Our arts
At our core are the African diasporic martial arts. This includes 52 Blocks, Calinda, Capoeira, Cocobalé, and El Juego de Mani. As our training is on-going, we are constantly studying various African and Diasporic martial traditions, with the goal of both expanding our martial knowledge, and deepening our mastery.
52 Blocks
52 Blocks in an African American combat tradition practiced in New York, NY. It has been variously known as Jail House Rock, Stato, Comstock, 52 Handblocks, and so on. It is unique in its use of economy of motion, offensive-defense, and fluid and dynamic movement. Its techniques include hand strikes, kicks, sweeps, takedowns, and more.
Capoeira
We teach Capoeira Angola de São Bento Grande, a style of Capoeira from Rio de Janeiro. For more information about Capoeira, visit our page for the Chicago Malandros: http://chicagomalandros.com.
Cocobalé, Calinda, El Jeugo de Mani
We are exited to offer the Afro-Puerto and Afro-Cuban arts to our community. Cocobalé is a dynamic Afro-Puerto Rican art that employs weapons including the stick, machete, and knife, as well as unarmed techniques consisting of hand strikes, kicks, and blocks.
Closely related to Cocobalé is Calinda, a stick fighting tradition, which is related to various traditions found throughout the African Diaspora.
Additionally, we teach the rare Afro-Cuban art of El Jeugo de Mani, which consists of hand strikes, kicks, blocks, escapes, grappling, and weapons.