Head's Newsletter 26 November 2021

Year 8 capoeira workshop

On Monday 8th November year eight participated in a capoeira workshop for dance. The workshop was spread over the day, so each class got to have a period in the workshop. The instructors were Julio and Fu, from Capoeira Senzala London https://senzala - london.co.uk/. The first half hour of the workshop was spent learning as a form all together, then we made a circle and started singing and clapping a traditional song, with

the handmade instruments that Julio and Fu brought, while some of us improvised in the middle. We all had fun and it was a very cool experience. Over the course of the half - term, we learned a lot about the history of this incredible martial art, the movement involved and had a lot of fun doing it. In dance lessons, we learnt about the history behind the martial arts, and why it sometimes seems like a dance. It was created in Brazil, by escaped

sugar cane slaves who created little hamlets for themselves. They had to be able to defend themselves, so they created a new martial art, Capoeira.

It was still very primitive, and when some of the slaves were captured and brought back to the farms, the other slaves refined it. But as their masters would not allow the slaves to practise a deadly martial art, they made it seem like a dance, all huddled up and clapping and singing loudly, and that was how the basis for modern Capoeira started. Tennyson Collins 8PT