Has it really been a year since we came back from Brazil and had our 3rd Festival? The memories are still so fresh in my mind! At the risk of sounding cheesy, I have to say that time flies when you are having fun. Looking back at the year gone by, Bantus Capoeira Malaysia has really grown and matured as a group. To the seniors, your commitment has been excellent and I want to congratulate you guys for all you’ve done. For our fresh batch of Bantulinos, it’s great to see you guys training so hard and with so much enthusiasm, keep up the good work.

However, lets’ not start patting each other on the back quite yet because the highlight of the year is just around the corner. Its time to buckle down and focus and I want to see everyone give it a final push to prepare for this years Festival! That means, busting your behind in class, coming for Saturday rodas and just playing as much capoeira as you can from now till October.

Here is the schedule of events. More detailed info will be made available in the coming days so keep your eye on this space.

Schedule of Events: Adults

• Activity: Capoeira Workshops and Open Roda Date: Tues, 2nd Oct - Thurs, 4th Oct Time: 8:00pm - 10:30pm Date: Fri, 5th Oct Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Venue: Taman Tun Dr. Ismail Community Hall
• Activity: Street Roda Date: Fri, 5th Oct Time: 9:30pm - 11:00pm Venue: Outside Maybank, Jalan Bukit Bintang
• Activity: Bantus Capoeira Malaysia’s 4th Annual Batizado Date: Sunday, 7th Oct Time: 10:00am - 12:00noon Venue: Confirmed - Outside Laundry Bar at The Curve
• Activity: Noite Brazileira! (Brazilian Night Party) Date: Sun, 7th Oct Time: 7:00pm - Midnight Venue: Confirmed - Laundry Bar at The Curve
• SPECIAL PACKAGE FOR MEMBERS - FREE CLASS FOR OCTOBER!! - Attend ALL workshops - Attend ALL rodas - 1 Festival T-Shirt - Attend Batizado Ceremony - Members Price: MYR250 Bantus Capoeira Festival Package - Attend ALL workshops - Attend ALL rodas - 1 Festival T-Shirt - Attend Batizado Ceremony - Members Price: MYR200 - Non Members: MYR300 Abada Promotion Buy a brand new pair of abadas for only RM100 with your Festival Package *To purchase your Festival Package please talk to Quek or Rafa at the academy … or wherever you happen to bump in to them!

Schedule of Events: Kids (under age 16)

• Saturday, 6th Oct Activity: Kids’ Workshops Time: 9:00am - 11:00am Venue: Confirmed - Outside Laundry Bar at The Curve Activity: 4th Annual Bantus Capoeira Malaysia Kids’ Batizado Time: 11:00am - 12:00noon Venue: Confirmed - Outside Laundry Bar at The Curve
• Bantus Capoeira Kids’ Package w/ Uniform - 1 Kid’s Workshop w/ Mestre - 1 Festival T-Shirt - 1 official Bantus Capoeira Abadas (Pants) - *Attend Batizado Ceremony - **Price: MYR180 Bantus Capoeira Kids’ Package w/o Uniform - 1 Kid’s Workshop w/ Mestre - 1 Festival T-Shirt - *Attend Batizado Ceremony - **Price: MYR120 *Important Notes About the Batizado Ceremony: 1. Please note that your registration for the festival does not automatically guarantee that you will receive your first or new belts during the ceremony. 2. Our mestre and your instructor will be responsible to award eligible students with their new belts at their discretion. 3. You are required to own a pair of official Bantus Capoeira Abadas (Pants) to be eligible to for grading. **Payments can be submitted to our instructors, Mr. Rafael Rosario or Mr. Quek Wei Kin in the form of cash or check made payable to Bantus Capoeira Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

As with all major events, things won’t be able to take off quite as spectacularly without your participation. Just ask any of our seniors; helping out, hanging out at the academy, and getting to know the gang better are all part of the fun of capoeira at Bantus.

The Jumping Jelly Beans are back with another great community project, this time focused on helping a group of young and energetic disabled individuals to produce, run and promote their own theatre production! What I find so great about this project is that it is an ongoing, yearlong effort to give back to the disadvantaged in a meaningful way. The idea is to give the group skills that will empower them to be independent and productive members of society.

Every week on Tuesdays, instead of going to school, they gather at the Annex in Central Market to spend the day taking various classes on different elements of theatre and performance. To name a few, we have Edwin Sumon and Cinzia conducting theatre and expression workshops, Paul Augustine conducting percussions workshops and yours truly is working with the kids on capoeira and maculele. Meanwhile, other teachers are giving lessons on sales and marketing of theatre productions, t-shirt printing, and other business aspects. Isn’t that cool??

I’ll be putting up some pictures from the capoeira workshops here so go ahead and have a look. They are such a sweet and enthusiastic group!

For those of you who are interested to drop by and help out, Capoeira and Maculele for Theatre of the Disabled will be on at 11am every Tuesday till the end of August. Please give me a ring to let me know beforehand if you plan to visit. Also, I’ve invited the group to our Saturday night rodas in Bangsar leading up to the Festival this year so be sure to look out for them.

Hello all! My apologies for the lack of updates recently. Just been extremely busy with lots of exciting plans and projects these past few months. Its that time of year again so we will be having more public rodas leading up to the Festival! All Bantus students are welcomed to join no matter how long you have been training.

• Where? Bangsar - Outside Cziplee Bookstore, across from Bangsar Village 2
• When? This Saturday, 11th August 2007
• What Time? Be there at 9:00pm
• What should I wear? Long pants and preferably a Bantus T-shirt

See you all there!