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There are two main styles of capoeira that are clearly
distinct. One is called Angola, which is characterized
by slow, low play with particular attention to the
rituals and tradition of capoeira. The other style is
Regional (pronounced 'heh-jeeh-oh-nahl'), known for its
fluid acrobatic play, where technique and strategy are
the key points Ancestor Mestres are very revered in
Capoeria and all students know much about two in
particular. Mestre Bimba and Mestre
Pastinha. |
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Mestre Bimba the innovator
of the Regional style, was born in 1899.
He fused Capoeira
Primitiva, of which he had been regarded a
Master since 1918 at the age of 18, with Batuque
and created Luta Regional Baiana (Capoeira
Regional).At 18, Bimba felt that Capoeira had
lost all its efficiency as a martial art and
resistance, becoming a folkloric activity,
reduced to nine movements. It was then that
Bimba started to retrieve movements from the
original Capoeira fights and added movements
from another African fight called Batuque - a
vicious grappling type of martial art that he
learned from his father (of which his father was
a champion), as well as introducing movements
created by himself. This was the beginning of
the development of Capoeira Regional.
He opened
the first registered academy of Capoeira in
1930. In 1932 in Salvador, Mestre Bimba
(Manuel dos Reis Machado) opened the first
Capoeira academy. The nationalistic policies of
the Getulio Vargas government gave official
recognition in 1937, bringing the practice to a
central level of Brazilian identity. In 1942 he
established his academy at Rua Francisco Muniz
Barreto #1 in the Central Maciel district of
Salvador, Capoeira Regional.
Mestre Bimba once declared that he had created
the most complete type of fight, "it is good for
the body and good for the mind."
Mestre Bimba was planning to give a
Capoeira demonstration on the day he died,
February 5, 1974. |
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Mestre Pastinha |
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At the age of 21,
he left school to become a professional painter.
During his spare time he would practice his
capoeira stealthily, since it was still illegal
at that time. In 1941, following a Sunday
roda at "ladeira do Gengibirra" located at
bairro da Liberdade, the greatest master
of Bahia at the time, mestre Amorzinho, asked
Pastinha to take over his capoeira school. As a
result, in 1942 Pastinha found the first Angola
school, the "Centro Esportivo de Capoeira
Angola", located at the Pelourinho of Salvador. |
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For the first
time, Capoeira began to be taught and practiced
openly in a formal setting. He became known as
the "Philosopher of Capoeira" because of his
many aphorisms. |
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Eventually
Pastinha's capoeira academy fell on hard times.
Pastinha, old, sick and almost totally blind,
was asked by the government to vacate his
building for renovations. But the space was
never returned to him. Instead it became a
restaurant with entertainment. Pastinha died
broke and bitter about his treatment, but never
regretted living the life of a capoeirista. The
final years of his life were sad. Blind and
almost abandoned he lived in a small room until
his death in 1981 at the age of ninety-two |
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"What is
capoeira? |
Capoeira is
music, poetry, celebration, joking with another,
entertainment and above all, it is a popular
uprising
against all physical, mental, economical,
cultural and psychological oppressions. |
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"It is a fight, it is
folklore, it is a divine practice. Its practice
has so many benefits that we cannot distinguish
them and define exactly what is capoeira. There
are so many beautiful things: the music, the
friendship, the health, the fight, the folklore.
Capoeira is immense and we cannot explain it
all. Some people think of capoeira only as
fight, or as confrontation without perceiving
that it has so much more to offer beside the
quarrels for the name of the group or the title
of mestre. I think of it more in the general
sense of human participation: in the music, in
the folklore, in the joy. I was to a school
recently and there were people from different
groups all playing together in the roda. That's
capoeira for me "alegria" and to be happy to do
what you are doing."
-- Mestre Suassuna |
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Capoeira is a martial
art integrated with dance, ritual, and gravity defying
acrobatics. It is
marked by deft, tricky movements often played on the
ground or completely inverted. It is always
played with music. Capoeira balances the body, soul and
mind. It is a graceful and exciting art form that
teaches you to be alert. Capoeira is both a dance and a
fight which asks you also engage your mind in learning
its music, culture, history and knowledge.
While it is fascinating
to watch for the intricacy of the steps, the velocity of
strike and evasion, and the beauty of acrobatics,
capoeira is also an important repository of tradition,
spirituality, and wisdom. The master passes to the
student not only the dodging defenses, swift attacks,
and wily feints of the game, but also the world of
music, the rituals of respect, and the accumulated
insight of
generations of capoeira masters.
In recent years
capoeira has exploded out of Brazil and continues to
grow in popularity. Classes are taught by mestres
(masters) in nearly 90 countries. It has also proven to
be among the most successful of paths available for
restoring troubled youths to a path of wholeness as
contributing members of the community.
BATIZADO  |
If
you join a Capoeira Regional group, you eventually have
a chance to take part in a batizado, a baptism into the
art of capoeira.
