We are lucky yet again to welcome longtime guest and leader of ABADÁ-Capoeira DC, Mestranda Yara / Yara Cordeiro, to our annual celebration and workshops.
Mestranda Yara has been practicing capoeira since 1982 and teaching since 1996. She holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and physical education, as well as graduate degrees in psychology. Her studies seek to understand the relationship between capoeira and sports psychology and have led to the publication of three books.
She’s held workshops and lectured about capoeira in Brazil and the U.S. and teaches capoeira to children, adolescents, adults, people with special needs, and the elderly. She’s also created a special fitness program that uses capoeira movements for aerobic and localized exercises, as well as another program that uses capoeira as a form of body expression and for choreography. From 2000 to 2004, she competed in regional, national, and world championships, ranking from 1st to 4th place multiple times.
In 2008, Mestranda Yara moved to the Washington DC area and started her ABADÁ-Capoeira program there, where her work earned her permanent residency in the U.S. as a person with exceptional ability in the national interest. In 2022, she became a US citizen and was soon after titled Mestranda at the Jogos Mundiais in Rio de Janeiro. More recently, she performed with us in San Francisco at our biggest show yet: CIGARRA & Guerreiras Nessa Arte. Mestranda Yara will lead this year’s children’s workshops.