BRAZIL'S DANCE
OF SELF DEFENSE
Bahia! Bahia! Were the cries heard late one humid evening in Salvador,
Brazil. The cries were coming from inside a rundown building on the back
streets of Salvador, the capital city of Bahia Province. As we drew
closer, the cries were mixed with the enchanting beat of drums and the
rhythm of Latin music. All at once we saw two men, their bodies
glistening with sweat, as they twirled at fantastic speed, flipped and
kicked at one another to the rhythm of the music. They appeared to be
doing an exotic dance. They were doing Capoeira!
Capoeira is the cultural
fighting art, of the people of Brazil. The goal of Capoeira is to search
for a way to disarm an opponent without
attacking him directly. The
slaves of Brazil created these movements. African slaves were
brought to Brazil and in many cases were
tortured by their Portuguese owners as
well as other enemies. Out of a need for self-defense, they had little
choice but to defend themselves. Hence they developed capoeira.
Capoeira was developed in what are called senzalas. These are houses
where the slaves lived. They used them for their leisure time as well as
other activities allowed by their owners. Through the further
interpretation of African dances, the Brazilian slaves developed the
techniques and the movements that looked like dances. Europeans and
Brazilians watched them with curiosity. However, their owners did not
realize what the objectives of these movements were and that they were
actually watching a self-defense art.
There is one particular Capoeira technique called the tail of the araia.
Araia means stingray in Portuguese. When attacked the araia uses its
tail to defend itself. The technique is similar to a roundhouse kick or
spinning back kick and is very lethal and dangerous because it is so
Unpredictable. It is also extremely fast because of rotational momentum.
The rasteira is yet another technique peculiar to Capoeira. It is
a sweeping technique similar to karate's ashibarai or footsweep except
that the hands are held on the ground. Its purpose is to destroy moral
and fighting spirit of your opponent.
Capoeira has a wide variety of techniques that allow fighters to confuse
their opponents, but what it is more important is that the movements are
rhythmic. The music and rhythm of the fight is created by two
instruments the berimbau, a coconut shell mounted on a wooden stick and
a wire used to create its own unique sound and the atabaque, a tambarine.
The berimbau instrument and the music it creates are peculiar to
Capoeira. This music gives the fighters the spirit to fight and as
the beat of the music increases or decreases so does the intensity of
the fight. The faster the beat the faster the moves become.
Capoeira music has only one practical significance; the music would get
faster and faster if danger was near in other words it was a code for
the capoeiristas (capoeira fighters), to be aware if the techniques were
becoming more and more dangerous.
In the first part of the 20th century Brazil's society was changing and
the large farms were being swallowed up by the cities. capoeira also
left the big farms and came to the cities where it gained a poor
reputation as a fighting system used by thugs against the police and
authorities by the poorer class of people. The elite or upper
class of society obviously had a poor opinion of capoeira and its
practitioners.
During this time, Master Bimba, who is considered the father of capoeira
Regional, developed capoeira and systemized it. He tried to
improve the image capoeira had by emphasizing it as a cultural art of
Brazil that stressed discipline, moral ethics, and uniformity of
techniques. He attempted to de-emphasize the importance of it as a
self-defense system. By doing this he improved the image of Brazil's
cultural fighting art in the eyes of the social upper class. He not only
stressed the physical art but also the music which was peculiar to
capoeira.
In yet another style of Capoeira, Master Pastinha is considered the
father of capoeira Angola style. In this style the folklore side
or the ritualistic view of the art is emphasized. It is more of a
dance where flexibility and gymnastics are stressed with all kinds of
flips and tumbles in the air. The moves are much more complicated
then in Regional capoeira but this makes it in the opinion of some
authorities more interesting to watch. The music of Angola
capoeira is more mystical and slower which allows the fighters when
playing the game of capoeira to be more creative and it is not unusual
to see them flip two times in the air and go right into spinning kicks
and then down to the ground where they perform a technique called
negativa that is used to escape from an attack.
Today Capoeira is becoming more and more popular in Brazil. Now the
stigma of capoeira being only used by thugs is long gone. Today you will
often see politicians and other more sophisticated people practicing the
art of Brazilian slaves.
Unfortunately, though the Brazilian Government has not yet realized that
they have something that the world wants. With a little help it is quite
possible for the art of capoeira to spread all over the world similar to
how the Japanese have spread karate or the Koreans have spread Tae Kwon
Do. It is possible that in the future with some help and good
organization capoeira could become an international sport and help
spread the culture of Brazil all over the world.
Unfortunately, many of Capoeira's traditional values are being lost due
to the influence of other cultures, through globalization and mass
media. The government is not preserving its history. As an example
Master Bimba died in total poverty and was abandoned by the State.
If it had not been for a student named Master Oswaldo who took care of
him in his last days and finally took care of his funeral expenses, who
knows what would have happened to this giant of a man who tried to
preserve a bit of Brazil's culture for the generations to come.
However, today capoeira in Brazil retains certain cultural traits Brazil
is known for around the world. These cultural traits are the love of
music, dance, parties and the love of sport.
If only Capoeiristas could politically organize themselves like the
soccer world of Brazil has or the Carnival of Rio "Who knows how popular
this art could become?"