Whatup capoeira nation! Inst. Caxixi here, thank you so much to the capoeira community that has been supporting this work, it is very motivating for me knowing that out there are people willing to help our capoeira community, if you don’t know who I am yet, I want to invite you to listen to episode 01 of the podcast, there you can learn who I am and how I got here. Alright, let’s roll.
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Today I have the huge pleasure to interview a very good capoeirista, hard worker and passionate with Capoeira! He has dedicated his whole life to capoeira, successfully growing kids and adults capoeira classes since 2000 in Boston, Massachusetts, having great designs for the website, Instagram and Facebook, and I know we can learn a lot from him, let me introduce you to Mestre Chuvisquinho from Sinha Capoeira!
How are you doing Mestre?
Before we jump to question and information, tell us your social medias:
Website Here
Facebook Here
Instagram Here
[00:02:54] Caxixi: How did you got to capoeira? Start however you want.
M. Chuvisquinho: ok, this could take the time you know! Well, my name is Lindemberg Desouza, I was born in Belo Horizonte, Capital of Mina Gerais, Brazil in 1979, 40 years ago! It’s been awhile, I’m the third generation of capoeirista in my family, yeah everything started with my grandfather and then my father and then myself, my entire life it was capoeira, and still is, capoeira is a strong force that I have within myself like many other capoeirista you know, since childhood capoeira was there, it was present. I was raised for my grandmother which is my father’s mom and she was one of the biggest motivators in my capoeira journey, and my Mestre which is my father as well, he was a young capoeirista that went after his dreams, knowing his believes, and working hard in Mina Gerais in a strong school and I was living with my grandma and she used to take me to capoeira. When I was 9 years old I used to gather the kids on the streets and teach them capoeira, I was 9 years old. And then years went by, life was happening and when the teens age hit, I was going to different roda all by myself going after capoeira you know I was on my teens and I was living capoeira to the best, of course, those are the years of the troubles, you know, he kind of disagree with all my adventures, and life happens you know, just training capoeira, living capoeira came from a very humble childhood you been raised by my grandma wasn’t a lot of easy path however I’m very grateful.
[00:10:02] Caxixi: how did you get the Chuvisquinho nick name?
M. Chuvisquinho: Chuvisquinho, because my Mestre, you know Chuvisco and Chuvisquinho.
[00:10:38] Caxixi: you are a good example to a lot of capoeiristas out there, including me, on how to grow our classes. On growing a class, how do you sell capoeira to the public or how do you catch their attention?
M. Chuvisquinho: you know is interesting I get this question a lot I believe because we have, we did have a strong work here in Massachusetts but I always come up with the same answer, if you do anything with love man you are on the right track because I don’t go to my classes and I’m like “ugh another day this is just a class because this is what I do for living so I need to be here” no I love, I literally love what I do I teach you know a small class with 3 students, 5 students, still you know 22 years later and I’m still passionate about what I do.
[00:21:31] Caxixi: how do you keep that motivation to keep the mindset to keep coming to class?
M. Chuvisquinho: every time I go to class to me is an opportunity to sharpen my tool as a teacher, as a Mestre de capoeira, as an artist, as a person, every time I go to class is an opportunity for me to sharp tool as you know all these elements, right, and I need to get to my students that’s the experience that they have up to that point so every class is better that one that passed, it’s a simple formula in my way of seeing if you go to a restaurant, you enjoy the food, and you are like “wow this food is pretty good” so automatically what are you gonna do?
Caxixi: come back to the place!
M. Chuvisquinho: come back to the place, you are gonna go again, and what are you gonna tell if you are home with your family and they say “let’s go out to eat” what is gonna be the first reaction?
Caxixi: oh, let’s go to this place, this place was pretty good, that’s true!
M. Chuvisquinho: so is the same understanding, you know anything to me that it’s extremely important and it’s initial for me in many years in capoeira or any other art but I’m talking about capoeira because that’s my art, right, our art, is how you treat people, understand it’s how you treat people, so you wanna be in an environment where people treat you well, where you feel you are important there, so I always tell my students you guys are the reason for my motivation to be in class every single day, they are my main motivation because I need to do better for them if I’m doing good for my students automatically I’m doing good for my own self, I’m doing for my school, I’m doing good for capoeira.
[00:32:08] Caxixi: Do you have any kind of marketing aspect or like strategies that you use for your classes?
M. Chuvisquinho: you knee is kind of interesting because I get that a lot, people are like Mestre I look at your pictures and your classes are always full you have a pretense in social media I get that a lot but in reality I don’t think I don have nothing different then everyone else, I don’t think I do anything different that you do, or someone else does, you know I do put effort in what I do, I do put love in what I do, I’m very picky, people that work with me they know that is tough to work with me because I’m extremely picky, extremely like different level, people that work with me have been working with me for 10, 11 years, I don’t like to be changing you know, from the one that does my uniform to the person that does my art work, I don’t like to be switching professionals I find a good professional and I’m gonna stick with him, because he understands my language with time, and he understands what I’m looking for.
[00:47:36] Caxixi: do you have an LLC or nonprofit entity?
M. Chuvisquinho: you need to have a structure right, we have our work in different part of Boston so we have a noon profit organization and we have a business as well, because you need to have it otherwise everything is on the air, right everything is on the air, if I go to a big company, if I go to a big institution and I want to create a partnership with that institution and they look at me as a person they are going to be like “ok well bye we are not doing it” so we do have a structure, but as I said, this is not new, everybody does that, is how you run, the difference to me, the X factor is how you handle, you probably have more knowledge that I do in this aspect but how you handle that, same understanding give you a bunch of vegetables this and that but you don’t know how to prepare a salad.
[01:10:31] Caxixi: are you planning on having an event next year, uncontrol de bombast?
M. Chuvisquinho: yet we have encontro de bambas every year it always happens either on the last weekend of November or first week of December, it’s a good event, good energy, good people
[01:16:53] Caxixi: how do you keep your self-motivation?
M. Chuvisquinho: you know it’s an interesting question, because capoeira is something so inside of me Caxixi, capoeira is something so strong inside of me, I don’t think I need external factors to motivate me, I like to wake up and do my own training, I like to wake up – I’m a coffee person, a cup of coffee, I like waking up in the morning, have a cup of coffee, go through my music, go through my writings, because I like to write a lot, but I don’t think I have that need of that external factor to motivate me in capoeira.
[01:19:31] Caxixi: What kind of advice do you have for those that don’t practice capoeira?
M. Chuvisquinho: you don’t know how cold the water is, the ocean is, until you step in it, that’s it.
[01:19:31] Caxixi: What about the ones that practice capoeira?
M. Chuvisquinho: “trata capoeira com carinho” – Treat capoeira with respect, treat capoeira with care, a capoeira e verdadera, capoeira is real, she is real, capoeira is not alike, you should treat capoeira with care she will treat you with care.
[01:20:00] Caxixi: repeat your social medias again?
Website Here
Facebook Here
Instagram Here
M. Chuvisquinho: Like my grandma used to say “knowledge doesn’t take space, what is the value of knowledge if is not to be shared”
Thank you for your time!