Capoeira with the Locals

Our cool tour guide, Roberto (pronounced Hoberto), is a Brasilian native. Since the city was founded in 1954 and he was born in 1962, he's been here nearly since its conception. Roberto knows and loves his city, so he invited our group to come to his son, Filipe's, capoeira class. Capoiera is a particularly Brasilian form of martial art to music. It came from the early slaves (est. 4,000,000 in total) who were brought from the east coast of Africa to work the sugar cane fields beginning in the 1600s. Legend has it that since the life was violent, slaves practiced fighting techniques among themselves, but when the slave owners would approach the slaves would play music on traditional instruments. The berimbaus looks like a bowed stick with a string attached to a hollow gourd held upright in the lap and played with a stick, a shaker is held in the hand. The three other instruments are the pandeiros or tambourine, and the atabaque or tall congo drum, and the agogo a samba percussion instrument with double bells or gourds of high/low pitch. The music mirrored the beat of the approaching horses and then a call and response technique was used to tell a story by the group leader. When the slave owner approached he would believe that the slaves were merely dancing. Capoeira was outlawed in 1890, just ten years after slavery was abolished and Brazil declared a Republic. It was revived in the 20s and is popular today, sometimes part of a school curriculum.

We went to a school in the north quadrant of the city where Roberto was raised and Felipe teaches. The common area was decorated for June Festival and the art teacher happened to be walking through. Felipe explained that she had designed the vibrant paintings on the walls depicting Brazil's diverse ethnicity. The richly colored paintings depicted Asian, African, European, and Indigenous faces. Our class began with yoga like stretching and then Felipe introduced the jinga, a low rocking movement that evolves into kicks, flips, and handstands. To learn the moves, we partnered with the Brazilian students: high school girls and boys, recent graduates, men and women in their twenties, several highly skilled dancers, and finally Roberto arrived with his famous handstands. We ended with the Roda and formed a tight circle clapping to the complex beat and responding to the sung calls of Felipe while two or three dancers spun, kicked, and jinga'd in the middle. People periodically trade spots among the instruments and dance. For a sexier view, check out this video by Laura: Global Education Questions: How is music used to convey social or political realities? What realities are conveyed by capoeira both historically and in present times? Choose a musical style that you like and explain the social situation it conveys.