If you visit Hamilton, you're likely to come across a band of students performing a complex and acrobatic martial art to the rhythm of a bowlike instrument called a "berimbau." Meet the Capoeira Club.
Roberto Andrade, the founder of that club, was already an avid practitioner of karate when, as a high school student, he was inspired to learn capoeira. This Brazilian martial art is by no means new, but, until recently, it was relatively unknown in the U.S. "During one spring break, my parents encouraged me to take a capoeira class," said Roberto. "I was instantly hooked." Before long, Roberto was taking capoeira classes regularly, including classes in Venezuela, where he spent two summers.
During his first semester at Hamilton, Roberto needed some capoeira partners to practice with, so he took his roommates outside and taught them some moves. "Capoeira is part martial art and part dance," he said. "It's non-aggressive and playful -- like the way you used to monkey around as a kid -- so I knew that it wouldn't take long for people to get interested in it here."
Now, the College's capoeira club has nearly 25 members who gather four times a week for classes taught by Roberto, who wears the green cord of an advanced capoeira student around his waist. "The club has really become like a family," he said. "Capoeira is all about community and culture." The club reaches out to the broader community, as well -- performing regularly at campus events such as Carnaval and CultureFest and at the local Kirkland Art Center, where they improvise their art for children. Some of those children have even started to attend the classes on campus.
Roberto and some fellow capoeristas even took capoeira into the classroom. In a sophomore seminar titled "The Physics of Musical Sound," Roberto and his classmates were challenged to build an instrument and measure its sound properties. Of course, they chose to build a berimbau, steaming a tree branch to a bowlike shape and adding a wire as a string and a hollow gourd for resonance. "That class was really rich for me," said Roberto. "I got to apply everything I learned to something I love."
