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ABADÁ-Capoeira RPI

Our class schedule this semester is the same as last year:
Tues. 9:30-11:30pm, Weds. 8-10pm
All classes meet in the top floor of the Mueller Center. The first two classes are free! The executive board also plans many community service events, outreach events, and even demonstrations.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art melting fighting, acrobatics, singing, music, and cunning trickery. It is often known simply as o jogo, or "the game". Two capoeiristas play within the roda: a circle of people who clap, sing, and play traditional songs in Portuguese. The music provides energy to those who play. The berimbau leads the roda, the other instruments, and the players, setting the tone of the game and even the way it is played. The language of the music and the movements can really be learned only by experience with other Capoeiristas (people who study and train Capoeira).

Capoeira has a rich five-hundred year history, beginning with the African slaves brought to Brazil by the Portuguese. After hundreds of years, upon the end of slavery in Brazil, Capoeira was taken up by the malandro: the street-smart ruffian and con man. In fear, the art was made illegal. It was not until the legendary Mestre Bimba opened his school, that Capoeira became public and tolerated, and finally incorporated by Brazil as an element of national pride. In response to the success of Bimba's school, which he called Capoeira Regional, Mestre Pastinha and others tried to recover the older ways and traditions that they feared were being lost, calling their own vision Capoeira Angola.

Many schools of many unique styles have flourished, floundered, merged, and survived and influenced each other. Mestre Camisa founded ABADÁ-Capoeira in 1988 and it has grown to be the world's largest Capoeira organization, with representation in sixteen countries. ABADÁ-Capoeira is an acronym for Associação Brasileira de Apoio e Desenvolvimento da Arte-Capoeira, and "abada" is also the word in Portuguese for the pants we wear while playing Capoeira. Freddy Correo, now Instrutor Furacão, brought ABADÁ to New York City, and in 2004, Pezinho, a student of Furacão and a student of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, created the Capoeira club at RPI. Furacão and others from AC-NYC often make the three hour drive to come up and train with us and we are gifted with many skilled and high-energy Capoeiras both here and in our parent organization in New York City.

Mestre Camisa founded ABADÁ-Capoeira in 1988, and it has grown to be the world's largest Capoeira organization, with representation in sixteen countries. ABADÁ-Capoeira is an acronym for Associação Brasileira de Apoio e Desenvolvimento de Arte-Capoeira, and "abada" is also the word in Portuguese for the pants Capoeiristas wear while playing Capoeira.

Freddy Correa, now Instrutor Furacão, brought ABADÁ-Capoeira to New York City (ACNYC) in 1998. In 2004, Miguel Tejeda created the ABADÁ-Capoeira RPI club (ACRPI). Miguel, or Pezinho, is an alumnus of RPI, and a student of Furacão. Pezinho, Furacão, and other certified instructors from ACNYC, often make the three hour drive to train with us.

You can search for the "Abada Capoeira RPI" group on facebook, or the club can be reached at the email address capoeira-info@union.rpi.edu.

Axe!