Grupo Senzala
  • Home
  • Kids
    • Cambridge Kids Classes >
      • Free Demo in your School
    • Sheffield Kids Class
    • Northampton Kids Class
  • Classes
    • Capoeira >
      • Our Group >
        • Senzala Podcast
        • History
        • Mestre Pedro >
          • Blog
      • Become a Member
      • Media >
        • Photos
        • Videos
    • On Line Classes
    • Book a Free Class
    • Cambridge Classes
    • Edinburgh Classes
    • Glasgow
    • Grantham
    • Leicester
    • Northampton
    • Sheffield
  • Community Action Project
    • Capoeira Solidaria >
      • Capoeira Solidária Album

Soul Capoeirista

24/4/2017

3 Comments

 
Picture
​

This is a story of a then young boy, Fernando, his passion and how lives can change in a moment for ever. 


It was an early evening in May at a party that he met her for the first time… And what impact she had on him…  What would happen that evening would change not just their fates forever but many others in the years to come…
There was nothing really special about the party itself: teenagers dancing, some american music, snacks… This was in 1963, a year before Brazil’s political turmoil would plunge the country into a 21 year of military rule… 


It was Paulo, a friend from the sea scouts that introduced “her” to him later on when a fight broke out… A bigger kid didn’t like Paulo’s accidental bump while dancing and pushed him hard and marched at him… feeling threatened,  he, in single move, threw his opponent across the room…
The strike itself didn’t hurt the bully, but it humiliated and demoralised him that his will to take things further dissipated as fast as the altercation had started.

Fernando was impressed and asked Paulo what was that he had just witnessed - It is Capoeira Paulo said. The kick used was a benção (blessing in Portuguese) a kick that in the later years would become Fernando’s trade mark kick.


That was the moment when Fernando met Capoeira, an art form that he had read and heard stories about. It was also the moment that initiated a chain of events that would lead to the creation of Group Senzala a unique and genuine group that would become known through out the Capoeira world, revolutionise this unique art form, the way it was taught and played for ever.
Fernando asked Paulo if he would teach him some and although he was no teacher at the time he was more than happy to share what he had learned during his school holidays in Bahia training at the famous Mestre Bimba academy. Fernando brought his brother Gil and slowly a few more gradually joined the group and soon Paulo’s place was too small to hold the training and they had to move somewhere else. A crack on the wall due to the bençãos  training was a major reason for the move. 


Fernando became know as Gato due to his agility and way he moved. He was given the status of being a Mestre when the organisers of the Berimbau de Ouro tournament barred him from entering the third year of competition after he won it with Mestre Preguiça the two previous years. That didn’t stop the group from wining the competition again with two other members.
Mestre Gato still in his early twenties was the pioneer of bringing Capoeira to the universities of Rio: both PUC, the catholic University of Rio and the Federal University of Rio. He was also the first to teach at the Associação do Servidores Civis do Brasil - ASCB a massive venue in the south-zone of Rio, where Mestre Camisa would return years later to teach.


Even though he was one of the most successful teachers at the time with over one hundred students be the early seventies, he made the conscious decision of not making Capoeira his main work as he told me many years later: “ I had a profound relationship, respect and love for this art and I did not dare to risk having that changed by financially depend on it.” 


This year Mestre Gato will turn 70 years old. He dedicated the last 53 years of his life to the promotion, research and development of Capoeira even though he pursued his career as a civil engineer. He always managed to train, teach and organise events with other members of the Grupo Senzala and other groups as well.
A Capoeirista at heart, a researcher, a Mestre like few, a role model for anyone who is passionate and serious about Capoeira.



Picture
3 Comments

2015

5/8/2016

2 Comments

 
Since my last post a lot happened.  2015 was the year when I decided to put in practise a few of my ideas with better planning and advertising.
I started by setting up a few events that I want to keep for the years ahead; In February I run a workshop called Cambridge Capoeira Meeting, inviting different guests and their students to get together in for a weekend of training. We hosted on the first CM Coqueirinho from Sweden, Mestre Chitãozinho, CM Carrapeta and CM Sanhaço both from London. 


