4capoeirathoughts

On the 5^th of April of 1889 Mestre Pastinha was born. Since last month I have been trying to pay a tribute to ‘Seu Vicente’, his life and work. The space constrains of a blog post will never allow justice to his devotion to Capoeira neither to the value of his legacy. Nonetheless, posting in english, and combining different sources, I hope to inspire our english-speaker-brothers in their quest for knowledge about our honourable Mestre and Capoeira in general. (more…)

“I finally understand Capoeira Angola, as an idea, not a style! It adds values that defines it as a way, an ideal, a cause, an action linked directly to social causes, to the union of the excluded, to the cry of the humble, to the voice of the commoners and all those in need of discernment…”

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This is the last post in which I will be discussing my thoughts on Fundamentalism and Capoeira based on an experience I had trying to cooperate with another group/style to collect data for my research.

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Matters of authenticity are very often related to aesthetic values, socio-centrism, and market reserve. The concept is usually applied attempting to validate or to quantify one’s perspective or practice over somebody else’s. It is also frequently based upon myths of purism; an ironic approach for an interdisciplinary and intercutural practice like Capoeira.

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Fundamentalism is a worldwide phenomenon today and it affects the practice of both styles of Capoeira. The following posts were written based on an experience I had both as practitioner and as a researcher trying to work with inter-style and inter-group cooperation in a event a while ago.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGhONWz7L-Q] (Caption: In a Sunday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro 30 youngster capoeiras gathered themselves to exchange ideas and they got to the following conclusion: Capoeira is a *Bamba’s thing!)

* – Bamba – Someone adept at verbal and physical dueling; synonym for capoeira expert. (more…)