Capoeira Mandinga Shanghai

Capoeira Mandinga Shanghai 1st Batizado – September 2008

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Pulling out the arame

Photo by Nicolas “Virtual” Usé

Mestre Marcelo Caverinha

In continuation with my last post, I will address some more aspects of stretching. This time I will talk about muscle isolation. I will apply this to both injury prevention and flexibility.

First, muscle isolation is a misnomer. I use this term to describe ways to stretch individual and groups of tendons, ligaments and muscles. Which one of these are you actually stretching at any one time? No one really knows. Still, I use this term for simplicity.

I will start with an example. Our camara Virtual talked to me about a sore muscle that had been bothering him for a while but he could not stretch it. Every time he tried to stretch, other muscle groups got in the way. These muscle groups would pull tight before he could pull the sore muscle tight. He asked me if I knew how he could stretch the muscle. I did not know. However, I did know how to stretch muscles close to it. I had him use a normal stretching technique that stretched muscles near his injury. By slightly adjusting the position of his body and relative positions of his torso and legs, he was able to pull the sore muscle tight and stretch it. In other words, he was able to isolate the sore muscle. This is what I mean by muscle isolation.

To be more specific, his injured muscle was on the outside of his hip, just above and in front of the ball and socket joint of his hip.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Beetle” tells the “true story” of Besouro, a Capoeira master living in 1920s Brazil. The film’s title comes from the name Besouro Manganga, which is a large and dark species of maybug.

According to legends surrounding the historical figure, Besouro was known to vanish whenever he was faced with an uneven fight. This grew into the myth that Besouro had supernatural powers and could dodge bullets and even turn himself into a beetle to scare his opponents.

More grounded details on Besouro suggest he was a rebellious migrant worker who frequently used his Capoeira skills to get into physical conflicts with landowners and police. He died in 1924 at the age of 27 after suffering stab wounds from a knife.

Ku Huan-chiu serves as action director. His credits include stunt doubling for Jet Li in “The Tai-Chi Master” and “Once upon a time in China and America”, as well as recent AD work on CJ7 and “THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR”, and also “Kill Bill”.

“Beetle”, a co-production between Buena Vista and Brazil’s Mixer and Globo Filmes is currently shooting.

For more details on Besouro Manganga visit Capoeira Sul Da Bahia San Francisco.

• “Besouro” official website (Portuguese)
• Official channel on YouTube

via kungfucinema and capoeira.com

Joaninha’s blog is everything you can expect from a good Capoeira blog, with stories about her own training experience, tips, cultural aspects of Capoeira… But this Canadian camara has chosen a feminist and feminine approach to our practice. She tracks mysogynistic song lyrics in our rodas, she fights the upper body strength myth in female capoeirista’s minds and introduces talented and creative women who became mestres and contramestres. She was kind enough to answer our questions.

About her capoeira experience…

Joaninha — the ladybug, in Portuguese – has started to train in 2005 and got more and more involved in her practice with time. She trained up to 5 times / week, despite her father calling Capoeira a “Brazilian street cult” when she started classes !

About the Mandingueira blog…

Joaninha wanted to start a blog to practice her writing skills in preparation for a future career in journalism. Her modesty led to a great concept: she didn’t want to compete against great websites such as The Capoeira Blog so she gave a feminist twist to her own capoeira blog. And she doesn’t regret it thanks to all the exchange among her readers’ community.

About the Capoeira Mandinga Shanghai group…

“Embrace the exception, not the rule”, she advises through this Tom Robbins quote. Being a small group, it’s crucial for CMS to remain as open as possible to welcome all countries, styles and opinions.

• Previous portratit: Gringa Mansa

“Capoeira Headlines” is a pilot project aiming in collecting the most interesting news from the world of Capoeira (and sometimes Brazil). The news would be published here on a monthly basis.

Please feel free to send any interesting links you found to us!

