Liberation Arts is a method of education and a philosophy of life. It is a practice of culture that generates freedom. Join us for a weekend of community, movement, music, improv and shared meals.

Schedule

Saturday, July 30

6pm Dinner (meal provided)
8pm Drumming & Party
Overnight: Option to Camp

Sunday, July 31

8am Breakfast (meal provided)
10am Maculele Workshop - This Afro-Brazilian style stick dance uses free-form, synchronized, and choreographed movements in the playful combination of physical style and athleticism. We strike patterns together in high energy team games. Learn more.
11am Samba Workshop - Dance for sheer joy and to reflect and empower our life stories, our Samba uses the supportive structure of Afro-Brazilian Samba de Roda (circle). Learn the fundamentals of Brazil's national dance. Learn more.
12 Lunch (meal provided)
1:30pm Capoeira Workshop - Often referred to as the Dancing Martial Art, Capoeira is self defense training and also practice for the 2-person game played in a ceremony with call & response music. Learn more.
3pm Capoeira Circle - Together in the Afro-Diasoporic traditions of South and North and America.
5pm Dinner (meal provided)
Overnight: Option to Camp

Instructors

Contramestra Amazonas (Jah Burton) & Macaco Nova Yolk (Saman Dashti)

Professora Amazonas serves as the Curriculum Developer for the Afro Brazilian Arts & Education Academy as well as the Artistic Director for Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira, the first capoeira group formed in New Jersey. Upholding the flag and legacy built by her teacher, Mestre Cigano (Robson Ribeiro), she works tirelessly with her business partner Professor Macaco (Saman Dashti) to provide quality engaging workshops for adults and at-risk youth.

Growing up in Queens, New York, she trained Jujitsu and Judo. Track and Field brought her to New Jersey, where she competed and coached for Seton Hall U., NJ City U. and St. Peter’s College. She spent many formative years studying with Professor Esperanca (Carlos Walter) as well as completed seminar for Teaching Artist Training, directed by Mestre Ombrinho (Michael Goldstein), the first American-born Capoeira master. She combines all of her experiences in her various disciplines to encourage others to take a trip through the African Diaspora in her workshops offered under Arts for Kids, LLC and Capoeira Programs, LLC for the past 4 years. She has taught workshops and studied Capoeira philosophy, movement and song in various cities in the United States as well as Mexico and Brazil. Concurrently, she teaches mathematics in the Newark Public Schools system, and is a dedicated teaching artist and performer in several West African dance and drum companies.

Saman Dashti is an expressive arts facilitator helping people experience warrior arts culture. He is a Contremestre in the Afro-Brazilian art of Capoeira. He is one of the lead members of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira and received his Capoeira artist name Macaco (monkey).

Saman was raised in Jamaica, Queens and studied Environmental Sciences at UC Berkeley. He learned Capoeira in Newark, NJ. Macaco spent 12 years teaching art residencies in NYC area schools. His students cross diverse socioeconomic groups including children with special needs, autism and in behavioral health communities. Macaco travels to Bahia, Brazil to visit with elders in the arts. These sabbaticals provide in-depth experiences of the cultural context of the arts that are the foundation of his teaching.

Macaco is currently an arts educator and art circle celebrant in the intentional communities of central Virginia. His home is at Cambia Community, where he focuses on facilitating workshops, collaborating with Rustling Roots, and building a local small scale education program for the wider community of central Virginia.

About the Host Site

Rustling Roots, located at Cambia Community

Rustling Roots is a small-scale ecological education center located at Cambia Community in Louisa VA. We seek to empower individuals and communities to care for their land and understand the challenge of climate change, while providing practical skills needed for living on the land and regenerating local culture through community, sharing, theater and arts. Rustling Roots hosts hands-on educational opportunities including student field trips, youth programs, tours, workshops, summer camp with some overnight stays, internships, and artist residencies.

Bio: Cambia Community is a re-forming, income-sharing, intentional community in Louisa, VA. Cambia values ecological health, creating intentional family, deep connections, and supporting each other, our children, and our continued learning and personal growth. We’re off-grid, vegan, build our own shelters with local and natural materials, have fruit trees and a vegetable garden, and run a small-scale ecological education center called Rustling Roots.

We are located within a thriving cluster of intentional communities, and together we are working toward a viable, regenerative alternative to the mainstream. These communities include Twin Oaks, Acorn, Living Energy Farm, and Serenity

Liberation Arts Capoeira Weekend Workshop

hosted by Rustling Roots Ecological Education Center

Team Members