Also in February I organised the tour called Capoeira 4 Refugees. I been following their work for a while and I decided with the charity's support, to organize a trip to Palestine and Jordan, train with the local instructors and try to get a few people to come and see their work. They do an amazing work with children affected by war, violence and forced displacement. It was a leap into the unknown. Since November the year before I made a video and a facebook page and a  loads of regular posts. We managed to get 4 people to come to Palestine. The initial plan had to change  last minute because of a snow storm. It was a great experience to witness first hand life in Palestine and how Capoeira is being used there in the community. We went to Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jerusalem. We did a roda Al-Quds university, taught in East Jerusalem and also inside the Shu'afat Camp. The last place was the most interesting for me. It reminded me a lot of the favelas in Rio - loads of people living in close proximity, small streets, loads of kids the only difference was a 8 meter wall surrounding the entrance... It was surreal... But I was so grateful to be there, experience it and teach capoeira... It reminded of me 20 years ago teaching in Fallet in very similar circumstances... Watch the video above...

In May I had the unique opportunity to have Mestre Acordeon for a workshop in Cambridge. It was the first big capoeira workshop I organised in a while. I had people coming from all over Europe to join us. I got the band of CM Sanhaço to play in the party and we cooked feijoada for over 90 people... It was a blast! Also I had to privilege of spending time with Mestre Acordeon and listening to his amazing stories for a week.

Later on the same month I did my first event in Bali where I tried to combine Capoeira training with tourism and get capoeira students from other countries to visit the island of Bali during the batizado. This together with the previous experience in Tehran that led me to create the Capoeira Me Leva tours in 2016.

What all those events had in common apart from the capoeira is that they all had been promoted with videos on facebook with plenty of time of notice. They were all 
 successes and most of them were sold out. 
The second semester of the year was also a busy time. I got to travel to a dream destination: Hawaii. I stayed seven days in this paradise island. I was a guest of my friend Japa who has been living there for a number of years. His group is small but with such a great vibe. Japa is a contra mestre of Grupo Senzala that is a great student of our art. He is passionate about every thing Capoeira: the traditions, the old mestres stories, the tiny details of Berimbaus toques etc... A real example of a soul capoeirista. He works hard during the day putting solar panels in roofs and the rest of his time is dedicated to his passion.

Getting back to the UK I had little time left to finish organising the gradings and batizados in Cambridge and Scotland.

I got such a momentum from the year of 2015 that I decided to dare even more in the following year... What could happen? I was in a winning streak...
2 Comments

2014 event

7/8/2014

6 Comments

 
This post I started one month to go to the 2014 event...
In a month from now I will be heading one more time to Iran. This time it will be different. I will have two people with me and a third arriving from Sweden a couple of days later. I gave my best shot in the hope that people will support the project, the idea. I knew it would not be easy but what have a got to loose? I see a bright future for Capoeira in Iran, I believe that things will get big maybe not this time but I am sure things will only improve. Everything is much harder in Iran, from finding guests willing to come to getting  the needed materials through or to find out venues willing to take our booking. This challenges made me more eager to make it happen. There is no turning back now. 
The event went well. There were students from the 3 cities: Mashad, Yazd and Tehran. Some students travelled more than 18 hours to get there. We managed to pre sell over 60 t shirts which raised over £600. This money paid for the tickets of the guests and part of the guest fee. It was quite a logistic nightmare to make sure all t shirts went back to all the donors. Students had a great time and the team that made across: Me, Contra Mestre Coqueirinho, my instructor Igor and a student got to experience a bit of the culture, the amazing Iranian hospitality and the city that was also extremely busy due to the Iranian New Year or Norooz. Watch the video below.



