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<\/a>20 years ago, Testa started Capoeira in Victoria, only a few months after Axe Capoeira\u2019s founder, Mestre Barrao, had started a school in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I went to watch a class, I couldn\u2019t believe that this existed, and that the human body could do what they were doing,\u201d says Brett. \u201cI fell in love with it at first sight and have been doing Capoeira ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capoeira runs on a belt system that requires lots of dedication and patience. It\u2019s very difficult to achieve the next belt, and sometimes take years to reach the next level. Students are graded on all facets of Capoeira: singing in Portuguese, playing the instruments, combat, self-defence, dancing, and aerials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a student tier as well as teacher tier in Axe Capoeira\u2019s grading system,\u201d says Brett. \u201cThe student level is based on a student\u2019s practice, while the teacher grading is evaluated on the teacher\u2019s body of work and how their students progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brett is very proud of the advancement of his students, and he says his school is one of the most popular and successful Capoeira schools in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a student travelling in Brazil wearing Capoeira pants in the market in Salvador Bahia. The vendors could tell that he was a Capoeirista and called him over to try and get him to buy a DVD,\u201d says Brett. \u201cHe looked at the DVD cover and realized it was an Axe Capoeira DVD and that he himself was on the cover. This same DVD is the top-selling Capoeira DVD in Brazil and it has Vancouver Island Capoeiristas on its cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phil \u201cCascao\u201d Mendes wants to take his Capoeira international and travel to other Axe Capoeira schools around the world. Mendes has been doing Capoeira for 12 years, has taught for three years, and wants to travel to expand his knowledge and bring diverse techniques to his students here in Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople wonder how it\u2019s possible to learn all of the components in Capoeira. Capoeira is extremely hard and challenging and that\u2019s part of what motivates people to do better and what keeps it appealing,\u201d says Mendes. \u201cSometimes it takes practicing the same move thousands of times to finally perfect it, and the feeling of finally accomplishing that move is so rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendes feels on top of the world when he\u2019s playing well. When he\u2019s busy and doesn\u2019t have time to train much he says he starts to feel incomplete, like when you\u2019re hungry and haven\u2019t eaten for a while. When he\u2019s having a bad day he finds it therapeutic, as he can work through his emotions with the sport.<\/p>\n
According to another local teacher, Andrea Podracky, the philosophy of being a Capoeirista is to harness the emotion of happiness and playfulness and have control of all of the other emotions. This is because happiness and humour are powerful and enable Capoeiristas to be their most powerful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started Capoeira in 1999 after two years of inactivity due to a car accident I was in when I was 17,\u201d says Podracky. \u201cWithin that time, I tried running, swimming, and many other activities, but nothing relieved my body of stress the way that Capoeira has.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capoeira helped Podracky get into the best shape of her life as well as help her develop herself as a performer, acrobat, linguist, musician, and fighter, which are all now talents in her life in which she previously didn\u2019t have much experience. All thanks to the techniques of the trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe basic capoeira step, called \u2018jinga,\u2019 is a very smooth and goes from a lunge smoothly into a squat and repeated into a lunge to squat. That is paired up with using your body weight to develop Capoeira function,\u201d says Podracky. \u201cThe acrobatics blend lower body strength with upper body strength paired up with sparring and incorporates a flexibility component, stretching head to toe to avoid injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capoeira has a randomized design of cardio interval training, flexibility training, and power\/strength training with your own body weight, tying it all together with agility, balance, coordination, and acrobatics.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a teacher, I\u2019ve seen how Capoeira has allowed so many individuals to emerge in themselves and how it\u2019s allowed them to strengthen all aspects of their lives wherever they are going,\u201d says Podracky. \u201cWhatever they encounter now, Capoeira helps them go in that direction stronger. Physically, mentally, and emotionally they are now stronger individuals. I feel really good knowing that the gift of Capoeira that came through me goes to them and enables them to be better in their other facets of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brazilian Cultural Festival
\nSaturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26
\nEmpress Hotel and Bay Centre
\naxecapoeira.tv<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The art of Capoeira will be spotlighted in Victoria for the annual Brazilian Cultural Festival. Axe Capoeira will be bringing some of their finest Capoeiristas from all over the world to expose Victoria to their culture, folklore, music, dancing, combat, and impressive acrobatics. According to Axe Capoeira Victoria\u2019s Professor Testa (real name: Kevin Brett), Capoeira […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-15-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7003,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions\/7003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}