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An Apprenticeship in Brazilian Capoeira

Isis Raele and Marcelo Pereira

Isis Raele and Marcelo Pereira

Photo: Mari Pongkhamsing

Mari Pongkhamsing

Mestre Marcelo Pereira and his step-daughter Isis Raele have recently completed a sixth month intensive training in Brazilian Capoeira through ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program. Isis focused on strength training so that she could learn a sequence to demonstrate at her batizado, or belt changing event. She also learned new capoeira techniques, and studied the percussion music that accompanies capoeira games. By the end of the apprenticeship Isis’ strength and skills had improved so much that she advanced to the next belt level, and, though she is only ten years old, she began to take adult classes because the children’s classes were not challenging enough for her.

Capoeira is a Brazilian art form and self-defense with strong acrobatic and dance elements developed by African slaves four hundred fifty years ago who were brought to Brazil by the Portuguese. The music and dance elements essential to capoeira were used to mask the martial art from the slave masters. Marcelo explains that Capoeira “fosters individual empowerment, flexibility, endurance and self-discovery.” He started learning capoeira as a child when he saw a demonstration at his school in São Paulo, Brazil. At the time he was living in a dangerous neighborhood and he wanted to be involved in something that would make him feel confident and strong. He practiced informally after school for several years before he began to train with Mestre Saussuna of the Cordão de Ouro Capoeira academy. Practicing capoeira kept him from becoming involved in what was going on in the streets and when he finished school he decided to dedicate his life to the art form. He explained, “I decided I wanted to help other people in the same way that I had been helped.”

When Marcelo moved to the United States in 1984 there were only two other teachers in the nation. He introduced capoeira to students in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco and even San Rafael and Santa Rosa. Over time a multicultural community devoted to the art form developed in Berkeley and Oakland where Capoeira Mandinga, Marcelo’s school, is located. Marcelo has also been committed to reaching out to at-risk youth in the local community. He has run an after school program at Hawthorne Elementary School in the Fruitvale district of Oakland for ten years.

Isis Raele and Marcelo Pereira

Isis Raele turning a cartwheel.

Photo: Mari Pongkhamsing

Isis would like to continue her study of capoeira and become a mestre (master) one day. Marcelo explained that it usually takes a student between six and ten years to become a professor, or teacher. It usually takes an additional twenty years after that to reach the highest level of mastery. Isis is moving toward an advanced level but she can’t begin to teach until she turns eighteen. Marcelo explains that the most important thing to him is that Isis continues to enjoy capoeira. Currently she loves to practice and learn new skills and she likes to be involved in all aspects of the school. She helps out at the children’s classes, participates in demonstrations, and she likes to sit behind the counter welcoming new students to the school.

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Schwarzenegger Invests in Arts Education

(from the California Alliance for Arts Education Electronic Newsletter)

In September 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the single largest investment in music and arts education programs in the history of our country. A block grant of $105 million will be distributed to school districts, charter schools and county offices of education to support standards aligned instruction in kindergarten through grade twelve inclusive. The funds will be available for hiring additional staff, professional development, purchasing supplies (including books) and equipment.

In addition, $500 million will be distributed on a one-time basis for the purchase of arts, music and/or physical education professional development, supplies and equipment. With these resources, schools will be able to provide professional development for teachers, as well as make investments in items including musical instruments, kilns, photographic equipment and other equipment that supports standards-based instruction. Grants will be allocated to school districts, charter schools and county offices of education on an equal amount per pupil.

In conjunction with this increase in funding for arts education in public schools, the California Arts Council has recently developed a new grant program “Artists in Schools,” program to support artists in residency activities that take place in the classroom and in after-school settings.

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The James Irvine Foundation Releases a Working Paper Outlining Critical Issues Facing the Arts in California

This working paper, entitled, “Critical Issues Facing the Arts in California” published by the James Irvine Foundation and AEA Consulting, identifies the major challenges facing the arts and cultural sector in California. Based on interviews with arts leaders and a review of the relevant literature, the paper describes five key themes that, if not addressed, may threaten the health and well-being of the sector going forward. The themes are: Access, Cultural Policy, Arts Education, Nonprofit Business Model, and Preparing the Next Generation of Artists and Arts Managers. This working paper is the first phase of a project to engage arts leaders and others in a discussion on how to ensure a more sustainable future for the arts in California.

The Irvine Foundation is very interested in hearing readers’ thoughts on the issues raised in the paper. The Foundation hopes to hear reactions, ideas, suggestions, cautions, concerns and other commentary through a blog they started to encourage dialogue. Comments are being actively accepted until October 31, 2006, although the blog will remain live beyond that date for those who wish to read the posted comments.

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In Memoriam: Seymour Rosen, 1935 - 2006

Seymour Rosen

Seymour Rosen

Photo: Larry Harris

Seymour Rosen was one of the great pioneers of American Outsider Art and he spent his life preserving what he termed “folk art environments” which were created by untrained artists. Born in 1935 in Chicago, he moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 and started to work as a freelance photographer. While photographing architectural sites in 1952 Rosen came across Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers and instantly fell in love with the landmark. He was part of the committee that saved the Towers from demolition in the late 1950s and he later spent several months photographing them.

Rosen began to seek out and photograph folk art environments wherever he could find them and he presented his work in a groundbreaking exhibit in 1976 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Two years later the exhibit became a book, In Celebration of Ourselves, which is still in print. He also helped to found the folk and visionary art magazine Raw Vision.

In 1978 Rosen created SPACES (Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments) a foundation that identifies and preserves self-built sculpture gardens and visionary architecture. Over the years SPACES identified hundreds of sites throughout the United States. Many of the sites that he successfully preserved in California were grouped as California Historical Landmark No. 939.

ACTA Board Member Jo Farb Hernandez told the Los Angeles Times, “He was passionately committed to this field. He felt strongly that part of his mission was to make people understand that his was a defined genre rather than some strange person’s idiosyncratic building.”

The archive of SPACES holds between 15,000 and 20,000 slides of his work as well as his writing and research about the sites that he identified.

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