6 Comments

the Iranian connection  – A conecção Iraniana

27/1/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
Versão em português após texto abaixo
  One day I received an email from my student who organizes the Cambridge group website. He had forward me a message that was send to the website. His words to me were “check this out it looks like spam though”. It was an email in a muddled up English asking for “capoeira cooperation”. What was really unusual was the place it was coming from, the city of Tehran, Iran. Now unfortunately, in the western world, what you hear about Iran is almost always negative and scary. I guess for many people that’s where the story would end. However this didn’t stop me for a moment as I was tempted by my curiosity and had long ago decided to go where ever Capoeira takes me.  So far so good…

       I replied to the email and we exchanged a few more and soon enough an invitation was made for me to come over. They asked for a copy of my passport, scanned and sent to them. I was hesitant at first – what is the worst that can happen? I mean put yourself in my position, would you go ahead?? I decided not to think about it too much and sent it. It was for the visa they told me and a ticket was sent in return. They explained to me would happen at the airport: fill up a form and pay the visa. That was it.

To be honest, I was a little apprehensive once the penny dropped and it became clear that the trip was going ahead as the date got closer and closer. Mentioning the trip and asking friends what their thoughts were did not really help. Most of them said I was crazy or that I should be really careful and to be totally sure whom I was dealing with etc… I just had ignored all the security rules of the internet and there I was on the way to one of the most isolated countries in the world with just a mobile number and a scanned photocopy of a hotel reservation. My gut feeling was that everything was going to go smoothly and that I would have a unique experience. I was not mistaken.
 Once I landed and convinced the immigration officers that I was not a football player I got through the passport control and into the baggage area. Where quickly I realized who my hosts were. Two young men approached me and introduced themselves. Mahid and Pouya.


   
From the moment I landed, I was quite impressed by what I saw: the food, the culture, the size of the city and the Iranian hospitality. They were hosts like no other. They showed me the utmost respect and attention from the very beginning, taking me to many amazing places and restaurants around the city. In the four days I spent there I worked as hard as I could with in the time I had. On my way back I felt an immense gratitude to them and to capoeira that had one more time opened a door to a place and culture I would never come across without it.
Along the 4 years I have had the opportunity to visit 4 times. I have been working together with Pouya and Mahid not just building up a relationship, but training and giving them guidance and witnessing their progression. Another thing I witnessed was the affect the sanctions had on the country: Gradually crippling the economy, devaluating the local currency resulting in an out of control inflation and because of this as the effects worsened, I wasn’t able to visit again for over a year.

Now, as our second batizado approaches, we are faced with the same problem as before. Although Iran and the West has started negotiations to ease the sanctions and resolve their differences, the problems mentioned still persist. I bought my tickets for less than half of the price it would cost them to buy it for me. So I bought another ticket for my instructor, but I want to do more.

That is the reason that now Group Senzala Iran and I, turn to you to invite you to visit Tehran, to take part in our event and make it bigger. I want to share with you the experience I had, I want to show you Iran like it really is.  After all, that is what capoeira is really all about: making friends, bring people from different backgrounds together in a roda with loads of Axé.
The plan is that your visit will raise funds towards making it possible for other teachers to come. You can also help by making a small donation, pre buying the event t-shirt or just helping spread the word about the event.

I thank you for your attention and participation.

Mestre Pedro

Picture
  Um dia eu recebi um email do meu aluno que organiza a pagina do grupo de capoeira de Cambridge. Ele havia me passado um email que o site recebeu com as seguintes palavras “ Dê uma olhada, parece junk mail” Era um email com um ingles truncado pedindo  “uma cooperação pra capoeira”. O que me chamou a atenção era o local de onde a mensagem veio: a cidade de Teerã, no Irã. Infelizmente no Ocidente o que se ouve sobre esse país é sempre de uma maneira negativa e ou assustadora. Acho que muitas pessoas seria esse momento que essa história acabaria. Porém isso nem me passou pela cabeça eu já estava tentado pela minha curiosidade e já ha algum tempo tinha decidido a ir aonde a capoeira me levar. E até então não podia reclamar...

