Learn it in the body.
Take it back to your life.
We want to bring small groups of leaders, teams and seekers to Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch for two to three days of capoeira, music and reflection, and let the land do some of the teaching.
Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art that is part movement, part music, part game. It is played in a roda, a circle of people who sing, clap and play instruments while two people meet in the center for the game. Everyone in the circle is responsible for the energy of the game.
Each retreat moves back and forth between two kinds of learning. In the capoeira sessions, participants learn movement, make music together and join the roda. In the facilitated sessions, they take what they just lived in their bodies and apply it to how they lead, how they work together and how they want to live. Time outside, on the land, runs through every day.
Improvisation
You enter with a plan, but if you stop paying attention to what is happening around you, you get knocked down. Capoeira trains responsiveness in real time.
Being a beginner again
Experienced people forget how much they run on autopilot. Learning a completely new art rebuilds comfort with not knowing, and because the game is playful, you can experiment, miss, fall and laugh in a low-stakes setting.
Attunement to the whole
In the roda you follow the berimbau, the instrument that leads, while staying connected to everyone in the circle and supporting the players with music and energy.
Redirecting energy
Capoeira does not block a blow. It moves with it, redirecting the energy of the other person's attack into something new, beautiful and powerful. That is a practical model for handling pressure, conflict and change.
Feedback in real time
The game is a conversation: every movement is a question and every response an answer. The roda gives honest, immediate feedback, and teaches people to give and receive it with grace.
The power of the communal
Every voice in the circle matters, and everyone carries the energy of the game together. That shared responsibility reaches beyond the roda, to each other and to the land we stand on.
Built from shared modules,
shaped for different people.
Every retreat draws on the same core of capoeira, music, reflection and time on the land. What changes is who is in the room and what they came to work on.
Experienced leaders, with at least five years of leadership experience and up to those nearing retirement, who feel worn down by the work, or who are facing a change that suddenly leaves them out of their depth.
An honest look at what leadership is and what it costs. Participants set down the model of the leader who decides everything, knows everything and is never overwhelmed, and move toward leadership that is collaborative, creative and sustainable, the kind today's teams actually want to follow. They reconnect with why they took on the work in the first place, and leave equipped with fresh, sustainable frameworks to apply to their day-to-day practice.
Teams of three or more that are new, in transition, and committed to high performance: leadership teams, working teams, sports teams.
The roda becomes a model for the team. Participants name their shared values and individual strengths, learn to play to each other's strengths without ego, and practice communication, trust, and finding a balance between structure and flexibility. They leave with a shared experience, a common language for working together, and practical frameworks to stay connected to what they built on the Ranch.
Anyone who wants to feel more grounded in a world that often feels full of stress and noise.
A step out of ordinary time and place. Participants try something completely new and come away renewed and inspired, reconnected with their bodies and with nature, and practiced in taking life's blows and redirecting them. Many will leave wanting to find a capoeira circle back home.
A retreat, day by day.
Small groups. Premium, unhurried, and rooted in place. Guests arrive by shuttle from the airport, stay on the Ranch for the whole retreat, and leave with a journal full of what they found.
Arrival
- AfternoonShuttle arrival, settle in
- Late afternoonOpening circle
- EveningWelcome dinner
- NightFirst sounds of the berimbau
Day One
- DawnGuided quiet grounding outdoors
- MorningFraming for the day, then movement and capoeira
- MiddayShared meal
- AfternoonWalk of the property, then a facilitated session and solo time on the land
- EveningMusic, dinner
Day Two
- DawnGuided quiet grounding
- MorningCapoeira: from movement to game
- MiddayShared meal
- AfternoonFacilitated session, labyrinth or journaling
- EveningMusic practice, dinner
- NightStargazing or an informal mixer
Closing
- DawnQuiet practice
- Early morningThe full roda, everyone plays and sings
- Mid-morningClosing circle: what I take home
- Late morningWrap up and shuttle departure for the drive home
A sample rhythm. Each retreat is adapted to its group, and the program is designed for beginners with a basic level of fitness. No capoeira experience needed.
Every guest receives
All meals, lodging and program sessions for the full retreat, a curated welcome kit, and a beautiful notebook and pen for sketching and writing on the land.
Over time
We imagine inviting other practitioners into the circle, such as visual artists and other movement teachers, so each retreat can open new ways of applying what the roda teaches.
The place is the third teacher.
The land is not a backdrop. It is part of the curriculum. We want to work with a place that has a mission, and we want every guest to leave understanding that mission and carrying it home with them.
Your work to preserve and care for this land is exactly the kind of work our guests need to see: principled, sustainable and long-term. We would build it into every retreat, with a guided walk of the property, time alone in nature to observe and reflect, and space to understand what you are protecting and why. People love returning to places where they can feel good work happening.
What this offers the Ranch
- The property booked as a whole for each retreat, confirmed well in advance
- A simple kitchen plan: buffet and family-style meals, with one or two options each
- Guests in strategic roles, from organizations across the country, who become ambassadors for the place
- Your mission told to an audience that is open, curious and ready to listen
- A partnership that can repeat, season after season
What we bring
- The full program: capoeira, music and facilitated sessions
- Marketing, registration and all guest communication
- Airport shuttle arrangements for guests
- Materials, notebooks and welcome kits, including Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch swag
- Care for the land and respect for how you run it
Two teachers,
one circle.
Mestre Jamaika
Born in Bahia, the birthplace of capoeira, Mestre Jamaika began training as a young child and won three consecutive Brazilian Capoeira Confederation championships before the age of 20. He has taught in Brazil, Israel and the United States, received the title of mestre in 2013, and is a Utah Performing Arts Fellow. After more than 30 years of teaching, he now leads Salt Lake Capoeira, bringing the music, movement and life lessons of the roda to students of all ages.
Emma Wellman
Emma has designed and facilitated workshops for over fifteen years, for groups of 6 to 100, lasting from one day to four, in person and online. Her work covers leadership, culture building, change management, team dynamics, feedback and mindfulness, using graphic facilitation, design thinking, play and improv. She also trains other facilitators.
Let's build the first one together.
- A conversation. We'd love to hear what you imagine for the land and whether this fits your vision for it.
- A walk of the property. Together, we'd find the spaces for movement, music, reflection and the labyrinth.
- A pilot retreat. We'd choose dates and a format, and agree on terms for lodging and meals.
throughtheroda.com