Capoeira

An Afro-Brazilian art form combining dance, acrobatics, and martial arts, developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil and played in a roda (circle) to the rhythm of the berimbau.

Characteristic movement

Capoeira is played in a circle, the roda: two players engage at its center while the others sing, chant, clap and play percussion around them (UNESCO 2014). The master usually plays the berimbau, a single-string percussion instrument, starts the chants and leads the timing and rhythm of the game (UNESCO 2014). The berimbau's rhythm (toque) sets the game's speed, style and aggressiveness, and a berimbau player decides when a game ends (Wikipedia, "Capoeira"). Many songs run in call and response (Wikipedia). The fundamental movement is the ginga, a continuous rocking or swinging step from which players attack and defend (Wikipedia). Most attacks are made with the legs: direct and swirling kicks such as the meia lua de compasso, leg sweeps (rasteiras), scissors (tesouras) and knee strikes; the head-butt (cabeçada) is an important counter-attack (Wikipedia). Players avoid attacks with esquivas, which change with the direction of the attack, and move between positions through rolls and acrobatics such as the cartwheel (aú) and the low transitional negativa (Wikipedia). Punches and elbows are usually avoided outside very aggressive games (Wikipedia). Skills are learned in the roda by observation and imitation, and every participant is expected to play the instruments as well as the movements (UNESCO 2014).

Common misconceptions

"It is only a dance" or "only a fight." UNESCO describes it as simultaneously a fight and a dance (UNESCO 2014); the game emphasizes body dialogue and showing skill rather than knocking an opponent down (Wikipedia, "Capoeira"). "It is settled history that enslaved people disguised a martial art as dance." That reading is held by some scholars but the origin is not entirely clear, and research from Angola suggests game, fight and dance were linked more deeply than a disguise story allows (Wikipedia). "There is one capoeira." Mestre Bimba reformed the practice in the early 1930s as capoeira Regional, and Mestre Pastinha founded his school in 1941 to cultivate the traditional capoeira Angola; both introduced major innovations (Wikipedia). "The music is accompaniment." The berimbau determines the tempo and style of the game being played (Wikipedia).