Batizado and Festival
The Batizado
A batizado (pronounced “ba-chi-za-doh”) is an initiation and grading ceremony where Capoeira students receive their first Capoeira cord. The students wear their cord around their waist through the belt loops of their pants. The cords are hand made with wool of various colours. The first Bantus cord is made from the colours red, black, and white. The 2nd to 11th (final) cords are made from the colours of the Brazilian flag, blue, green, yellow, and white. As a Capoeira student progresses and improves in the art of Capoeira, they change their cords at the batizado ceremony in another Capoeira tradition known as the troca de corda, or change of cords. To reach the master level (Mestre de Capoeira) the student needs to dedicate their life to Capoeira and can take up to 30 years of training.The batizado and troca de cordas must be supervised by the Mestre of the group, in our case, Mestre Pintor, and the group’s highest ranking instructors and happens only once a year.
The Grupo Bantus Capoeira Cord System
Higher cords are received according to Capoeira skills, knowledge and effort to improve the game and active participation in the group.
Beginner Cords
White/Black/Red (Coral)
Green
Green/Yellow
Senior Grades
Yellow (Instructor)
Yellow/Blue (Graduado)
Blue (Formado)
Blue/Green (Professor)
Blue/Green/Yellow (Contra Mestre)
Blue/Green/White/Yellow (Mestre)
Bantus Capoeira Australia holds an annual festival every year for students to receive their cords that they have earned throughout the year. Students are always welcome to receive their first cord or ‘welcome’ cord after attending a few weeks of Capoeira, so don’t be shy, come down and try out Capoeira and you too can join in the Festival! The week of Festival is jammed full of learning and fun. We have workshops from all our international guests and our Mestre from Brazil, in addition to hanging out, partying and playing lots of Capoeira with national and international guests and students who travel to join us for the event. At the end of the week we put on a show of Afro-Brazilian arts which show cases Bantus talent in dance, music and Capoeira and then the main highlight is the Batizado ceremony.
Check out our Facebook page Grupo Bantus Capoeira Perth or the Events Calendar in order to find out when our next Festival begins.
