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Blog: The Official Capoeira Decatur Blog

Capoeira students listen to Mestres at the Palesta (Debate) in Brazil in 2008

Capoeira Maculelê is not only committed to offering high quality classes in Decatur, GA, but also to sharing of quality information and philosophy about capoeira. Capoeira, especially today, is about sharing of information. In fact, no information in capoeira is owned by any one person. According to Mestre Bimba, capoeira is an evolving art.

If you would like to browse older blog posts, please visit our blog archive.

The opinions posted in this blog are Juba's opinions alone, and they do not reflect reality or actuality in capoeira in general. But, isn't that what blogs are for?

When Did the Berimbau Enter Capoeira?

I actually set out to determine the answer to this question, but I failed. (I found a bunch of other interesting articles, however.) Jasper, a local Angoleiro who loves playing capoeira with just about anyone, brought this question to my attention. I'd never really thought of it before: Hasn't the berimbau always been central to capoeira? Turns out, no.

In my search, I found this quote from Mestre Acordeon, a master and historian of capoeira. He explains us that as early as 50 years ago, some berimbau players were not capoeira players:

For Whom Do You Play Capoeira?

A student from another group here in Atlanta asked me a misguided question that has an important answer. Honestly, this is something I'd never really thought of before, and looking back, I think his question was actually a decent one.

Commonalities of Styles Based on Instrutor Cavalo's Attempted Definition of Benguela

Instrutor Cavalo and Monitora Venus from Miami visited us in Decatur this past weekend to celebrate the birthday of our group, Capoeira Maculelê. In addition to running great workshops and energetic rodas, we had several opportunities for Q&A sessions. Students asked some interesting questions, but one that I asked generated an interesting response.

I've spent a substantial amount of time writing about the various styles or toques and how they are played in capoeira. I've tried to raise or answer questions, such as:

Is Capoeira Angola Traditional Capoeira?

When people compare the various style of capoeira, the tendency and convention is to describe Capoeira Angola as traditional and Capoeira Regional as modern. As a result, a lot of people take the leap in logic to thus describe Angola as being the "truer form". In a way, I think that this is misleading. A more realistic assessment is to call Capoeira Angola more traditional and Capoeira Regional more modern. Of course, even this is a bit ridiculous.

Mestre Bimba invented Regional because the capoeira he saw on the streets—and originally practiced—he said was more akin to a folkloric dance than a battle-ready martial art. Bimba then decided to adapt the art, adding more martial elements back into Capoeira Angola, thus creating Capoeira Regional.

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Is Capoeira Angola Traditional Capoeira?