10 years before moving to Nevada County. I am hoping to establish myself here and build community that helps support and grow this beautiful art.
