Who: NEW Academy of Science and Arts, Independent Charter
Teaching Artist: Phillip Haile of Ballet Folclorcio do Brasil
Program Dates: April 2009
Staff: Darlene Munnings

Skirball Artist-Teacher Partnership Residency Program at NEW Academy of Science and Arts

What is Capoeira? The students at New Academy can both describe and demonstrate this Afro-Brazilian art form that draws its movements from martial arts, games and dance. Initially a form of self-defense disguised as a dance, Capoeira was brought to Brazil from Angola during the 16th century when Brazil was a Portuguese colony and Africans were brought to work as slaves on the sugar plantations and in the gold mines. Their music, dance and beliefs kept their spirits alive.

New Academy is an independent charter school located within the Belmont-Pico Union community, just west of downtown Los Angeles. Since opening in 2003, New Academy of Science and Arts (NASA) has been providing a high quality public education for students in grades K-5. Uniquely located within the basement of a housing complex where some of the same students and their families reside, the school strives to create a child-centered environment where students can work cooperatively, become self-directed, think critically, develop self-esteem and self-assurance, and have respect for cultural diversity.

It is with these goals in mind that New Academy chose to partner with the Music Center to provide school-wide workshops with Ballet Folclorico do Brasil. Focusing on the big idea of community and making connections to Social Studies, Teaching Artist Phillipos Haile explores the basic movements of Capoeira and its relationship to dance elements such as time, space, rhythm, tempo and partnering. Students also learn to:

• Demonstrate body awareness
• Build a vocabulary of movements
• Define the historical context of the roots of Capoeira
• Connect movement, breath, and sound
• Display ability to sing to a specific rhythm in a different language
• Connect similarities in Capoeira to that of everyday life
• Display an understanding of how to conduct oneself in a Capoeira roda

Teaching Artist Phillipos Haile was born and raised in South Los Angeles to parents who immigrated from Ethiopia. Living in Los Angeles exposed him to many different cultures, but his parents always reinforced awareness and pride in his African roots. Phillipos began his first Capoeira lessons at the age of eleven. Today, he tours with Ballet Folclorico do Brasil as a performer and teacher and also works at the Brazil Brazil Cultural Center where he is a head teacher in the youth program.

These energetic workshops with Ballet Folclorico do Brasil are aimed toward increasing students' understanding, appreciation for and knowledge of the music and dance of diverse cultures, specifically the unique blending of African and Latin cultures that characterizes Brazil. As they learn the movements and rhythms to a specific dance, students explore the relationship between music and dance and how the different dance steps and instruments work together, and how they reflect the traditions of the culture that created them.

Phillipos shares, "As my time in Capoeira increases I constantly find myself learning more and more. I feel that one can never stop learning and one can never know enough. However, the day a person feels they know it all is the day they stop learning. Whether I become a Master of Capoeira one day or not, I know I will still always be a student, and that I can learn something from everyone."

For more information about bringing student workshops to your school, call (213) 250-ARTS or email us at schoolprograms@musiccenter.org.

Written by Cammy Truong, School Communications Associate