Click to enlarge	Capoeira » Art, Magic and Education Capoeira is a brazilian art that mixes dance, fight, acrobatics and playfulness wrapped up in the magic of rituals, chants, hand clapping and the sounds of the berimbau, pandeiro and atabaque. It is in this atmosphere that the “capoeirista” shows his intelligence, malice, tactics and body techniques. As passed down from old Masters, capoeira was developed through the legacy of the African Blacks made slaves in Brazil. Capoeira is a very useful element in education and communication in that is uses the international languages of music and movement. It helps shape personalities through the development of physical and mental skills such as perception, reflexes, self-control, self-knowledge, respect and balance. Capoeira is not so much a goal as a way to get there. The lessons you learn playing capoeira in a “roda” you transfer to your personal life. Aside from that, capoeira educates you to live and work within groups. A simple capoeira “roda” reflects a larger social micro-system. Thus, just like society, the “roda” only functions when each person involved assumes their role, be it that of playing the game, playing the instruments, clapping their hands or answering to the chants. Capoeira is also an activity that expects from each one who participates the capacity to enjoy freedom in the sense of being free to act creatively with no pre-established rules. Within capoeira, there is a large space to create unconditionally because it is one of the few things in contemporary society that isn’t institutionalized.	The richness of capoeira is the great diversity that still exists within. It is a great challenge to maintain this energy under the influence of capoeira: of the people that pass through, that know, learn and feel this energy. Since 1986 Master Garrincha has been dedicating himself to childhood education through capoeira. He criated the childhood and juvenile project Capoeira of the Future , implanted in schools like Ceat, Escola Parque and Grãozinho. The idea is to educate through the rituals of capoeira, with a pedagogic, playful, happy and communicative speech. "Capoeira attracts the artistic potential of children. You just have to create the atmosphere and they will blossom".