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Capoeria, The Healing Dance of Haiti February 1, 2010
Tomm Kristiansen, ACT Alliance
Children practice capoeira in a neighbourhood where the ACT Alliance is providing tents, water, psycho-social consultation and other support for families.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — Port-au-Prince - A boy stretches in a backyard of Bel Air in Port-au-Prince. He is dancing capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that has been turned into therapy for children affected by the earthquake. Ironically, the aggressive dance is now being used for trauma recovery.
ACT Alliance has provided the homeless people of Bel Air tents, water, psychosocial care and other support. And while parents try to create order in the lives of their families, the children dance. A Brazilian organisation, working nearby ACT Alliance programmes has worked with kids in this area for years.
Capoeira sparring is marked by fluid acrobatic play, tricks and extensive use of sweeps and kicks. For some time, capoeira was criminalized and prohibited. It came to the Caribbean with slaves and was seen as a dangerous aggressive act. Not any more.
“Capoeira creates a stronger sense of belonging to family and group”, says the dance instructor, Flavio Soares. “Haitian children are submitted to a great deal of violence and children do not know how to express their emotions. For that reason, children hardly know how to work on their emotions. Capoeira can help children get in touch with their emotions and learn to control them. Since the earthquake, capoeira has become a tool for mental recovery and a part of the relief work”, he says.
ACT Alliance has included psychosocial help as an integrated part of the relief operations. The camp in Bel Air has been supplied with clean water and food. A health service provided by ACT is on its way to Bel Air.
