When deciding which elective to take next semester, I looked through the dance classes offered at ASU and saw that capoeira is on the list. I’d heard of it before as Brazilian fight-dancing, but considering that I don’t fight and can barely dance, I thought it probably wouldn’t be my thing. However, I got in touch with Jay Spain, the listed instructor, and asked if I could shadow a lesson to learn more about it, and he recommended that I come down to the Axé Capoeira studio in Tempe.
I stopped by Tuesday night and watched a class warming up with kicks, jabs, strikes, punches, and leg sweeps. When they had a break, I met two of the instructors for the class, Tizoc Guerrero and Alex Abdur-rahman, and during the lesson, the two switched off between speaking with me and directing the class.
Guerrero explained that capoeira is a Brazilian art form combining acrobatics, dance, martial arts, and Afro-Brazilian music, and his “favorite aspect is how diverse it is. It has so many elements to it.” The dance form is characterized by fluid, quick, and complex moves. What makes the martial art a dance form is that the people in the middle of the roda (ring/circle) are always moving in a flowing manner, and there is constant movement. The basic move is the ginga, which is sweeping motion with the feet.
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Performances can be done in solos, but are usually in duplas (pairs). A game between two dancers usually lasts about 20 seconds before a new person jumps in. Some people jump into the roda ready to play while others are ready to fight. Though the dancers are trained to attack, they are also taught to esquivar (escape) kicks and strikes. Guerrero described, “The hardest part about capoeira is using your entire body to have a conversation. It’s all improvised, and sometimes you’re the aggressor and sometimes you’re the follower.”
The most important event for capoeira dancers is a batizado (baptism) where dancers display their skill and knowledge. New members are officially brought into the group to receive their first belts and other members are able to progress to the next level.
After speaking with Guerrero, Abdur-rahman (known as Pirulito in the capoeira community) talked to me about the origins and traditional clothing for the dance. The dancers normally wear a white camisa (shirt) and abada (pants), but for the folkloric dance Maculele, the dancers wear grass skirts. The skirts recall the African slaves on the sugarcane plantations in Brazil who created the dance based on the movements and drum rhythms used during harvest. Within capoeira are many other styles, such as coco de roda, colheita, and afro.
If you’re interested in trying capoeira, the beginning level class at Axé Capoeira is at 7:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
If you have any suggestions for what I should check out next, email me at Mary.G.Richardson@asu.edu or follow me on Twitter at MG_Richardson.
