Oxford Capoeira festival

For one vibrant weekend in May, Fusion Arts became home to the Oxford Capoeira Society’s Água do Rio, Água do Mar II festival. This event consisted of three days of movement, music, and community built around one of the world’s most distinctive art forms.

Capoeira blends martial arts, dance, acrobatics, and live music into a single continuous conversation between bodies, and this festival brought together an exceptional line-up of internationally acclaimed professors and mestres to lead workshops throughout the weekend. Joining the celebration were Mestre Marcelo Angola, Contra Mestre Fuuia do Mar, and Contra Mestre Charel Angola, bringing axé (energy, spirit, life force) all the way from Stockholm, Paris, Brussels, and Itaparica, the Bahian island long considered one of Capoeira’s spiritual homes.

Watching the Roda take shape in our space over three days was a reminder of just how much history lives inside this art form. Capoeira’s roots stretch back to resistance and survival among enslaved Africans in Brazil, and every workshop, song, and game carries that legacy forward. For newcomers and seasoned capoeiristas alike, the festival offered a rare opportunity to train alongside the masters who have spent decades keeping this tradition alive and evolving across the world.

Festivals like this are exactly why Fusion Arts exists: to open our doors to communities and traditions that might not otherwise find a stage in Oxford, and to let the city experience the richness of global culture up close.