Alkire, who has four Capoeira-accomplished daughters and a wife-practitioner, also has classes for little ones, “usually starting around age four,” he smiles. His oldest capoeirista was 94. “It’s the flexibility it enhances, the agility it stresses, the strength it builds that people love,” he says.

Isabella “Ninja” Zapanta, 16, Ewa Beach, HI: Capoeira gives me a freedom to express how I feel through body movements. It’s also taught me discipline, patience, responsibility, body awareness, confidence, and that anything is possible as long as you put the time into it.

The Project Bantu Capoeira Angola program was developed by Edielson Miranda aka Mestre Roxinho in 2007 with the movements designed to give students confidence and develop a strong sense of perceived self-efficacy so they learn they can achieve in the classroom as well as in the wider community.

Mestre Amen Santo and Capoeira Batuque was next to take to the stage. This energetic group of musicians, capoeira’s and dancers left the crowd and I in awe with their jaw-dropping movements.

“It’s that connection with the vibration of the sound that makes the instrument so joyful to play. The body literally becomes part of the instrument.”