If you haven’t heard of Capoeira, I’m pretty sure you’ve been living under a rock, but if you really haven’t heard of Capoeira, search for it on YouTube and watch some videos, especially “The best Capoeira video ever” to get a taste. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
As you can see, Capoeira is a very acrobatic martial art that more resembles dance than fighting. In fact music itself is integral to Capoeira as it sets the pace of the game for the sparring part of class. You might wonder how exactly this martial art came to be, so here’s the history as I understand it.
There is some controversy to the details of exactly how Capoeira came to be, but some things are clear: slaves from Africa, often Angola, were brought to Brazil to work. Conditions were horrible, and many slaves escaped, grouping together to better survive. Though these slaves came from different backgrounds, they all worked together to be free. To defend themselves against the Portuguese authorities, they taught each other a martial art that involved a moving technique practiced to music. As time moved on, this slave art started to be called Capoeira. As the legend goes, the reason Capoeira has few hand techniques is because the slaves were manacled at the wrists and couldn’t use their hands freely. As slavery was ended, there were many poor people abandoned and despised by Brazilian society; one of the ways that the poor came together was in Capoeira. To practice was illegal, however, and despite the possibility of being caught and tortured by the police, Capoeira grew among the poor.
In 1932, Mestre Bimba, a Capoeira master, founded the first legal school in Salvador. Due to his brave and tireless promotion of the martial art, Capoeira was made legal and became an integral part of Brazilian culture. Now there are Capoeira schools all over the world, much of that due in part to Mestre Bimba.
Though there are many styles of Capoeira, the two most recognized styles are Angola and Regional. The Angola style holds to older traditions, and the game is slower, more intricate, and less acrobatic; the Regional style is faster, more acrobatic, and more of a dance. Though there are many arguments about “true” Capoeira, both styles are demanding and effective martial arts.
Modern schools often blend the styles of Capoeira, as well as the music and fighting styles, but they do not forget where Capoeira came from: first from slaves, then from the poor who would be arrested for playing Capoeira, and finally from Mestre Bimba.