Capoeira Estar Feliz Indonesia

OUTBOUND en WORKSHOP CAPOEIRA???

2007-11-06T10:41:00.000+07:00

“Outbound !!! workshop !!! Wah asyik tuh!! Dimana? Kapan? Banyak pertanyaan yang dilontarkan oleh temen-temen Capoeira Estar Feliz kepada Bima en da Gank (senior di Estar feliz).

Para senior Capoeira Estar Feliz pengen mengadakan Workshop en Outbound, bukannya buat hev fan ajah ato seneng-seneng aja kok! Yah, emang ada senengnya sih… pasti dunk. Tapi yang penting tuh buat nambah wawasan buat temen-temen Capoeira yang masih baru, bahwa capoeira tuh gak hanya mengenai martial arts (dalam bahasa Sunda) tapi juga mengenai filosofi yang terkandung di dalam Capoeira itu sendiri. Capoeira is about history, music, philosophy, loyalty, friendship,… en maybe relationship.

So kemaren pada hari Sabtu, tanggal 03-11-2007 pukul 01.30 (dini hari pek!!) beberapa temen Estar Feliz selaku panitia Workshop en Outbound berangkat ke Pasir Putih Situbondo buat melakukan survey guna kelancaran acara tersebut.

Seru banget !! Panitia Workshop en Outbound beranjak menuju ke Pasir putih pada pukul 01.30 am,…dengan semangat ’45, panitia menaklukan hawa dingin malam kota Surabaya (emang Surabaya dingin ya..?), menembus kabut malam yang tebal dan ditemani suara binatang malam…… he..he..he.. (yang ini aku lebih2in, biar tambah seru pek).

Panitia tiba di Pasir Putih Situbondo pada pukul 07.45-an lah,trus langsung melakukan survey tempat buat penginapan, buat tempat makan, tempat acaranya berlangsung,… padahal mereka tuh masih kecapean, belum pada mandi, belum pada makan, belum pedicure,manicure,… lho.. lho.. kok ?? Karena kecapean kita memutuskan menyewa satu kamar penginapan berukuran 2,5 x 4 m buat istirahat. Bayangin kamar sekecil itu dihuni oleh 10 cowok yang belum mandi, belum makan, kucel, bau ketek, bau jigong dll… Seru kan???

Panitia meninggalkan Pasir Putih Situbondo pada pukul 17.00,.. sore itu sih hujan gerimis tetapi panitia outbound kekeuh tetep beranjak pulang menuju Surabaya karena udah kuaaaangeeeen banget ama temen-temen Capoeira Estar Feliz..beneran neh, gak sabar buat cerita ke temen tentang kejadian2 seru selama perjalanan survey.

So buat kamu semua, temen-temen capoeira Estar Feliz, kita tunggu kamu semua buat dateng di Workshop en Outbound Capoeira Estar Feliz. Bakalan bermanfaat buat kamu sekalian en it’s will be fun man…. salve!!! (wba)

1st Batizado Capoeira Estar Feliz

2007-05-14T14:16:00.000+07:00

Pengukuhan Capoerista di Plaza

SURABAYA - Suasana di Lower Ground Royal Plaza kemarin tampak riuh. Berimbau, panderu, atabak, hingga reku-reku, alat musik dari Brazil, dibunyikan bertalu-talu. Beberapa pengikut capoeira bergantian memeragakan jurus-jurusnya.

Aktivitas itu masih ditambah iringan lirik berbahasa Brazil. Lagu-lagu yang dinyanyikan, antara lain, berjudul Paranaue, Csum Csum Csum, hingga Que Vem Lha.

Ya, di tempat itu memang sedang dilaksanakan 1st Batizado Capoeira Ester Feliz. Acara tersebut merupakan pengukuhan seorang atlet capoeira menjadi capoerista. Memang, seseorang butuh sebuah pengakuan segenap capoerista senior atas kemampuan yang telah dimiliki.

Seorang capoerista tak sekadar dinilai dari lamanya berlatih. Mereka juga dites kemampuan fisik, stamina, teknis, refleks, serta hasil latihan selama enam bulan hingga setahun. "Dua pemain harus menunjukkan kemampuan dan berganti teman permainan sebanyak tiga kali. Para senior yang akan menilai," jelas Pinus Catur, wakil ketua Estar Feliz Capoeira.

Dalam pengukuhan kemarin, 13 anggota diangkat menjadi capoerista. Mereka telah melalui tahap latihan selama enam bulan hingga setahun. Selain itu, beberapa capoerista dites kemampuan untuk naik tingkat. Seperti halnya karate atau silat, capoeira punya tingkat yang disebut cordao.

Capoeira Ester Feliz kini mempunyai 60 anggota. Mereka rutin berlatih di UPN Veteran setiap Senin dan Kamis. "Batizado kami adakan di plaza agar capoeira lebih dikenal," kata Pinus. (ode)

http://www.jawapos.com/index.php?act=detail_c&id=285040

Capoeira Roda & Philosophy

2007-04-25T18:31:00.000+07:00

The "roda" is the circle of people within which capoeira is played. People who make up the roda's circular shape clap and sing along to the music being played for the two partners engaged in a capoeira match or rather a "game" ("jogo"). In some capoeira schools an individual in the audience can jump in to engage one of the two players and begin another game.

