15 Prof. Soquete Kadara Capoeira – Toronto, Canada

What’s up capoeira nation, Welcome back to the Capoeira Experience Podcast I’m your host Inst. Caxixi, if you guys don’t know who I am yet, go back to episode 01 and listen to a little bit of my story. Also, I want to say thank you so much to all the support and please help to get to more people so we can grow even more, and please don’ t forget to leave 5 stars and a nice a beautiful review.

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Right on, on today’s episode this capoeirista have a rely good work, I started following him on Instagram and I see that he has a pretty cool creative way to keep kid busy with games which are pretty cool btw, I did my homework and I saw that he started capoeira in 1997 but came across with Mestre Cicatriz from Rio de Janeiro in 2001 and the journey in Kadara Capoeira begins from there! so I would like to introduce you to Professor Soquete!!

[00;02;00] Caxixi: How are you doing man?

Soquete: hey my friend, how are you?

Caxixi: pretty good! pretty good! how is everything over there?

Soquete: it’s great, we just finished a couple of classes, so it’s nice and quiet here in the academy and I much rather be here talking to you that swiping the floors, so I’m glad to be here

[00;02;23] Caxixi: Before we jump to the interview, how people can find you on social media and website?

Soquete:

Instagram: @kadara_capoeira_canada – Follow them Here

@professor_soquete – Follow them Here

Facebook:

Kadara Capoeira Toronto – Scarborough Like them Here

Soquete Capoeira – Follow him Here

Website – http://kadaracapoeira.ca check their work Here

I really like that website because it is very easy to remember, like for people that do capoeira can be like “oh is just learcapoeira.ca” is easy for them to find it.

Soquete: that’s exactly why I put it together that way because when you’re promoting capoeira outside of Brazil and English speaking country some time I show ” associacao Kadara capoeira Mestre Cicatriz, end then has other words in the back nobody can read any of it so even when we do public demonstration and shows we have a shirt that just says a big capoeira right on in and says Kadara Toronto on the back learnCapoeira.ca and a pictures, because that all people need to see, they don’t need to read all the other things so is simple for them to get that idea and everybody is taking photos these days anyway right, and they are posting it so is the best way to get out there, simply and easily

Caxixi: yeah that way people just I mean they can learn names and all those stuff once they start practicing and all that stuff.

[00;04;45] Caxixi: Tell us a little bit of your capoeira story?

Soquete: so I guess my journey pretty much started in 1986 I started training a martial art and it was literally was 5 house down from where I lived, so I just walked to class 10/11 years old kid then did that for 3 and a half years and then that academy moved away then a taekwondo school came in I training that for about 3 and a half years before I joined the Australian navy it’s been a few years doing the military work and when I got out I was living in Sidney, and I saw that movie only the strong in the middle of 1996. and that was before google right and you have amount of people saying the same thing it took months of me speeding the word with everybody within the fitness industry and saying “hey if you have been this stuff I wanna learn it” one day this guy came in out down a flyer on the table of my work in the lunch room, and he said “is this it?” and it was a picture of a guy doing an Au Batido in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I was like “that’s it” and I went to class that same day

Caxixi: is like destiny came right straight to you

Soquete” yeah it was amazing, and so I trained there for a couple of years and when I meet Mestre Cicatriz it was like going from elementary teacher to a university professor, the way thing were broken down, the way he understood the martial concepts the way he held the group together, the way he had… the energy about him it was were I needed to band I have been with him ever since. The group came through a few name changes, but our lineage has always been the same, my Mestre is always Mestre Cicatriz.

[00;13;38] Caxixi: Why Soquete?

Soquete: The apelido?… I have normally large, thighs, calves, my lower limbs are much heavier than my upper body, so Mestre says very big and very heavy is like a, in Rio the Soquete is what the use to smash and pound like a motor postal thing right, so Mestre was like “your legs are big and strong” and he was like “if you hit somebody with that” and I was like “man I don’t wanna hit anybody Mestre”… Too old for that, but yeah that how I got it, is funny, I like it and is unique, but a lot of people because is a colloquial term for the Soquete a lot of people from Brazil are like “why Soquete, why Soquete”.

