Our participation in the recent ABWM Christmas Bazaar was spotted in the Star newspaper:

A young boy trying his hand at Capoeira, the fusion of dance and martial art from Brazil to traditional Brazilian music.

Read the rest here.

In our efforts to provide more to the Bantus community and the surrounding Damansara Jaya community, we are looking to beef up our class schedules at the Bantus Academy in with more classes in 2006. Starting in January of the new year we will be actively seeking qualified instructors in exercise and dance forms complementary to capoeira such as samba, gymnastics, yoga, pilates, salsa, kickboxing and hip hop to join our already vibrant community at Bantus Capoeira!

More details as follows:

• Address of the Academy? Lot 23c, Jalan SS22/23 Damansara Jaya 47400 Petaling Jaya
• Available Time Slots? Mon, Wed, Fri all day til 8pm Tues, Thurs all day til 6pm Weekends available on request
• Interested to Teach at the Bantus Academy? Email Quek or call +(6)012 288 7908.

There will be no classes this week (27th-30th December) as your overworked instructors will be taking a break for the year. Students are still free to come by the academia to train on their own or ask for pointers from any of the seniors present. Watch this space, because although there won’t be a public roda this Saturday (New Year‘s Eve) we will be having the first roda for 2006 really soon.

From all of us here at Bantus, here‘s wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

‘Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la la… It‘s party time at Bantus!

• When? Friday, 23rd December @ night
• Where? Academia Bantus
• Theme? “What’s that on your head?” or put on a headgear (wig, sombrero, turban, etc)—caps and bandanas don’t count—most creative headgear wins a prize!

For those who would like to join the party, we need:

• MYR 10 per person for drinks (non alcoholic)/snacks and decorations
• Food—Bring a dish (please no chips!)
• Presents worth MYR 5-10/handmade/stolen for gift exchange

Youli needs a few volunteers to help out. Please let her know if you can—Youli (012 233 6778). You may contribute alcohol of your choice. We will make a list and checking it twice to see if you are naughty or nice… Let us know if you can make it.

Marissa has launched her own fashion label—Criola. Her first season designs will be available at the following locations in the Klang Valley througout December:

• Date: Every Sunday Venue: Sunrise Plaza Mont’ Kiara Market (in front of Zakuro at Block C).
• Date: Every Saturday Venue: The Curve Market.
• Date: Everyday Venue: Rhapzody, Ground floor of Bangsar Village.

For more info, contact Marissa.

From this morning’s Star Metro pullout:

Ginga, Mea lua, Armada, Au. These sound like a bunch of gibberish but to children at Mont Kiara International School (MKIS), it means “Let’s play capoeira!”

Read the rest of this article here (Google cache) or pick up a copy of today’s paper.

Planet Capoeira’s website was recently revamped and relaunched. Following that, they’ve also launched a new community blog site called The Roda.

We’ve had some posts that linked to articles on the previous Planet Capoeira’s site so they might be broken now. The editorial team over there suggested that they might restore the old articles once they’ve completed the revamp. Check them out.

Just want to give a thank you to the boys who turned up for the ELS show at their centre in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. Good job to Jamal, Perereca, Durim, Mascote, Porkolinho, Asad and Sorriso for taking time out of their busy daily schedules to spread some axé to this batch of ELS graduates.

The show started slightly late due to some classic mis-direction on KL roads by our Pee-Jay-born-and-bread crew but the ELS peeps were more than happy to oblige. We kicked off at about 12pm with a big shout out and thank you to ELS for giving Rafael his basic English certificate that has helped him tremendously in his work and his life here in Malaysia.

The crew then went to work and thoroughly entertained the ELS crowd with characteristic Bantus axé ending with a fast n’ furious game between Rafa and Mr. Froggy himself. I was completely swarmed with inquiries about Bantus and our academy after the roda finished!

A few minutes later ELS Academic Director Ms. Hoo Fung Mun graciously summoned the troop on stage to receive an ang pow and an apple (!) each as a token of appreciation. All in all, a good morning’s work.

Next year is World Cup year! That means many of my friends are going to be losing muito dinero and sleep (due to the time difference in Germany) on World Cup matches. That also means Brazil will again be pushed to the forefront of global consciousness. You know, Brazilians and their “Samba football”. Guess people have no other nice name to call it… since Brazil=Football+Samba.

Interestingly enough, the peeps at Nike sponsored a new football documentary by Fernando Meirelles—the director of City of Gods (Cidade de Deus), that super gritty movie based on the lives of two kids who grew up in the favellas of Rio de Janeiro in the 60’s and how one turned to violence and another turned to photojournalism during the disco 70’s. This new football documentary is called ‘Ginga‘—loosely translated for the masses as ‘The Art of Movement’—and how it influences Brazilian football. So now when you talk to your friends about Brazilian football, call it “Ginga football”.

Cool huh? A friend of ours at Nike invited us to perform the opening gambit at the launching of the ‘Ginga’ documentary at the National Art Gallery this past Saturday. The special launch was by invite only and comprised of the who’s who of the local movie scene. In the words of the MC, ‘What better way to illustrate the Ginga than to invite some friends on stage who practice the Ginga everyday. Lets give a big round of applause to the Bantus Capoeira Troop!’.

What followed was a fast and furious 5 minute music, solo and game sequence on stage that left the audience amazed and asking for more!

Look out for more collaborations with Nike as the World Cup draws near! We’ll also be getting a copy of the movie shortly (and also hopefully a TV and DVD player… hint hint) at the academy for those of you who wish to view it.

We’ll be having an end of the year meeting, kind of like an informal general meeting this Saturday, 26th November, at the Bantus Academy. We’ll take stock for this quarter, get feedback from everyone about what you liked, what you think can be improved and discuss plans for next year.

As usual, it will be a rather informal meeting and all students are encouraged to come over to chat with us so we can all work together to improve Capoeira in Malaysia. Details as follows:

• When? Saturday, 26th November @ 4:30pm to 5:30pm (please note that the meeting will start and end promptly because we have a performance right after that followed by our overdue street roda!)
• Where? Academia Bantus
• What to bring? Feedback on what you liked this year, what you want improved and suggestions for next year.