Sorry guys, but after all your effort in trying to make it for all the performances this weekend, we have just been informed that Samsung has called off its road show at KLCC. According to the Ferret, the public’s response to their fire-dancers was rather poor last weekend. Apologies to those who were looking forward to playing there, but don’t fret—as always, there’s plenty more in the Bantus bag.

So here is this weekend’s lineup:

• The 5pm music class this Saturday, 29th of January, will be at Kiara Park in Taman Tun. Meet up at the academia around 4:30pm if you don’t know how to get there.
• We are celebrating Quek’s belated birthday with a roda in Bangsar on Saturday, 29th of January at 9pm. You know the drill—the birthday boy has to play with everyone in the roda, so let’s try and up the numbers even more this weekend, eh?
• We’re promoting our classes at Sun Yoga with a performance at Plaza Mont Kiara this Sunday, 30th of January at 1pm.

See you at the rodas!

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to Instructor Tata from Grupo Bahia de Capoeira Indonesia, who is visiting us this weekend from Jakarta. He came with other visitors from Jakarta—Diah and Dion, a former student who used to learn capoeira when classes were still being held at Dance Space in Plaza Damas.

Saturday night found us creeping up on Bangsar unawares once again to have a public roda as a proper Bantus welcome for our guests. We tried out a new spot this time—just a stone’s throw away from our usual one outside Telawi Street Bistro, to a big-ish plot of walkway outside Guardian Pharmacy along the same street.

As a result our crowd was spilling onto the road, and some were craning their necks to investigate this noisy bunch of youngsters. Thank you to all who managed to turn up for the roda and made it a good one—but as always, there’s room for improvement!

Grupo Bahia de Capoeira Indonesia, led by Instructor Luciano (Tata), who made an appearance on Saturday’s street roda will be having their Batizado on the 5th of February and we’re all invited. Anyone who’s interested in booking a flight there to join them in the festivities are most welcome to do so.

Rafael, Quek and Coelho are booked on the evening flight of Friday, the 4th of February. Accomodations can be arranged, just let Coelho know so that he can inform the organisers how many heads are joining us.

Grupo Bahia’s Batizado will feature Mestre Cicatriz, Mestre Torpedo, Instructor Jensen, Instructor Tata and last but not least our very own Instructor Rafael. So you know you’ll be in for a good time!

For more details, contact Coelho or follow this posting on Yahoo! Groups.

Have the urge to freak out and pull some capoeira moves at some of the larger Putra LRT stations in town? You’re now given that chance on the 29th and 30th of January (this weekend) to do just that at the KLCC LRT station—courtesy of Samsung.

There will be 3 slots of 5 minutes each to play in a 5-6 person roda each day, the first slot being at 12pm, the next at 5pm, and lastly at 8pm. A bataria won’t be necessary as we will be playing to recorded music.

Check your inbox for the signup e-mail or check the Yahoo! Groups posting from Andrew, so hop to it!

We’re back from Penang! Firstly, many thanks to Terry and his family for providing us lodging during our stay, and sound advice against having a roda along Gurney Drive which could have resulted in some of us being arrested.

17 people made the trip up north to perform at USM’s Malam Kung Fu which proved to be hugely popular with the university’s student population. Hurrah for us—we were probably the most spontaneous (disorganized), relaxed (raucous) and most casually-garbed of performers that night, keeping true to Bantus’ modus operandi!

Apart from having a rollicking good time playing Maculelê and capoeira before an audience of about 1,000, we were also fortunate to have Terry take us to the non-tourist-infested makan spots in Penang to sample some of its tastier offerings of assam laksa, char koay teow, cendol etc. There was also some time spent flipping around on the beach on Sunday morning, which was entirely enjoyable and addictive.

Most of us left Penang after a late lunch yesterday, nicely tanned after a day of being under the scorching island sun, and a little fatter. To those who wanted to come along this time but for some reason or other couldn’t make it, don’t worry, there’ll be more outings in the pipeline, we promise! We also look forward to having more of you joining us in future road trips.

As posted earlier in January, there’s been a change of plans with the Penang trip. Due to organisational issues, we will not be conducting a workshop for USM. However, we will still be performing for their Kung Fu Night. In addition, the organisers have graciously offered us free accomodation on the USM campus.

