Discover the benefits that capoeira offers to the bodies and minds of elderly people. Carlos Alberto Rosa (Mestre Rosa) of Grupo Barauna is working with older capoeira students in Mogi das Cruzes, Sao Paulo.

How did you get the idea to teach capoeira to the elderly?

It started because I had many parents of my students who would come and watch the classes, wanting to take up some physical activity – but they thought they could never do capoeira. We had a meeting and agreed that capoeira would be very good for older people, because it could be taught as recreation. So we began a capoeira group with this goal in mind. Today, it has 20 members.

Wagner Assis Fonseca Ruas, known as Contra-Mestre Aberrê, has practiced capoeira for over 20 years and is a member of Grupo Capoeira Gerais, of Mestre Mão Branca. In 1998, Aberrê began the Projeto Meninos de Pé no Chão (Project Children with Feet on the Ground) in São Paulo, which aims to use capoeira in the integration of street children into society.

To carry out this work, Aberrê has a partnership with Projeto Vida (Project Life – sponsored by the local government of São Paulo) and the Projeto Aprendendo a Viver (Project Learning to Live). Project Life consists of houses that are open 24 hours for children who have nowhere to spend the night, or who find themselves far from home. Project Learning to Live serves the children during the day, offering educational courses.

In the Projeto Meninos de Pé no Chão, the capoeira classes are both practical and theoretical, always emphasizing the playful side of capoeira, including elements that are fundamental for education and for the development of the kids’ physical, mental, and moral abilities.

The first woman to become a capoeira mestre in Brazil, and the current president of the Rio de Janeiro Capoeira Federation, speaks about the difficulties she had to overcome to reach her goals.

Fatima Colombiana (43) was born in Rio de Janeiro and had appreciated capoeira rodas since childhood, but did not practice the art because her mother thought it wasn’t for girls. As a teenager, she went to Belem do Para and in 1970 she started capoeira with Mestre Bezerra, the only mestre in the city. In 1975, she met Mestre Canjiquinha in Sao Paulo and went with him to Salvador. After 5 years of training, she became a mestra.