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More than a martial art or dance,
capoeira is often considered a way of
life by those who practice it.
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At the baptism,
the masters give every initiate a
apelido [nickname] made
for a specific reason as well as a corda [a cord belt,
conferring rank,]
Batizado literally
means "baptism"; besides being an initiation rite for
new students it is also a graduation ceremony for
advanced students and a great capoeira community
celebration with masters
from near and far are invited and the fraternity of
capoeira is measurably strengthened by the camaraderie
and interplay.
These ceremonies are a
great chance to see a variety of different capoeira
styles, to watch mestres play, and to see
participants play and perform their best after much
perseverance and preparation. When they are open to the
public, it's a great chance for outsiders to learn about
the art or simply be entertained by the artistry and
beauty of the art form. |
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RODA: |
Capoeira is usually done inside a circle of
people called a "roda", pronouced HO-DUH. The
people in the circle are usually other
capoeiristas waiting to "play", and observers.
Player or not you are expected to give energy to
the roda by clapping and singing in response to
the person "in charge" of the roda.
A
roda will usually
commence with a ladainha
(litany), often sung by the most
senior member present. These
songs may be improvised on the
spot, but are often famous songs
written by an earlier mestre
and sung in Portuguese.
After the ladainha has been
sung, the same singer will
usually sing the chulas,
which are usually made up of any
of the lines listed in the
chulas section below but, again,
may be improvised on the spot.
The chorus repeats each line of
the chula after it has been
sung. Finally, corridos
will be sung while the game is
playing. In most rodas anyone
can sing a corrido, though most
often they will be sung by the
members of the group playing
instruments, the bateria.
Players enter the game from the
pe'da roda (foot of the circle),
usually with a cartwheel (au).
Once in the circle the two
players interact with a series
of jumps, kicks, flips, hand and
headstands and other ritualistic
moves. Games can be friendly or
dangerous.
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Maculele
Dance |
Maculele:
(pronounced ma-k?-lay-lay)
"the dance of the sticks" It is
agreed that Maculele was created by enslaved
Africans working on the sugar cane plantations.
The sticks used in the dance resemble stalks of
sugar cane, and the "Facao" or machete
often used in the dance is the tool used to cut
sugar cane.
Maculele is
similar to some dances of the indigenous people
of Brazil. There may have been some mixing of
African and indigenous cultures to create the
movements of maculele, however the music and
songs are mostly African, (sung in Yoruba) and
Portuguese.
Maculele is most closely tied to the city Santo
Amaro in the interior of the Brazilian state of
Bahia. There is a story about Mestre Po-Po in
Santo Amaro that says he began to use movements
of the dance in the streets, clapping hands with
a friend in order to get the attention of young
women that were passing by. In the early 1900's,
Mestre Po-Po revived and refined the dance of
Maculele, and, by his act of
forming a folkloric dance company, this dance
form became known throughout Brazil and beyond.
This is a
warrior dance, which has been adopted by
capoeira schools because of its similar
Afro-Brazilian roots. There are similar dances
in Africa and even the first conqueror of the
known world, Alexander the Great watched his
troops perform a similar dance called
Korbantes In Maculel? and
the rituals of Candombl?, as many as three
atabaques are used (usually
one of each type), but in Capoeira,
traditionally only one is used
wiki/Maculele_(dance)
wiki/Atabaque
wiki/Candomble |
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History |
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Capoeira is a Brazilian martial
art with over 400 years of history.
Developed
initially by African slaves in Brazil, it
is the only indigenous martial art of the
Americas.
The homogenization
of the African people under the oppression of
slavery was the catalyst for capoeira. Capoeira
was developed by the slaves of Brazil as a way
to resist their oppressors, secretly practice
their art, transmit their culture, and lift
their spirits. Some historians believe that the
indigenous peoples of Brazil also played an
important role in the development of capoeira. |
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| The techniques of
fighting that it incorporates were developed in the 16th
and 17th centuries as a means of protection by the
slaves from their owners. It was consequently banned,
and became hidden in a dance; practiced within a circle
of onlookers and musicians using percussive and stringed
instruments. With the signing of
the Golden Law in 1888, which abolished slavery,
the slaves moved to the cities of Brazil, and
with no employment to be found, many joined or
formed criminal gangs. They continued to
practice capoeira, and it became associated with
anti-government or criminal activities. Capoeira
found itself outlawed by the first constitution
of the Brazilian Republic in 1892.
The punishment for practicing
it was extreme (practioners could have the
tendons on the back of their feet cut), and the
police were vicious in their attempt to stamp
out the art. Capoeira continued to be practiced,
but it moved further underground. Rodas were
often held in areas with plenty of escape
routes, and a special rhythm called cavalaria
were added to the music to warn players that the
police were coming. To avoid being persecuted,
capoeira practitioners (capoeiristas) also gave
themselves an apelido or
nicknames, often more than one. This made it
much harder for the police to discover their
true identities. This tradition continues to
this day. When a person is baptized into
Capoeira at the batizado ceremony, they may be
given their apelido.
