The San Francisco Capoeira Academy

Noon-3pm, Come hang out with our beautiful and growing community ! All are welcome.✨This month with a special workshop with our guest CM (see details below).✨

🗓️ 4/11/26 and every month on the second Saturday of the month
📍 SF Capoeira Academy, 1425 Bush St., 94109
🕚 noon-1:30pm all-levels workshop with CM Toicinho, 1:30pm-3pm OPEN RODA

Workshop has an investment of $35 🙏

Hosted by Capoeira Angola Palmares SF. ⭐️🌙

Noon-3pm, Come hang out with our beautiful and growing community! All are welcome.

🗓️ 2/14/26 and every month on the second Saturday of the month
📍 SF Capoeira Academy, 1425 Bush St., 94109
🕚 noon-1pm all-levels Community Class w Prof Jesus, 1pm-3pm OPEN RODA

Everything is FREE 🍃🌸🌈

Hosted by Capoeira Angola Palmares SF. ⭐️🌙

You asked and we answered! Preregistration is open for our summer camps. 🤩 Visit www.friscocapoeira.com/camps to sign up. (Link in bio)

🤸🏽 movement, music, self-defense, culture, and community
🧒🏾 small class size
👩‍🏫 experienced teachers
🌱 ages 7-11
⏱️ half-day program

Excited!

What even is capoeira? I'm so glad you asked!

This a question I've fielded time and again, typically from folks who are trying to understand capoeira in the context of other martial arts. There is often some confusion about what is choreographed or not, what is "dance" or not, and what the rules are. This is totally understandable! Let me take a stab at answering.

IT’S A GAME

First, let's describe capoeira. Capoeira is a jogo, or game, and the terminology associated it with it reflects this—we "play" capoeira. The game features two players in a circle, accompanied by music.

Capoeira is an adversarial game, just like soccer or basketball or tennis. The music tells the players what kind of game to play, but they don't move "on the beat" like you would in a salsa or bachata class. Instead, we receive messages from the music like whether to play low or high, fast or slow, close or farther away. Perhaps most importantly, the music gives us energy—axé.

In the game, we're trying to best the other player—but rather than using brute force, we're trying to do so with technique, style, sneakiness, and even grace. Some of the best games are a kind of stalemate. Other times, you'll get a "point" on your adversary (traditionally, there's no actual point-keeping in capoeira, it's very subjective) by sweeping them, limiting their movement, or forcing them out of of the roda. Very rarely is the objective to strike them—though, clearly, capoeira can help train you with that aspect of self defense if that's where you want to take the art.

As for choreography, the game itself is totally spontaneous and improvised. But improvisations are based on practiced gambits and somewhat predictable series of movements. The best analogy for this may be jazz music, where the wildest improvisations are still grounded on a well-practiced sense of rhythm and knowledge of the scales.

The rules of capoeira, such as they are, are not really written down, but they're pretty easy to understand: kick and escape; don't stop moving; don't touch the ground with your knees, your butt, or your stomach.

Beyond that, anything goes! Well, kind of. The list of rules may be short, but the list of guidelines is very long and contextual. Each school will have its own expectations and traditions. And just as in life, etiquette and respect will go a long way toward keeping you safe in an arena with few formal rules.

RELAX AND HAVE FUN

There are a lot of paradoxes and tensions in this description—between play and fight, between planned movements and spontaneity, between goodwill and danger. I feel like very literally minded people often want more specific answers about capoeira: "Will it protect you in a dark alley?" "Is it a fight or a dance?" "What's the overall objective?"

I suggest relaxing about answering these questions and just enjoying the game. In my experience, that's the mindset of most people who play capoeira and related arts—or, for that matter, of anyone who enjoys playing more well-known sports like basketball!

Any questions? Comment or get in touch and I’ll do my best to answer.

Axé
Eamon (Professor Jesus)
Head instructor
San Francisco Capoeira Academy
1425 Bush St.

PS We're currently enrolling adults and youth, and hope to add new classes and teachers to the schedule later in 2024. Won't you join us? Register at www.friscocapoeira.com/new-student-registration

PPS We're starting monthly rodas! They will be the second Saturday of each month. We'll start with a workshop at 11am and then a roda from 12 to 1:30pm. All levels of experience are welcome. The first roda is January 13.

What even is capoeira? Click here for an update from San Francisco Capoeira Academy!

📣 Announcing monthly FREE OPEN RODAS at the San Francisco Capoeira Academy, home of the local branch of Capoeira Angola Palmares! Every second Saturday— the first is January 13.

Rodas are open to capoeiristas of any group and experience level who would like to learn about and experience the traditions of our group, and the work of our Grand Master, Mestre Nô. 🌈 🥷 ⭐️ 🌙 🇧🇷

We also have a series of weekend workshops, some of which will be with guest teachers. These workshops are also open to all capoeiristas! More info to come, but please mark your calendars. 📅

📍 San Francisco Capoeira Academy, 1425 Bush St. 94109

DM for any questions!

4 Ways Twice-a-Week Training Is Magic

TIme and again, I've seen capoeira students' abilities take off when they attend class at least twice a week. What's the deal with that?

Reason 1: Capoeira Stays on the Mind

When you come to the studio twice a week, your mind stays in capoeira mode. In contrast, progress takes more effort when you come to class just once a week. There's something about a seven-day pause between practice sessions that allows your mind to process the experience as something intermittent—something that you can let go of and replace with other routines. This is especially true for beginners.

So much of excelling at capoeira has to do with making the movement patterns a part of deep muscle memory. For myself, at this stage in my capoeira practice, capoeira is no longer something I "do" or "turn on" at specific times. It's always right there with me, whatever else I'm doing. It lives in my body and my mind at all times.

Reason 2: More Context

Students who attend at least two sessions a week at the studio typically get a mega-dose of context for their practice. This is true for both adults and youth.

Context provides motivation, and for any worthwhile practice, nothing could be more precious.

In our youth program, for example, Mondays always include an all-ages roda, or capoeira circle. This is where the game of capoeira takes place. Training but missing the roda is kind of like going to soccer practice and never going to game day. Imagine running laps and doing dribbling drills, but never experiencing the joy of scoring a goal, or the agony of a tough loss: both experiences provide context and motivation for disciplined training sessions.

Mestre Nô has told me: "The teacher doesn't teach, he helps the student learn." As I accumulate more years as a teacher, the wisdom of this saying becomes clearer. Creating context—through stories, experiences, and real-life applications—is one of the greatest ways to open the doors to learning.

Reason 3: More Fooling Around

Another special feature of our youth program is dedicated time for fooling around.

On Wednesdays after class, we have open gym (first for our youth, later for teens and adults). This is another invaluable period of time for students to expand their creativity in movement. Some students spend the whole period practicing their back handsprings. Others invent little contests of acrobatic skill. Others do whatever they want (as long as it's safe), playing make-believe, for example. But I've noticed that their play is always punctuated with cartwheels and handstands.

The studio is a safe and controlled space for our youth to explore their capacities. I'm always astonished by how much our students learn simply by watching and imitating—and then adding their own creative twists.

Guess what? Adults need fooling around time too! And we get it: after classes, in between classes, and in our Wednesday open gym sessions.

One of the words used to describe playing capoeira is vadiar, which means "to hang out." It's no coincidence—our best work is rooted in play.

Reason 4: Creating a Routine

There's no point in sugarcoating it. Getting good at capoeira takes a lot of dedication—and dedication is hard. But dedication gets a lot less hard when you make it a routine.

Sometimes when our family gets home late from an outing, one of my daughters will ask if she can skip brushing her teeth before she goes to bed. My answer: Nah, you should brush your teeth. It's a nonnegotiable part of our bedtime routine.

My advice: Choose a training frequency, and make it a similarly nonnegotiable routine for yourself. Plant a routine and grow a habit. That habit will yield a transformation.

Let's make capoeira unskippable in 2024.

By the way, you know what's even better than training twice a week? Training every day. But I digress 🙂.

Axé!
Eamon (Professor Jesus)

4 Ways Twice-a-Week Training Is Magic Click here for an update from San Francisco Capoeira Academy!