Welcome to everyone from FICA or from the FICA Women’s Conference!
I think it’s so cool that you got to be involved in something like that (I’m sorry I couldn’t make it), and thank you for coming by! If you just found the link to my blog through the conference website, or found me through a recommendation (thank you, Shayna!), please check out my “Best Of” page, browse through the archives, or if you wish to zero in on the “women in capoeira” parts, then this post (a round-up all of such articles on my blog) will be the perfect starting point for you. I hope you enjoy your stay, and come back soon!
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For everyone else, last weekend, FICA held a women’s conference in Washington, DC, and by all accounts I’ve heard so far it was amazing. What I liked about this event (even though I unfortunately couldn’t make it) was that it wasn’t just a “women’s-only for the sake of it” event, but it was for men and women, but about women, and women in capoeira.
One of the most interesting and possibly valuable parts of this conference, I thought, was the discussion panels that it involved, since how often does that kind of thing happen in the midst of all our regular training and playing? The breadth of topics covered was engaging and enlightening (as far as I could tell, from afar!), and led to ideas for some real-world, material results. Check out a full write-up on the conference at their official website/blog, with pictures (including the one above), a slideshow, and what came out of all the discussions! (It goes over several posts, so make sure you keep scrolling down to read.)
Click here to read the FICA Women’s Conference
Wrap-Up and Discussion Ideas
p.s. As you may have noticed, I’ve started to make some headway on the comments! I have yet to respond to the ones under “What is the Role of a Capoeira Mestre?” because altogether they’d take a little more time than the others and I wanted to do them justice. In the meantime, you guys have been awesome, and add so much to this blog, so thank you and keep ’em coming!
Mandingueira 
The FICA Women’s Conference was AMAZING!! It was the best Capoeira event I have ever attended. I completely agree with you about the discussion panels—that was the main thing that I loved about it!
Every other Capoeira event I attended before focusing my learning on Angola, was a contemporanea event. The focus of these contemporanea events/batizados seemed to be on accomplishments, levels and this kind of weird everyone-should-be-friends vibe—something like what you discussed in your “Capoeira-Rose-Colored-Glasses” blog. It seemed a little fake and “surface” after a while.
This event totally had a friendly vibe—and I am happy, because I only knew 3 people there! But it is a different energy—so different from my previous experiences.
Instead of the very “surface” capoeira-is-love type of feel, this event was willing to dive into really potentially heated subjects where everyone surely would have some kind of opinion and something to say. And the reason that this was done was so that the group and the art could LEARN. This event was all about exploring ideas, nurturing that individual flavor we all have inside–as Women and as Humans in general, and sharing it all.
There are so many valuable things I learned at this event—-I can’t wait until next year!
I was telling Compromisso that you would have loved it, Joaninha!
Hey Hera!
Yes, I’ve only ever been to regional/contemporanea events and it’s purely about the capoeira—which I’d say is what their specific purpose was though, so fair enough!
That’s awesome though, this conference has sounded better and better the more I’ve heard about it! What you said especially about heated subjects…I’ve never been involved in any sort of intense discussion about anything within my capoeira group, only with my friends outside of class or here on my own blog.
Aww, thanks for thinking of me =) I’m going to be writing more about the conference discussion topics for my next few posts; I’d love for you to share your ideas and the valuable things you learned, in them!