capoeira social project

Education for Body, Mind, and Life

Check out our workshop schedule

capoeira & movement in rochester, ny

with Bandaid

View Schedule

capoeira & percussion in baltimore, md

with Siriguejo

View Schedule

CSP: What We Do

Capoeira Social Project (CSP) is an educational non-profit based in Baltimore focusing on performing and visual arts programming through the lens of capoeira. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art which combines movement, music, self defense, language, and history all in one, and our educational philosophy of Education for Mind, Body, and Life embodies this eclectic mix

Performing Arts Offerings

Capoeira is the cornerstone of our performing arts program. Although a true martial art, the combination of movement and music allows capoeira to fall into the categories of dance and music. Along this vein CSP offers instruction in both instrumentation as well as movement in the following rhythms/dances:

Capoeira Angola, Regional, and Contemporanea performed to percussion (berimbau, pandeiro, agogo, atabaque, triangulo, reco-reco)
Maculele, an Afro-Indigenous Brazilian stick fight dance performed to percussion (atabaque, agogo, caxixi)
Os Cocos, style from Pernambouco and other NE Brazil states. Dance performed in tamancos (wooden sandals) to percussion (alfaia, ganza, pandeiro, triangulo)
Samba (de roda), traditional roda style performed in a circle to percussion (atabaque, pandeiro, berimbau, agogo)

Visual Arts Offerings

Typically visual arts doesn’t come to mind when people think of capoeira. However, over the years our instructors have participated in workshops and vivencias with various profesors and mestres to learn many crafts. We teach basketweaving to make caxixis, and pyrography and woodstaining for beautifying berimbaus.

Our visual arts workshops (and after-school programing) include the following:

Paper mache (to make cabacas for berinbaus)
Basket weaving (to make caxixis)
For making and decorating berimbaus and pandeiros
- Wood working skills (measure, saw, drill, glue, etc)
- Wood staining
- Painting
- Pyrography
Screen Printing
UpCycling (instruments/supplies from recycled materials)

Services

Here are the additional services CSP offers:

Translation (Siriguejo has worked as a Port>Eng and Eng>Port translatorr on many projects)
Presentations/lectures (history to math, moree info below)
Movement coaching

CULTURAL PRESENTATION

Capoeira Social Project offers cultural education in several forms. Any of the following topics can be incorporated into movement workshops however we also offer lectures and Q/A style presentations for all age groups (K-12, University, Adult). The topics listed are examples of past presentations but we can be modified to meet needs.

Brazilian History in General, especially in context of capoeira:

Colonization until the 21st Century (History, Anthropology, Sociology)
Connections to Africa: History and Cultures (History, Anthropology, Sociology)
Popular cultures: Regional dances and their Indigenous, African, and/or European roots
Musical connections to the environment (Geography)

Famous Historical figures:

Zumbi is a great hero to the capoeira community. He is sung about in many songs and exemplifies the spirit of liberty and self resolve. His notoriety in Brazil is akin to that of Kunta Kinte, a slave who was portrayed in Alex Haley’s Roots.
Lampiao is sung about a lot in capoeira songs. He is seen as a Billy the Kid style folk hero in Brazil.
Past: Mestre Pastinha, Mestre Bimba
Present Mestres: Mestre Ray, Mestre Lua Rasta, Mestre Dunga

MATHEMATICS IN CAPOEIRA

In 2017, Siriguejo was invited to present a lecture about the mathematics involved in capoeira, for Instituo Federal de Minas Gerais in Riberão das Neves, in Minas Gerais Brazil. A similar interactive lecture has been delivered for educators to incorporate mathematics pedagogy in their capoeira lessons.
Topics include: