Capoeira Classes combine culture and community

Combining dance and cultures, Josephine Glass established the Saturn Jive Dance Space at Lowe Mill, allowing dance instructors to create community with locals.

“I needed a space, and lots of other people needed a space, so I put in an application at Lowe Mill to do the Cultural Movement Arts Center,” she said. “That’s what we call it, as opposed to just a dance studio, because we focus on dances that are culturally or historically significant, like swing dancing, Argentine Tango, hip hop or Celtic folk dancing; they’ll have some cultural, historical or even linguistic root that makes them important.”

Glass said the cultural history of dancing stood out to her as an important dynamic to foster at the Saturn Jive Dance Space.

“Human beings have always danced,” she said. “Every single culture across the board has a dance that’s connected to it. Every language has a dance that’s connected to it. There is literally no culture that doesn’t dance, and very often dances that are connected to either colonized cultures or marginal, marginalized or minority cultures.”

Through creating classes where people can connect to cultural traditions of dance, Glass said she wants to create a studio where locals can explore the unifying power of dance.

“We forget that that’s also part of our history, that there’s a power there, and there’s a unifying presence to dance and to music that brings people together,” she said. “Every culture has that, from African dancing to African American dancing to Celtic dancing to Norse dancing. I have a Norse dance class coming up this weekend. That’s what we focus on at my dance studio, the universal cultural binding of dance and music in humanity throughout all of history.”

One of the cultural classes taught at the Saturn Jive Dance Space is the Capoeira Classes.

“Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, or an Afro-Brazilian martial art,” Glass said. “The origins of Capoeira are that there were enslaved peoples from Africa who were brought to Brazil by the different colonial slave trades. And Africa has martial arts. People don’t realize this. We focus on martial arts from mostly Asian countries in this country, which I think is kind of funny, but Africa has combat styles, combat styles that are 1,000s of years old.”

Glass said Capoeira dancing was able to remain a cultural element for Africans in Brazil through resilient dancers fighting others’ desire to oppress their culture.

“Whenever the people who came from Africa to Brazil against their will, they wanted to continue that fighting style,” she said. “Brazil actually has an immense history of slave rebellions and successful slave rebellions. But these enslaved peoples in Capoeira, in Brazil, continue to practice their form of fighting.”

Through portraying Capoeira as a form of dance instead of martial arts, they were able to ensure their art lasted for generations.

“What they did that was successful is that they said, This is dancing,” Glass said. “We’re not training in a martial art. This is a dance. And they played drums and they played music, and it became something that was rhythmic and almost performative and almost like a game and almost like a dance, but it was still their martial discipline.”

Through portraying their martial arts as a dance, those who practiced Capoeira established the Capoeira dance as culturally significant art in Brazil.

“They kind of got away with it [using dance to hide martial art training] in some communities, in some places where they could hide their training in music and in dancing,” Glass said. “Capoeira has become something culturally in Brazil and connected areas that is easily identified with their culture.”

Glass said the instructor for the Capoeira classes immerses those who participate in the dance and music that creates the martial art.

“The instructor does all of the moves, and things have names in Portuguese that he gives,” she said. “And then he also brings traditional instruments that are Brazilian, but they’re also African. You have a kids’ class and adults’ class, and he’ll show the kids how to play the instruments and what they sound like. It’s more than just learning a martial art. It’s learning the music, the rhythms, the instruments, the language and then also the movement. It’s a really fun class.”

Capoeira is on Saturday, with the adult classes starting at 11 and the children’s classes beginning at 12. Those who want to participate do not need to preregister. Glass said participants can show up and pay there.

“You can just come in, comfortable clothes and a water bottle is always good,” she said. “Then the classes are $15 for people who are not college or high school students, and then it’s $10 for college or high school students or the kids.”

For more information on Capoetina classes and the other classes at the Saturn Jive Dance Space,  visit https://saturnjivedancespace.wordpress.com.