The Capoeira Chronicles
Capoeira is to Bahia as Samba is to Brazil. The half dance, half martial art is native to the region, and indeed, sprung out of the unique socio-historical process that only existed in the NE of the country. As we discovered upon our arrival, capoeira is flourishing in Salvador to this day.
Capoeira was originally developed as a means of training by slaves to overthrow their masters. They would engage in slow, steady, precise movements, without touching, so as to be flexible and attentive enough to throw off the slave owners. As plantation staff caught on to the plan, capoeira-ists got more clever- they first introduced bows that they would play as others were approaching the capoeira site, and they later turned the training into a sort of slow, ritual dance (that eventually incorporated the bows as a beat). This same tradition can be seen everywhere in Bahia today- capoeira studios abound, you can see individuals practicing flips on the beach, and, especially during Carnaval, if you see a congregation of people standing on the street, they are likely watching capoeira.
Normally, a crowd of people surround two individuals. They bow to one another and may then cartwheel, shake hands, etc- something to signal the start of the ritual. After that, they exchange in a series of kicks and punches, but without touching one another. The punchee must be attentive enough to react to the punch, and the puncher must know the limit of their opponent. Really skilled capoeira-ists would kick and spin at alarming speeds without touching their partner.
One night of Carnaval, we were standing around watching a performance (the one pictured), and one man from the inner circle came up to me (Cam) and motioned me inside. I obviously know nothing about capoeira outside of what I had seen in the previous two days, and I shook my head. But he was persistent, and maybe it was the bottle(s?) of sol I had consumed or the fact that I realized that this was a singular opportunity (do capoeira in Bahia during Carnaval!) but I stepped into the circle and prepared to fight.
First, I was wearing a dress, to they handed me some thin, wide white pants that I slid on. I then slyly stood on the outside of the circle, slightly hoping that they had forgotten about me, but then someone grabbed me and pulled me directly into the middle. I was standing there, face to face with a skilled capoeira-ist, not knowing what to do. Luckily, he told me to mimic his movements: step back with the left foot, then the right, then the left, then right. Then we began to air punch- in time with the feet, avoiding one another’s face. Finally, he told me to go for it- so I crouched down and went for his ankles.
I made him fall.
Just kidding. He was obviously really skilled, immediately avoided me, and I felt like I had sufficiently experienced performing capoeira in front of 100+ people. So I smiled and bowed out.
I don’t have pictured to put up now, but Preston has some that I will be sharing as soon as he uploads them to his computer!