Which means Bantus will be heading up to Penang this coming weekend! We plan to leave on Saturday morning, 15th January. We have our show at 9:30pm in USM then we will be doing the tourist thing, maybe have a public roda and play capoeira at the beach before we head home on Sunday. All are welcome, so come along!

You probably would have noticed that most classes you attend these days are packed—even Rafael’s complaining! In response to this we are now starting up classes in other venues including colleges and gyms.

Not only do we look forward to welcoming new members into the Bantus fold, we also hope that these additional sessions will benefit existing students by offering alternative training hours and locations for those who may find it difficult to attend the evening classes.

Here is the schedule of confirmed classes which will be commencing soon:

• KDU College, Petaling Jaya—Mondays and Thursdays, 6pm to 7:30pm, starting Monday, 10th January.
• Sun Yoga Centre, Plaza Mont Kiara—Tuesdays and Fridays, 5:45pm to 7:15pm, starting Tuesday, 11th January.
• Clark Hatch, Mutiara Hotel KL—Wednesdays, 6:15pm to 7:15pm, starting Wednesday, 5th January.
• Celebrity Fitness, One Utama—Saturdays, 3pm to 4pm, starting Saturday, 22nd January.

Please note that the above sessions will entail fees which are separate from what is paid for training at the academia. Saturday afternoon music class at the academia will be open to all Bantus students, regardless of where you train.

Evening classes will continue as usual and we hope that the additional sessions will be convenient to some of you as well.

Resident instructor of Grupo Bahia de Capoeira Indonesia, Instructor Luciano, will be paying us a visit from Saturday, 22nd January to Wednesday, 26th January.

Let’s come together to give him a warm welcome when he arrives!

Happy new year everyone, hope you’re all set for a roaring start to 2005! We’ve got some announcements and events coming up so here we go:

• With effect immediately, our monthly fees are now MYR$100 per month. This increase is necessary for our plans to expand the academia and to acquire more music instruments and equipment. We also hope that a higher financial commitment would compel students to attend classes regularly (Hopefully).
• Following up our plans to have afternoon classes at KDU, we will be supporting their orientation day in the KDU campus at 2pm Thursday, 6th January. Drop by for a quick game of capoeira if you’re in the area.
• Another collaboration with Dance Space is coming up on Friday, 14th January at Prince Hotel. Meet up at the academia by 6:30pm or be at the hotel by 8pm.
• As promised, We will be making a road trip to Penang to perform and conduct a capoeira workshop at the USM campus on the weekend of 15th January. The convoy is set to leave the academia at noon on Saturday itself. Further details to be posted as soon as they are available!
• Come for the public roda at Plaza Mont Kiara on Sunday night, 30th January to help launch our classes at the Sun Yoga centre.
• Bantus will soon be conducting classes at other venues around the Klang Valley. These classes will be separate from classes at the academia, as such, fees may vary and will not be inclusive of all classes at these venues. Hopefully these extra classes will give our students more options with their time and venues to train capoeira with Bantus. Details to be posted as soon as we confirm these new classes.

Looks like we’re off to a good start to the new year already. We look forward to welcoming new students and training hard with everyone. See you in our next roda!

Man, what a year!

Personally, I’d just like to take some time to thank each and every one of you guys who made 2004 possible for Bantus Capoeira Malaysia.

Thanks Tartaruga for your vision, planning and dedication to the cause.

Thanks Coelho for your enthusiasm and energy despite your hectic schedule.

Thanks Siriema for your constant support and lending us your administrative skillz.

Thanks Jess for being there and helping with the leg work when we were starting out.

Thanks Jai, Mex, Terry, Sophie, Lesma, Faustaun, Lynn, Andrew, Victor, Topogigio, Marujo and the rest of the crew for your time and commitment, training, doin the shows, fixin up the academia, Batizado preps, and showin up for whatever assorted time wasting activities…

Hehe… Sorry if i missed anyone out…

Thanks to all the peeps that have joined us in the past year, hope you guys are loving your introduction to capoeira and its associated craziness…

And last but definitely not least, thanks Rafael for travelling half way across the world to a foreign land to teach a bunch of people you don’t know about the Jogo Bonito (No… Not football)! We couldn’t have done it without you boss…

Here’s to another great year ahead!