Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Bantus Japan 5th Anniversary

GBCJ 5th Anniversary

November 28th, 2004 – November 28th, 2009: 5 Years of Bantus Capoeira in Japan!

5thAnniversay-front
Thanks to Sorvete for the new gorilla!

Has it already been 5 years since we had our first capoeira class at Mitaka Dai San Chugakkou Junior High School ?

It all started in 2002 in Perth, Western Australia, when Cafuné met Caçapa at capoeira class. The next thing we knew Mestre Pintor was asking us to start Bantus Capoeira in Japan. It has never been an easy path to travel. But through sheer dedication and pure love for the art of capoeira we’ve made it this far.
All GBCJ members have been an important part of the evolution of our group in Tokyo. Through the many collaborations and meetings, our capoeira friends in Japan have been a big support for us. Our Bantus brothers and sisters in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Israel, and Brazil have been a never-ending source of inspiration and motivation! The faith Mestre Pintor put in us to represent GBC in Japan has been the power we needed to continue through the hard times.

Thank you all for your support.

In those 5 years we’ve had almost 500 different people from 5 years old to 50 years old from 6 continents participate in our classes!

Our group has performed all over Tokyo at various festivals and events. We’ve appeared on television, radio, on the internet, and in magazines and newspapers and exposed millions of people to the joy of capoeira in Japan and abroad.

As a group, we’ve travelled to Malaysia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and all over Tokyo and the Kanto area taking part in various capoeira events with Bantus and other capoeira groups.

We’ve invited 10 Bantus Capoeira instructors over to Tokyo from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Holland, and Brazil, including Mestre Pintor for special capoeira workshops and our Batizados in 2007 and 2008.

Overall, our accomplishments have been huge and memorable.

Performance and Event History

Our quest to promote capoeira has been a never ending project that started with handmade business cards printed in an internet cafe to appearing on television all over Asia.

(HQ) Videos on YouTube

Instrutor Caçapa, Cafuné, and a team of volunteers have been working hard to make sure GBCJ always has a strong presence on the internet.

From our very first website released in 2005 to our current blog, we’ve been at the forefront of internet technology pushing Bantus vibes out across the world wide web.

Thanks to the Web Archive you can take a look at our previous website designs:

Now go…

buy our 5th Anniversary commemorative t-shirt!

5th Anniversary T-shirt 5th Anniversary T-shirt

One more time, thank you to everyone that supported us these last 5 years. Thanks to Gringo, Chacal, Zoi, Rafael, Claudinho, Canguru, Grão, Lula, Sabão, and Mestre Pintor for your help and advice. Thanks to Cafuné, without you there would be no グルーポバントゥスカポエイラジャパン. The journey continues, the dream lives on. 2010 holds more wonderful experiences that we’ve already started preparing. Our 3rd Batizado and Troca de Cordas, more capoeira kids, more events, more workshops, and more fun for GBCJ!

Axé Galera!!

Instrutor Caçapa, November 2009.

Antaru Festival 2009 (Street Roda Videos)

Antaru Festival 2009

Videos from the street rodas after the Antaru Festival 2009 performance. Please enjoy!

Antaru Festival 2009 Report

Holiday Sale (Virtual Capoeira)

Holiday Sale at Virtual Capoeira

Save up to 50% on some great capoeira gear

Save on berimbaus

Save on capoeira pants and tops

Save up to 50% on capoeira DVDs/CDs/Magazines

Sale ends Tuesday, December 1st!

Look for the “Thanksgiving Sale!” tag.

Antaru Festival 2009 (Report)

Antaru Festival 2009 (Report)

It was a very successful event full of awesome capoeira and positive Bantus vibes. As you can see from the above video of the full stage performance (20 minutes) we had a large number of guests representing 10 capoeira groups from Tokyo, Chiba, and even Osaka.

A huge thank you and congratulations to Osuman Oralndo Bingle for organizing a very successful 2nd Antaru Festival in Yoyogi Park.

Thank you to Porco Espinho (Capoeira Narahari Tokyo) and Eric (GBCJ) for taking video which you can link to from within the above YouTube video for some alternative camera angles.

A big Bantus Capoeira Axé to the following friends that helped out a lot at this year’s Antaru Festival performance:

View Photos on Picasa

(HQ) Videos on YouTube

(HQ) Videos on YouTube

With our 5th Anniversary only a few days away, what better time to look back at some old memories.

We’ve re-uploaded some old clips onto YouTube, and added a brand new clip recorded back in 2007. Thanks to YouTube’s ever improving technology, the old clips are now available in High Quality viewing. So check them out and relive some old memories.

Junk Berimbau Workshop

Junk Berimbau Workshop

From 2008-12-14 berimbau workshop

Learn how to make your own berimbau for 1000yen!

workshop

Yes, that’s right! We’ll be making a berimbau for about 10 bucks.
I can’t promise it’s going to sound as good as the real thing, but in this workshop you will learn how to make a simple, lightweight, practice berimbau from “junk”! All materials can be easily found in Tokyo, and bought or sourced for under 1000yen.

In this workshop you will learn where the berimbau’s wire comes from, how to put together a modern-day berimbau from junk objects, and also some of the history and theory behind capoeira’s most important instrument.

Date: Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Time: 6.30pm-8.45pm

Location: Mitaka Go Sho Gakkou

Cost: 1000yen (includes berimbau)

Clothes: Please wear warm clothes and bring inside shoes

Pre-book: Please pre-book your attendance by filling in the form below. Please answer all questions. This is compulsory if you want to take home a berimbau!

Deadline: 6pm, Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Continue reading ‘Junk Berimbau Workshop’