In 1937, Mestre Bimba was invited to demonstrate
his art in front of the president. After this
performance, he was given permission to open the
first capoeira school in Brazil. Since that
time, capoeira has been officially recognized as
a national sport, and has spread around the
world. Mestre Bimba's systematization and
teaching of capoeira made a tremendous
contribution to the capoeira community.
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Mestre Pastinha & Jorge Amado |
In 1942, Mestre
Pastinha opened the first
Capoeira Angola school, the Centro Esportivo de
Capoeira Angola, located in Bahia. He had his
students wear black pants and yellow t-shirts,
the same color of the "Ypiranga Futebol Clube,"
his favorite soccer team. Most Angola schools
since then follow in this tradition, having
their students wear yellow capoeira t-shirts.
Capoeira has its roots in the
West African culture that was brought to Brazil
through African slaves. It is a point of debate
as to whether Capoeira came to Brazil fully
formed, or was the product of a synthesis of
different African cultural traditions within
Brazil. It developed mainly in three places:
Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and the state of Bahia.
While in the first two places, Capoeira was
violent, and had no music, in Bahia it became
more of a ritualized game, with a strong musical
element. This is the style that is today
referred to as Capoeira Angola, a term
originally coined by Mestre Pastinha in an
attempt to differentiate it from Capoeira
Regional, which was created by Mestre Bimba in
the 1930's.
Together, Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha are
generally seen as the fathers of modern Capoeira
Regional and Capoeira Angola respectively.
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Music |
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Berimbau, a stringed bow-like
instrument from Angola, is today the primary
instrument used.
wiki/Berimbau |
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pandeiro (tambourine),[pan-DEH-ruh]
wiki/Pandeiro
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The agog?
(double cowbell), |
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Atabaque
Ah-tah-bah-keh) is a tall, wooden,
Afro-Brazilian hand drum. The shell is
made traditionally of Jacaranda wood
from Brazil. The head is traditionally
made from calfskin.
wiki/Atabaque |
| Each
instrument, when played correctly, contributes
to the energy in the roda, but the Berimbau is
the commanding instrument. The berimbau starts
and stops the roda, and all the other
instruments follow it's rhythm and tempo. |
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The
most important thing in Capoeira
music is creating a good positive
energy, which is affectionately
referred to as [[Ax?]] or
Energia |
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14 Basic
Movements
animated at
capoeirasj.com
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"Where did
Capoeira come from?" |
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It is widely
accepted that capoeira began as a way to
disguise a martial art as a dance from the
authorities but there are other unproven
theories which have become part of the the story
of capoeira which until recently was based upon
an oral tradition. |
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Girl's
Initiation Dance: |
The Mucupes in the South of Angola had an
initiation ritual (efundula) for when girls
became woman, on which occasion the young
warriors engaged in the N'golo, or "dance of the
zebras," a warrior's fight-dance. According to
this theory, the N'golo was Capoeira itself.
This theory has not been widely accepted but the
African roots are without dispute and it could
easily be one of several dances that contributed
to the creation of early Capoeira.
Here is a link
to the most famous women's initiation preserved
for 2000 years in the Villa of the Mysteries in
Pompeii. Capoeira illustrates how initiation is
still relevant in the 21st century. |
Zumbi
legendary leader of the Quilombo dos
Palmares |
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Dutch invasions of Brazil between
1624-1630 caused temporary disorganization in
the farms and sugar mills of Brazil. For the
slaves, these invasions brought an opportunity
for escape. Taking advantage of the nearby
forests, they hid themselves and formed
communities that would become known as Quilombos.
They were organized politically and socially
like African tribal societies. The leader of the
Quilombos was a king called "Gunga-Zumba", later
shortened to "Zumbi". This king was a great
general, who became famous because of his
defensive skills and numerous victories against
the Portuguese.
When the Dutch were expelled from Brazil the
slave owners send out armed expeditions to
recapture the fugitives and destroy the
Quilombos. Without a substantial amount of
weapons, the ex-slaves realized they would have
to defend themselves with their hands (and
feet!). They created a style of self-defense
that would stand against weapons and firearms.
This style of fighting was called "Capoeira de
Angola"; capoeiras were the name of the
brushwoods where the fugitives entrenched
themselves and it was believed that the first
group of slaves who arrived in Brazil were from
Angola. |
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Rio vs.
Salvador-Bahia |
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In Rio de Janiero, capoeira had developed
as a form of fighting, criminal gangs who added
knives and guns to their already potent arsenal
were created that terrorized the population.
Meanwhile in Bahia Capoeira continued to
develop into a ritual-dance-fight-game, with the
berimbau becoming an indispensable instrument
used to lead the rodas. Bahia is
considered the cradle, birthplace, and world
capital of Capoeira |
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