Fourth Capoeira Senzala Festival 2016

A night of Brazilian roots music and performances, celebrating the unique gathering of musicians and capoeiraistas who are in Canberra for the Fourth Capoeira Senzala Festival 2016.

This year our special international guests is Mestre Toni Vargas from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; a renowned musician and vocalist who will perform along with a host of other guests.
This will be a unique chance to see organic capoeira and maculele games and performances, alongside live samba drumming and dancers.

With a large number of nations and international guests from Brazil, USA, Italy, NZ and around Australia, the night is open to all lovers of Brazilian music and culture.

Supported by Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies (ANCLAS) and ANU Brazilian Students' Association - BRASA

Adults $15, students $10 Click here to book tickets.

What is Capoeira?:
Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music, and is usually referred to as a game. It was developed in Brazil mainly by West African descendants with native Brazilian influences, probably beginning in the 16th century.


What is Maculele?
Maculelê is a mock-fight dance performed with sticks and machetes to the rapid beat of drums. The origin of Maculelê is controversial. Some say that Maculelê was originated in the sugar-cane plantation by the slaves, who would practice the dance to defend themselves against the punishment of the slave masters. Others believe the tradition began in Africa after a brave young man named “Maculele” successfully fought off an invading tribe, but died in the process. The tradition is represented today with a spectacular, high-energy dance.

Mestre Toni Vargas
“I lived in Engenho de Dentro, suburb of Rio. There, I had a group of very special friends: we were more than friends, we were brothers of capoeira and of the spree in the rodas of life. There, I lived my more spontaneous meetings with capoeira, the youngster side, the vagrancy, the training in the land, without mestre, without nothing. The pleasure to sing and play berimbau at will (at that time to play in a roda you had to be bamba). the pleasure to discover in capoeira as an exit for our poverty, for the conflicts of the adolescence, to inaugurate a style of living. My friends were black and I also. I was “Black Power”. My dance was black, my girlfriends were black and what I more loved – the capoeira – she was black.

I entered in capoeira in the age of 10, with Mestre Rony, of the Group Palmares de Capoeira, in a quarter of the north zone of Rio De Janeiro. It was the chanse of my life. Unfortunately, he has already left. And his end was of misery, madness and pain as , by the way, one of the many that had helped capoeira and they couldn’t have a worthy end.
In the middle of the 70’s, I started to practise capoeira in the quarter of Penha, suburb of Rio De Janeiro, with Mestre Touro – Grupo Corda Bamba. He was my second Mestre. In Grupo Corda Bamba, I had the chance to know great mestres. And, certainly, to drink the axé of Mestre Touro, was fundamental in my history of capoeira.

With Mestre Leopoldina I did not have the honor to train, but I consider myself his pupil a bit. The mestre is of them that, stopping by his side, is already teaching you. I, whenever I can, am there “learning by being by his side”. By the way, in the old times it was like this, there was not a systematic education of capoeira, there were no methods nor didactics. It was to follow the mestre, to be attentive, and to look to transform that into something yours. Mestre Leopoldina when he sings, makes music or plays, he teaches. When he ufolds his incredible histories, he teaches. When he smiles or accept us in his house, he teaches. At last, the mestre does not need to give lessons to teach: he is the proper teaching.”