Capoeira With The Kiddies!

As promised, I am giving a close up look at some of the activities I'm doing in conjunction with Via Via. The first week of class we had was pretty much getting to know the kids and doing dinamicas (ice breakers). The real vision for the partnership with Via Via is for the kids work with teachers and artist who can teach them different skills and show them different activities they may be interested in. So the next week we secured a Capoiera teacher and the fun began. I had been taking Capoiera classes in Guayaquil and was so excited to be co-teaching Capoiera!

Capoeira is a martial art that involves dance, martial arts and music. This art form was created by Brazilian slaves who wanted to train each other on how to fight and defend themselves in an environment where such a thing was prohibited. That is why Capoeira involves fluid movements that look like a dance and incorporates musical instruments and song. That way their oppressors did not know that they were training physically. I love the rich history that comes with this amazing sport/expression and was stoked to get the kids involved.




The kids loved it too. Every age group was able to learn something too. The younger kids learned the basics and loved having the opportunity to move around. The teen group got really good and learned the basics, sequences, lifts, flips, positions everything. There were times that I thought there weren't listening or catching on, but then later they would illustrate that they not only knew the names of things and how to do them, some masters of the art emerged too!


It was interesting to see which kids had a natural knack for the art while other kids worked through their frustration and persevered through the tough times. We all had a great time working out, working hard and working together.