Capoeira Fitness, Fight and Dance

Capoeira can be described as a Brazilian Martial Art form that brings together elements of martial arts, acrobatics, dance and music in a game. But I prefer a description of a famous capoeira master and poet:

• “Capoeira is a game. It’s to respect fear and to weigh well your courage Capoeira is a smile from a little kid, a flight of a tiny bird and a leap of a coral snake.

It’s to feel in your mouth, all the taste of danger, it’s to smile at your enemy and to shake his hand It’s to get up from a sweep before you even touch the ground, Capoeira is a tiny little boat free on the sea waves”

Capoeira is a ritualistic game played in a circle of people, the Roda, where the berimbau (main instrument) leads the capoeira orchestra and sets the pace of the game.

The game is based on a unrehearsed combination of attack and defense movements spiced with acrobatic tricks where the aim is get the other either through kicks or sweeps or take downs.

The paradox of the game is that although it needs a certain cooperation of both players, it is also a dispute where both players transform their dialog of movements into something unique and new that neither is certain of its outcome every time they play.

The game has no winners or losers. Songs tell stories, the chorus and rhythmic claps amplifies the hit from the music that engages all members together creating an amazing energy, the Axé, of the Roda.

Capoeira brings us back to our primitive origins long forgotten by our society where every single individual in the circle can equally influence the outcome and each other not with words but actions.

Capoeira classes consist of the following:

• Movement / Fitness– physical training that develops defending and attacking movements that incorporate acrobatics and dance.

• Music– playing percussion instruments and singing Brazilian capoeira songs.

• Game Strategy – understanding the capoeira game and developing mental strategy, intuition and trickery.

• Cultural Understanding– knowledge and appreciation of capoeira’s history and Afro-Brazilian roots, and an awareness of how capoeira has evolved and exists around the world today.