Mestre Cobra Mansa is a recognized Capoeira Angola master based in Bahia (Brazil) who has extensive experience teaching and performing capoeira around the world. He participated in the revival of Capoeira Angola during the 1980s–90s in Bahia and now leads the International Capoeira Angola Foundation, one of the most influential capoeira groups in the world. Recently, he participated in the project Angolan Roots of Capoeira led by historian Matthias Rohrig Assuncao (University of Essex), which took them to Angola four times.
The film follows Capoeira master ‘Mestre’ Cobra Mansa and his friends in the search for the African roots of the Brazilian martial art known as Capoeira. In it, a powerful myth links Capoeira to a legendary Angolan game called Engolo—known as the Zebra dance. The film documents, for the first time, Engolo as well as other combat games, dances, and music from the Nyaneka-Humbi people in Southern Angola. The exchange between Capoeira and Engolo in Angolan villages and the insights from the streets of Rio and Bahia illuminate the affinities and differences between combat games and musical bows played on both sides of the Atlantic.
Directed by Richard Pakleppa, Matthias Röhrig Assunção, and Anthropologist Christine Dettmann.
The film runs approximately 90 minutes without pause.
Community Education Room, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
Schubert: “Death and the Maiden” String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor (1824)
Schubert: “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (1817)
arranged by Daniel Stepner for string quartet and voice
with UC Davis graduate student in music Leanny Muñoz, soprano
Both the original song and the later–and expanded—string quartet by Franz Schubert will be performed side by side in this special noon-time concert.
Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA
Mestre Cobra Mansa is a recognized Capoeira Angola master based in Bahia (Brazil) who has extensive experience teaching and performing capoeira around the world. He participated in the revival of Capoeira Angola during the 1980s–90s in Bahia and now leads the International Capoeira Angola Foundation, one of the most influential capoeira groups in the world. Recently, he participated in the project Angolan Roots of Capoeira led by historian Matthias Rohrig Assuncao (University of Essex), which took them to Angola four times.