The minimum roda size is usually a circle where the radius is the length of a berimbau, or about 3 metres (10 feet) in diameter. They are often larger, up to 10 metres in diameter (30 feet). The rhythm being played on the berimbau sets the pace of the game being played in the roda. Slow music limits the game to slow yet complex ground moves and handstands.

Hits usually aren't made but feigned or just shown. The players often turn away from each other's hits just to throw their own. Slow games are often seen as finesse games, less impressive for the casual viewer. Faster music allows for more circular momentum which is key to gaining "big air" in the roda.

Capoeiristas can take up a lot of space while playing, so the roda is rarely small, especially if the players are playing quickly. In the fast game, acrobatics and big, circular kicks abound to the delight of onlookers. Sometimes actual hits are registered, but only between higher-level competing capoeiristas.

The roda is a microcosm which reflects the macrocosm of life and the world around us. Most often in the roda, your greatest opponent is yourself. Philosophy plays a large part in capoeira and the best teachers strive to teach Respeito (Respect), Responsabilidade (Responsibility), Segurança (Safety/Security), Malícia (Cleverness/Street-smarts), and Liberdade (Liberty/Freedom).

Modern capoeira is often criticized by more traditional practitioners of capoeira as being in the process of losing its "playfulness" in the sense that many capoeiristas tend to focus more on impressive acrobatics and not so much the playful interaction with the other player in the roda.

INTERVIEW MESTRE PAULINHO

2007-04-25T18:29:00.000+07:00

INTERVIEW To MESTRE PAULINHO

"the Capoeira is one ritmica fight, an art with the spirit of a child and the experience of a old." Which elements of the Capoeira have common roots?
The instruments, the song, the traditions., insomma all. How they are influenced mutual?
The berimbau it is the head, inasmuch as the Capoeira is a ritmica fight and must follow its rhythm. The other instruments are its sudditi ones that they support it and they support it harmoniously. The roda they are the arms that are born from the rhythm and it is involved to us in one I embrace to times warm, to times cold. The song that it leave from the solista is the spirit. The answer of the persons who compose the Roda is the vital energy to all that that can happen to the inside of it. The traditions indicate us the road to follow, the way to behave... etc...
Which are the factors of existence of the capoeira?
Social human and Thing distinguishes the Capoeira from a mere exercise? the Capoeira can be used like an exercise, but a mere exercise cannot be used like Capoeira.
It can be spoken about capoeira like art alive, in continuous change?
Sure!! First practicing of Capoeira they had other obbiettivi R-with regard to the use of this art and in order to continue in their obbiettivo they have had to mask it with their dances, then in the years and in the various political periods of our history it has been seen and used of an other way still, assuming the most various formulation it is in the way to make that of I use the necessity second. Trouble to the Capoeira and the Capoeira therefore was not watches this example: Child before creating the Capoeira dictates Regional, was practicing of the Capoeira dictates Angola, percui has been based on that one in order to succeed in to develop other movimentazione, other rhythms in the Capoeira. Today the Capoeira dictates Regional comes called from some of Contemporary Capoeira and has been added tantissimi to blows and movimentazione that Child had not idealizzato. But the Capoeira dictates Angola would not be anch' contemporary it giacchè the man who the practical one is the contemporary man?
N.B: I always say said Angola and I dictate Regional, why second me the Capoeira I have suffered an evolution beginning from Child and for me "Capoeira is Capoeira and enough" the group is a change factor? All the groups, not only those of Capoeira, are a change factor. The groups of friends, the colleagues of job, the society... Enough to put with of the persons who outside exit tantissimi elements that come assimilate from one or more individuals to you arrichendolo, contributing in the formation of its character, in its choice of life, the vizione of if same and of the others... Al.di.là.della rituale action of group can be spoken about capoeira? As my beloved says Mestre friend Tones Vargas "quero Sem berimbau eu nao, sem ritual nao you go to give, olha he loses or Axé camarada..." Which is the just within and limit in which the capoeira can teorizzare without that traformi in useless controversies and vain speeches? The Capoeira teorizza is lived. Which is the definition of Capoeira that you would give? "the Capoeira is one ritmica fight, an art with the spirit of a child and the experience of a old

Permainan Jogo Capoeira

2007-04-25T18:25:00.000+07:00

Yang berlatih capoeira menyebutnya
“Permainan Jogo Capoeira”