Today’s headlines:

• In Blood: The Bacchae, Arcola Theatre, London
• Capoeira: Everything in motion
• 6th Annual Women’s Encounter
• Looking Ahead to 2009 – Cautious Optimism in Brazil

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a message from our Mestre.

Once again we will have a two weeks Capoeira trip to Brazil in the beautiful tropical town of Ubatuba on the north coast of São Paulo from July 26 to August 2nd where we will have some great mestres from different parts of Brazil. Than we head up to Itacaré, South of Bahia to mestre Cabelo’s event from August 3rd to 9th.

The cost of each of the events individually will be $600 and $1100 for both events. That includes ground transportation from the airport to the locations, room and board for the entire week of the event and all the classes with all the mestres. The air ticket will have to be purchased by the participants. All participants should plan to arrive at the São Paulo Cumbica airport (GRU) on July 26th in the morning and leave from São Paulo (Cumbica or Congonhas) to Ilhéus (South of Bahia) on Monday August 3rd in the afternoon.

A fifty percent payment must be made until April first and the remaining no later than July first. A payment plan through a financial company Members Solutions will be set for people to enroll on the events. The total cost of both the events will be divided in monthly payments starting from when you want to begin the first payment up until July first. Refunds are applicable in case you
decide to cancel your trip (a $50 penalty plus 10% charge of all made payments will apply as a cancellation fee). More details will be available later but please save the dates. Note: It is possible for people from counties other than the USA to get enrolled on the payment plan as long as they have an international credit card.

Check the links below to see the areas where the events will happening.

• Ubatuba: http://litoralvirtual.com.br/ubatuba/index_i.html
• Location we will stay: Hotel água dôce www.aguadocepraiahotel.com.br
• Itacaré: http://www.itacare.com/

Muito axé and capoeira no pé!

Mestre Marcelo
PS. More detailed information will be posted at our website — www.mandinga.org

Our friend and camara Kawasaki “Corre Atras” will leave Shanghai on the 20th of January.

So there will be a big farewell roda on Saturday 17th, followed by a party/dinner at Japanese Restaurant “Hewei” (all you can eat and drink), on Julu Lu by Maoming Nan Lu 20:45.

Axe’

SALVADOR, Brazil, Jan 8 (IPS) – Millions of Brazilians usher in the new year by wading into the sea, dressed in white, scattering flowers on the water as an offering to the Afro-Brazilian deity Iemanjá, in return for her blessings for the year to come. But few of them realise that this tradition is rooted in a religion fighting for survival in the face of prejudice, racism and intolerance.

Mae Jaciara prepares typical Candomblé meal

Jaciara Ribeiro dos Santos symbolises the counterattack launched by practitioners of Candomblé and other African-based religions, which have survived centuries of repression only to confront a new wave of attacks by fundamentalist Protestant churches.

Jaciara’s mother, Gildasia dos Santos, was better known as Mae Gilda (Mother Gilda) in her role as a “ialorixá” or Candomblé priestess. She lived in Salvador, capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, home to the country’s largest population of African descendants.

In September 1999, Mae Gilda saw her photograph printed in the Folha Universal, a daily newspaper published by the “neo-Pentecostal” Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, under a headline accusing her of being a “charlatan” and of endangering the “lives and wallets” of her followers.

Jaciara is convinced that her mother’s death by a heart attack several months later, at the age of 65, was a direct result of the psychological trauma caused by the slanderous attack.

The case drew widespread publicity, and January 21, the date of Mae Gilda’s death, was designated as the National Day Against Religious Intolerance, through a presidential decree adopted two years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Hola a todos espero que todos allan tenido un super ano y que el que sigue sea mejor con mas metas alcanzadas FELIZ ANO NUEVO suerte y nos vemos el lunes

E ae galera mandinga muito amor paz e axe nestas boas festas ate mais FELIZ ANO NOVO

To all Mandinga Groups!
Hello every one i hope you are having a great time! I wish the best for all of you, I miss all of you and i hope to see you soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

C-M CIPO