The mix of dance, drumming and call and response singing will provide an extraordinary experience to give creative expression to the fight our seniors have waged all their lives to live with dignity in a harsh urban environment. The goals of the program are to: (1) Instruct seniors in the performing arts (2) Provide seniors with a forum to express age and ancestry (3) Stage an exhibition of the participant's completed work at (4) Use the Capoeira arts to celebrate the diversity as well as the commonality of the African culture in the community and throughout the United States, Caribbean and Latin America. (5) Extend the cultural experience to the community in an intergenerational appeal to neighborhood youth Capoeira is an art form that developed as a movement of resistance from a group of people fighting for survival and self-expression. However, it also served as form of stress relief that allowed enslaved Africans to disconnect from the cruel life they had to endure. Thus, many of the elements within Capoeira – the music, dance, percussion and communal interaction—serve as the rhythm of life that resonates in us all to transcend the hurt and humdrum of the everyday and connect to our self-expression and appreciation for cultural traditions and healing practices.