Eu respondi diretamente o email. Se tratava de duas pessoas interessadas em capoeira que estavam querendo desenvolver capoeira no Irã. Já haviam contactados alguns grupos mas quando o nome do pais era mencionado rapidamente o interesse desaparecia. Trocamos mais alguns email e pintou um convite de eu ir lá. Eles pediram que eu enviasse uma copia scaneada do meu passaporte. Eu achei meio estranho, mas pensei o que de tão mal poderia acontecer? – Ponha-se no meu lugar, o que você faria?? Decidi não pensar muito e mandei. Eles precisavam da copia do passaporte pra pré-aplicar pro visto. Em seguida me mandaram a passagem. Eles me explicaram o que teria que fazer ao chegar no aeroporto.

Sincesaramente eu estava um pouco apreensivo quando a realidade bateu e  a data do vôo ficava cada vez mais próxima. Comentar com a amigos e perguntar o que eles achavam realmente não ajudava em nada. Todo mundo dizia que ou eu era louco ou pra ter cuidado, saber ao certo de quem se tratava etc... Eu havia ignorado todas as regras de segurança na internet  e estava a caminho de um dos paises mais isolados do mundo com apenas um numero de celular e uma xérox scaneada de uma reserva de hotel. Algo dentro de mim tinha certeza que tudo ia dar certo e que seria uma experiência única.
Ao chegar no aeroporto depois de um vôo pela Iran air (o avião me lembrava do primeiro vôo que fiz a 24 anos atrás, pois os fones de ouvido ainda eram tubos de borracha por onde o som era propagado...) não tive problema algum. O visto saiu em menos de 10 minutos. Passei pelo controle de passaporte e na área de recolher as malas rapidamente percebi quem estava me esperando. Dois jovens se aproximaram e se apresentaram. Pouya e Mahid.


Desde do primeiro momento que cheguei, fiquei impressionado com o que vi: a comida, a cultura, o tamanho da cidade e a hospitalidade Iraniana. Os dois foram anfitriões sem igual. Super atenciosos respeitadores, eles me mostraram Teerã e diversos locais e restaurantes. Nos quatro dias que passei lá tentei passar o máximo que podia com o tempo que tive. Ao meu retorno me senti grato não somente aos dois mas a capoeira que mais uma vez abriu uma porta para um lugar e uma cultura que dificilmente sem ela teria conhecido.

Ao longos dos últimos 4 anos visitei Teerã mais quatro vezes e nesse tempo alem de estabelecer um relacionamento de capoeira com o Pouya e Mahid pude presenciar o desenvolvimento do grupo. Outra coisa que testemunhei foram os efeitos do embargo econômico ao pais que gradualmente paralisou a economia desvalorizou a moeda local e criou uma inflação descontrolada e por essa razão eu não pude visitar o Irã por mais de um ano.

Com a da do nosso segundo batizado chegando perto os problemas mencionados continuam. Apesar do dialogo político ter sido estabelecido entre o Irã e os paises ocidentais há vários problemas. Eu comprei a minha passagem pro evento por menos da metade do preço que é custaria a eles comprarem pra mim. Então comprei não só a minha como também do meu instrutor mas pretendo fazer mais.

E por essa razão que venho a pedir seu apoio e convida-lo a visitar Teerã e a participar em nosso evento e engrandece-lo  Eu quero que você tenha a experiência que eu tive, e te mostrar o Irã como realmente é. Afinal de contas não é isso que é a capoeira? Fazer novos amigos e unir-los numa roda com muito axé.

O plano é levantar fundos com a sua inscrição ao evento para que possamos convidar ao menos um outro professor. Você pode também ajudar fazendo uma pequena doação, comprando uma camisa do evento ou ajudando a promover o evento.

Agradeço desde já a sua atenção e participação.

Axé

Mestre Pedro
1 Comment

    Author

    Capoeira Mestre in Group Senzala

    Archives

    April 2017
    August 2016
    August 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed