Celebrating Capoeira in Washington, DC

We at 733 Euclid Street celebrate capoeira just about everyday of the week in DC, but on September 13, 2008, the Brazilian Embassy hosted an event in honor of capoeira's registration as an official cultural patrimony of Brazil in the capital of the United States of America, Washington, DC.

FICA-DC started the celebration early with a Friday night roda for Mestre João Grande who made the journey to DC with his student Bujão. The energy was very nice and we were really happy to welcome Mestre back to our school after nearly a decade since his last visit.

The embassy event was held at the City Museum in the heart of downtown DC. Hundreds of people came, capoeiristas as well as interested citizens. The event started with a lunch discussion about capoeira led by Mestre João Grande, Fred Abreu from the Insituto Jair Moura in Salvador, and Mestre Camisa from Abadá Capoeira. Fred Abreu talked about the history of capoeira, João Grande talked about his roots as a capoeirista, and Mestre Camisa talked about the recent history of capoeira and his travels.

Many capoeiristas came out to hear the discussion, watch a bit of the movie "Mestre Bimba, A Capoeira Illuminado", have some lunch, and play capoeira under the hot September sun. It was a fun roda, led by Mestre João Grande with Mestre Jurandir from FICA and Mestre Camisa. There were also many other Regional mestres, contramestres, and professors there. We did a joint Angola-Regional roda that lasted a few hours, and then a local all-women samba reggae drum ensemble got everyone dancing.

To close out our long and happy day, angoleiros and regionais sat down to dinner together in Adams Morgan.

The event was part of the Brazilian Embassy's release of its latest edition of the magazine, Texts from Brazil. This edition is devoted to capoeira. It is really excellent and beautifully put together, and yes, you will soon be seeing excerpts from the magazine on the blog, but in the meantime, it is also available for perusal in our archives.

Thanks everyone for participating!

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Take a look at Akua's pictures.