[00;15;20] Caxixi: how do you attack people? or how do you sell your idea to people that have never done capoeira before?

Soquete: so yeah, finding people or bring new people in that don’t have exposure to capoeira it’s a modern digital age if people know about capoeira and they wanna come, they google it if we are closer and they like what they see, they do their research they come in, and finding people that never heard about capoeira and educating them about the art form is my favorite part of bringing people in, there is a street festival here in Scarborough Calle the taste of Lawrence festival and every year so like 1 hr., 45 minutes show demonstration and when we do shows our focus is really on education so is not just set up a roda then jump around, flip around, hands out flyer and go, we do batucada, we do Maculelê, we do capoeira, we do solos, but the whole thing becomes an experience where I take the time to explain this is batucada, this is where it comes from, this is how it is used and I say ok let me do Maculelê “a dance do guerreiros” so I take a lot of time to explain the history the art, I give a separate component during the show just for the music and explain the berimbau, explaining the instruments, to explain how the music tells stories, how there is history and metaphor and lessons, to learn to the music and morals to pass on then we do the capoeira.

[00;23;15] Caxixi: how do you advertise?

Soquete: yeah we do the promo and the demos and are always great working into schools is a great opportunity if you get to do that, I just do some Facebook marketing a little bit of Instagram marketing not as much as I could or should I haven’t done it for a while we go through face where every couple of months we do an intro day, Saturday afternoon, promote for couple of weeks or month or so, and get a bunch of people in because somebody or must people don’t want to be the only newbie so if you can get 15 – 20 people in doing an introduction to capoeira again use that as an education to this is where it comes from here is a basic movement that is a kick, here is a basic movements that is an escape we all gonna do a cartwheel and we are gonna do a vengativa so something, something for offensive, something for defensive a floor movement of some kind and acrobatic movement of some kind.

[00;26;05] Caxixi: how do you get into schools? or how do you structure peppers?

Soquete: a lot of the school stuff that I have managed are from one obvers and some of them are from some kind of connection or an email that comes to me but I have some connections through the Toronto school board that have explained to me that some schools board have like a preferred clients list or a prefer performance list that they would get to come in and do things for the school board, because is easy for the school board auto rice the checks and stuff like that.

[00;42;40] Caxixi: where do you find those interactive games?

Soquete: some of the games are inspired by other teachers or other moments I had one of the must important, little kid’s game that I play, that’s my first go to I learned from Mestre in Belo Horizonte when I was there in 2010, Mestre Bimba and contra Mestra Guerreira and they teach A lot of kid’s classes and they just have this lithe simple game, with the pandeiro they play and it’s called “the response” and the kids do their little movements and everybody follows everybody else and is a catchy little song that they sign and I was like “that’s gold I’m going to take that” and then at the same workshop, the same event there where another Mestre who taught a lot stuff with ropes and it was interesting and funny to me because the workshop was Mestre Hulk, and I was like “oh this big real tough legendary guy I can’t wait to do his workshop” and we did an hour and a half of kids class stuff and he was like “community, we got to make sure that when we are teaching the kids and making them grow” and we did a lit stuff with the rope across the room and I was like impress again, this great concept in how when you give sternal drill with the rope, over and under the rope, you can’t get it wrong and end up on the right side of the rope so having a visual and physical barrier.

[00;51;05] Caxixi: do you have any project going on right now or planning any batizado?

Soquete: our batizado this year is gonna be July 20, so I just put my Facebook event to save the date, I’m still working on some guests stuff but it would be a great year is the first that I have 2 students that started training with me back in 2011 when I started here and they’re getting the graduado cord.

Facebook event Here

[00;54;30] Caxixi: what do your advice those instructors out there?

Soquete: advice to teachers, that’s a challenging one, a wise man once said to me “nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”

so, you need to create, or I be alive you need to create environments where is open and it’s welcoming and is fun and is friendly

[00;58;28] Caxixi: what kind of advice would you give to capoeiristas in general?

Soquete: uhm… I don’t feel that I have the right to speak to capoeiristas, in general, I’m just a professor… love what you do, loving what you do is really important easy for people to get jetted this happen, people to allow politics into group things to get into their way of enjoyment of the art.

[00;00;00] Caxixi: contact information?