Axé Maryland News

When you step into your first capoeira class, you will undoubtedly be bombarded by many foreign words. Don’t worry though, this article is created to help you go through your first experience in Capoeira. You don’t need to be fluent in Brazilian Portuguese to play Capoeira, but it would help you to know a few basic words you may hear while training.

Subsequent articles will be created to tackle terms in Capoeira, in particular, how they are used in Grupo Axé Capoeira.

Marcos Aurelio (Lelo) - Contra-Mestre Barrãozinho was born in the city of Recife in the northeast of Brazil. He began Capoeira at the age of three with his father Mestre Barrão, whom he accompanied to his classes, Capoeira events and street rodas. Professor Barrãozinho's passion for Capoeira has lead him to focus on nothing but his studies and his training. At the age of nine he moved to Canada with his parents where he continued to train and also began to perform in many shows, school demonstrations, and festivals in British Columbia Canada and abroad. Today he is the owner and manager of one of Axé Capoeira’s Academies in Vancouver, Canada. His style and creativity in the game is motivational to many and has made him one of today’s most influential young capoeira players.

The video in this article shows a glimpse of Contra-Mestre Barrãozinho's talent in Capoeira as he is doing his impromptu Benguela Solo/Floreios

With the upcoming workshop with Professor Bambu, I thought I'd write an article about who he is, and what he represents so that folks coming into the workshop would have a better idea of who it is they are learning from.

Steven Kolhouse, or as he is known in the Capoeira world: Professor Bambu, has been training in the art since 1998. I first met him when I was a student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN circa 2001 - 2002, and through him became part of Grupo Axé Capoeira. Over the years, even though our paths have diverged, the bond between student - teacher never vanished, as I continuously tried to learn as much as I could whenever our paths crosses.

Here is one quote that I always love from Bambu:

"Capoeira is a game of space and opportunity" (Professor Bambu)

Last night was our last night training at Balanced Life Skills. It's a bittersweet moment. I have four years of blood, sweat, and memories there. But with every end comes a new beginning. Once again, HUGE thank you to Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi for graciously hosting Axé Capoeira Maryland. We will be having regular classes at Jing Ying starting Nov 3 (next Monday).

Class times will be:

Monday: 7:00-8:30pm (normal training)
Wednesday: 6:30-7:30 (music only)
Thursday: 7:00-8:30pm (normal training)

(Macaco)

This is an old, simple, traditional Capoeira song that everyone in the Capoeira world would know. It's so simple that every student/beginner in Capoeira would sing this song during their first class or instruction of Capoeira. However, with its simplicity, it also carries one of the greatest truth in life.

Article about Mestre Bimba (Manoel dos Reis Machado), creator of Capoeira Regional and one of the most influential person in the history of Capoeira