Capoeira

Created in Brazilian plantations around the 16th century by slaves of different African origins as a way of self defense and resistance, becoming a symbol of liberation, forbidden, persecuted, therefore, disguised as a dance, later "sold" as an entertainment for tourists, today, the Afro-Brazilian Capoeira is widely known, practiced and promoted all over the world. Nowadays it's a type of art and sport that unites thousands of people. Some even call it a way of life. Not only does it possess an extremely unique combat system, it also has a very strong cultural dimension to it. It's the only martial art in the world that is indissociable from rhythm and music. It is also the only genuinely Brazilian sport, due to its uniqueness, since 2014 Capoeira is included in the UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage.

Nowadays, there are two main styles of Capoeira, along with many other less distinct ones.

Our school emphasizes the image of Capoeira as a sport, but in no way detaching it from cultural values. Of course, we cherish traditions, but we are also focused on progress.

An encounter between two capoeiristas (Capoeira practitioners) is often referred to as a game (jogo in Portuguese), rather than a fight, because in order to defeat an opponent, not only use their physical strength, technique or agility, but also ingenuity, insight, intuition, confusing, deceptive movements, misleading body expression, even acting skills are used... Plus, really, it's not always a fight. It's more like a non-verbal dialog between two people. To see a real full-contact Capoeira fight you would probably have to rent a movie or attend Capoeira tournament, or look for videos from these tournaments. Same as all martial arts, Capoeira does not promote violence of any kind.

As a sports activity Capoeira is found by specialists to be one of the most complete ways of exercising your physical abilities. It develops both aerobic and anaerobic capacity of an athlete. Despite the dance-like appearance, Capoeira's combat potential has been proven by scientists, as well as tested by universal fighters. Some kicks in particular are extremely popular among UFC fighters.

The legendary Capoeira master Mestre Bimba (Manoel Dos Reis Machado), who persuaded then president of Brazil Getulio Vargas to legalize this martial art, while trying to prove it's value, publicly challenged martial artists and fighters of any style to face him in the ring and won against all those who had accepted his challenge. It is not commonly known, but later on one of Bimba's students, a fighter named Waldemar Santana (nicknamed Leopardo Negro), succeeded in defeating a martial arts legend, the father of BJJ, Elio Gracie, in a Vale Tudo fight, that lasted almost 4 hours.

Capoeira techniques are widely used in the film industry. Mostly in fighting scenes. Although some moves also appear in dance movies. Capoeira kicks and stunts have been performed by famous movie characters, such as Blade (act. Wesley Snipes), or Catwoman (act. Halle Berry), among others. There's also a bunch of movies and TV series about Capoeira or at least involving actual Capoeira scenes. Of course, they're mostly Brazilian productions. Also amongst people who may not be too physically active or involved in sports of any kind, Capoeira became popular through video games.

But Capoeira is far more than a martial art, sports, or just a form of entertainment. It is an Art, a Game, Cultural Heritage, Traditions, Self-expression, a Sense of Unity, Motion Expression, Music, Freedom, Communication, Way of Life, a Social Integration Tool and a whole lot more ...

We will add many other things to this list during our classes ...

About us

We are a Vilnius based branch of an international Brazilian Capoeira school FICAG, the first capoeira school to open a branch in Lithuania.

FICAG (Fundação Internacional Capoeira Artes das Gerais) is a Capoeira Regional school, founded by Mestre Museu (Jamil Raimundo). An internationally recognised master, that has 40 years of experience in capoeira, Mestre (Capoeira Master) since 1995; established his own school in 1992.

Branch Manager is a licensed sports trainer instr. Bruxinha (Despina Šuminaitė), hwo has over 15 years of experience in capoeira and about 20 years overall experience in Martial Arts and combat sports; representing FICAG since June, 2007.

Classes

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Actually Capoeira classes are so much more than just physical workouts, even though the whole body gets exercised and benefited in so many ways. That includes improvement in endurance, balance, flexibility, agility, reaction time, strength, coordination, body expression, etc. But we can confidently assure you that anyone who commits to taking these classes at least for a few months will not only extend the range of their physical capabilities, feel a couple of muscles they never knew were there before, improve their overall physical fitness and health, get introduced to basic Capoeira techniques, but aside of all that they will also have many new enriching experiences, learn one or two songs in Portuguese or at least get acquainted with an unusual type of music; see, hear and even have the opportunity to learn to play unique musical instruments, learn a little about Brazilian culture, even pick up a couple of Portuguese words and phrases and that's not nearly all...

JOIN OUR CLASSES:

on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays at 6:00 PM, Konstitucijos pr. 12
on Saturdays & Sundays at 1:30 PM, J. Basanavičiaus st. 33

Information about classes for kids - coming soon!

SIGN UP or TALK TO US

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The Capoeiros belt system is similar to other martial arts. The color of the belts roughly defines the level of capoeirista's (capoeira practitioner's) knowledge. Although, unlike in the Oriental Martial Arts, the Capoeira belts are traditionally made of a sort of a rope (or cord) and are called corda or cordão in Portuguese.

The colored ranking system may differ in different Capoeira groups. Also, in many schools, as well as in ours, there are several age categories with a separate color system.

At present, FICAG has four of these categories:
children up to 7 years of age, children / teenagers from the age of 8 to 14, adults and elderly (people that have started to attend classes at a respectable age in special kind of groups for this age category) and people with special needs.

The last category is not shown in the illustration, as it was formed recently, because of the increasing number of this type of groups set up by the representatives of our school, and the growing need to constantly motivate those students by giving them higher belts.

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Even though Capoeira classes are much more than physical workouts, we take great responsibility for the improvement and support of physical fitness and health of our students.

We sincerely love Capoeira and all of you. That's why we want you to feel as healthy and strong as possible. We are dedicated to what we do, we try and always stay up to date with new information, deepen our knowledge, refine our skills and expand our qualifications any chance we get, in local educational, sports and medical training courses, as well as in annual international Capoeira events. Therefore, we hope and believe that the qualifications of our teachers will meet or even exceed your expectations. (We have more than one licensed athletic trainer in our group.)

Capoeira is everyone – for children, as well as for grownups, for young, as well as more experienced people, for athletes, as well as for those who are only planing on starting doing sports, for the healthy ones, as well as for those who want to be healthy. We welcome all of You to join our family!

We also take part in various events where we can get you acquainted not only with Capoeira, but also with Brazilian culture, folklore, Afro-Brazilian dance styles and musical genres (like Maculelê, Samba-Reggae, Samba de Roda, etc.), offer presentations / performances, organize open roras, Capoeira training courses, musical workshops, camps and individual trainings.

SIGN UP FOR CLASSES or CONTACT US

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Contact us

Capoeira FICAG Vilnius

CLASS SCHEDULE:
Mon., Wed. & Fri. - 6:00 PM (Konstitucijos pr. 12),
Sat. & Sun. at 1:30 PM (Basanavičiaus st. 33)

Information about classes for kids - coming soon!

For additional classes and events please get in touch

[email protected]

+37061675720 Despina (Bruxinha)

You can also contact us on Facebook. We speak English, Portuguese (Br), Russian and of course Lithuanian.

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