Capoeira: lesgeven aan brutale kinderen -
Gisteren gaf ik mijn eerste les aan een groep kinderen via een nieuwe opdrachtgever. Ze waren druk. Kinderen met diverse culturele achtergronden. Vooraf was ik meerdere malen gewaarschuwd door onze…
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It’s really special to discover your singing voice. Everyone is able to sing, you just don’t know it. — Capoeira Den Haag
Cartwheels make me happy!! — Heard in class
Practicing capoeira in the Paleistuin
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Lonely berimbau

A capoeira student from Spain told us about why he chose to do capoeira. When he was living in Galicia he did kung fu. He especially liked the group of kung fu people, because they were practicing kung fu as an art and not so much as to fight each other. Moreover they had a strong bond as friends outside the classes. When he moved to Madrid he missed his group of kung fu friends in Galicia. In Madrid he visited several groups, but every one of them focused on the fighting and there was less a social connection between the students.
After a couple of years he moved to the Netherlands. He did a capoeira try-out class with Capoeira Den Haag. After class he told instructor Vitamina that he wouldn’t attend the classes. It was too difficult. His body would not be able to do the capoeira movements. After class the capoeira students asked him if wanted to join them for a beer. He went, had fun and it was as if he had known them for years. That’s when he decided to join the group!! Heartwarming.
Now, two years later, he is still part of our group. Furthermore he is amazed about what he learned when it comes down to capoeira movements. He is doing movements he never thought he would be able to do anymore.
So, initially he started with capoeira, not so much for capoeira, but for the beer afterwards! ;))
A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. — François-René de Chateaubriand, quoted in Roman Krznaric’s How to Find Fulfilling Work via brainpickings.org
Capoeira gets me in the flow and relaxes me. — Heard in class