Meet the Instructor
Professor Arisco
Arisco has trained capoeira since 2004. The first time he saw Capoeira was at an open session at a gymnastics gym in the bay area where he practiced martial arts tricking in the early 2000’s. His first impression of capoeira was that it was smooth, controlled, and it incorporated a lot of flips. He took his first capoeira class in college at UC Irvine under Professor Gui of Centrosul Capoiera and with Manco and trained on and off until completing college. In 2008, he found a class in Santa Ana taught by Mestre Versatil with the group Capoeira Batuque under Mestre Amen. Chun spent time training directly under Mestre Amen at the Capoeira Batuque headquarters in Culver City as well as training consistently with Mestre Versatil in his classes held at Hollywood, Koreatown, and Santa Ana. Chun remained a dedicated student and graduated to the rank of Professor in 2019.
Arisco has had the opportunity to travel to different parts of the United States and overseas to participate in capoeira classes and events. Throughout this time, he has also studied dance and trained in acrobatics. By combining his knowledge of dance and capoeira, he has worked as a choreographer and dancer and has performed for groups such as Loftoeira, Chinese Association Martial Arts at UC Irvine, Dance Impressions Productions, and the Academy of International Dance. He has performed at many events including Symbiosis festival, Kaaboo Del Mar music festival, Los Angeles Chinese New Year, Oregon Eclipse, and Disneyland Lunar New Years Festival. He has been invited to be a guest teacher at such events as Free Movement Festival, Galo Day, Utah Valley Capoeira Batizado, and Symbiosis. Chun has also competed in the International Capoeira Federation tournaments placing 2nd in the men’s advanced in 2013 and then competing again in 2016 placing first in partners, first in solo, and first in individual. Since 2019, he has been co-teaching a movement class with his wife titled Aerial Acrobatic and Partnering Techniques at Irvine Community College to introduce capoeira movement concepts as well as aerial arts for new and experienced students in the dance department.