Tapi ini bukan permainan serupa olahraga,karena tidak ada yang menang atau kalah, tidak ada wasit tidak ada batasan waktu bahkan aturan ketat yang berasal dari ‘tradisi’ memberi kebebasan dalam bergerak dinamis.
Kita dapat mengatakan capoeira sebagai ‘permainan-tarian-pertarungan’ karena permainan ini diiringi oleh alat music,lagu dan tarian yang memutar. Capoeira juga memiliki elemen seni bertarung,beladiri serta teknik-teknik pertarungan, walaupun tujuannya bukan untuk melumpuhkan musuh. Gerakan akrobatik juga merupakan bagian dari “alat komunikasi” dengan menggunakan bahasa tubuh, sebagaimana pendekatan spiritual yang tidak ada hubungannya dengan agama serta konteks mistik yang serius.
Pemain Capoeira membentuk lingkaran yang disebut –The Roda- sebagian kecil bermain alat musik instrumen perkusi,membentuksetengah busur yang menghubungkan awal dan akhir lingkaran. Sedangkan sisanya bernyanyi dan bertepuk tangan. Dua orang melangkah memasuki lingkaran dan.. permainan dimulai.

Kita telah membicaakan ritual, musik, kehidupan para mestre terkenal di masa lalu, pengajaran dan pembelajaran capoeira dalam nestor Capoeira Trilogy :

• Little Capoeira Book. Berkeley: North atlantic Books,1995.(buku 1)
• Capoeira,roots of the dance-fight-games.Berkeley: NAB , 2001.(buku 2)
• A streetsmart song, capoeira philosophy and inner life. Berkeley: Blue Snake (NAB)(buku 3)

Buku-buku itu diterbitkan di Brazil kemudian diterjemahkan dan diterbitkan di US dalam bahasa Perancis, jerman, Belanda,Denmark, Finlandia dan Polandia.
Di bawah ini kita mengutip beberapa bagian dari buku ini untuk memberi ringkasan, secara sederhana dan stereotype (mengingat terbatasnya tempat) dari sejarah dan filosofi

capoeira…
Menari di kegelapan malam,
Bermain permainan saat bulan bersinar di bawah cahaya bintang yang terang benderang.
Cerita yang diriwayatkan oleh orang bodoh.
Perangkat, bangku tak bersandaran di sekolah
Yang membedakan antara yang benar dan yang salah.
Lagu jalanan yang cerdas ketika fajar menyingsing.

Malicia,yang dinilai sebagai inti dari permainan dan dasar capoeira, diartikan sebagai cara spesifik seorang pemain berpengalaman ‘melihat’ dan berinteraksi dengan hidup, dunia khususnya dengan sesama manusia.
Dalam ‘The Little capoeira Book’ saya menjelasakan bahwa dalam arti yang lebih sempit, malicia adalah sesuatu yang dapat membuat seorang pemain memperkirakan apa yang akan dilakukan pemain lain dan pada saat bersamaan menipu partnernya dengan gerakan tipuan ketika memikirkan gerakan atau sesuatu yang lain.
Dalam ‘streetsmart song, capoeira philosophy and inner life’ kita mengatakan bahwa manusia itu ‘sedang-sedang’ saja, yang berarti..terbatas, palsu, penuh dengan prasangka serta pikiran buruk, dalam sudut pandang capoeira.
Masyarakat tempat kita hidup tidaklah lebih baik lagi : sumber daya yang tidak terbagi dan terpakai dengan baik, ketidak adilan sosial, penderitaan, perang, kekerasan, perdagangan massal serta konsumerisme, nilai-nilai yang palsu dan stereotype…
Malicia Capoeira, adalah pengetahuan mengenai hal-hal di atas- “pengetahuan mengenai hakikat manusia”- pengetahuan dari pemandangan serta gambaran global yang dibumbui pengarunh kuat “good humor” dan dikemas dengan warna budaya Afro-brazilia.
Malicia, mengijinkan pemain untuk ‘melihat’ dan melindungi dirinya dari gambaran mentah kehidupan itu tanpa menjadi depresi, sakit, agresif, kering atau terlalu khawatir dan serius.
Pengetahuan mengenai ‘hakikat manusia’ ini , termasuk diri sendiri, mencakup semua tingkatan pemain, tanpa terkecuali sebagai konsekuensi memainkan permainan ini dengan orang dan tempat yang berbeda. Ini bukanlah pengetahuan yang rasional , dan membaca atau membicarakan tentang malicia tidak akan dapat membuatnya menjadi bagian dari dirimu. Malicia sejenis “pengetahuan tubuh” yang kamu dapatkan dari memainkan permainan ini.
Dalah hal ini, ‘good humor” yang dimaksud bukan seperti lelucon yang ada di TV, bukan seperti humor “don’t worry be happy” . tetapi lebih menjurus pada kesenangan dan gairah menjalankan hidup yang dapat kita lihat pada..contohnya : waktu kita melihat anak-anak kecil yang bermain di tepi laut, mereka meloncat,berteriak, berlarian bermain ombak…mereka sangat menikmatinya,menganggap itu sebagai sesuatu yang menyenangkan dan sangat terbawa ‘masuk dan terhanyut’ dalam permainan mereka.
Pengetahuan ini tanpa “good humor” dapat menjadi sangat berat. Dan kemungkinan dapat mengubah pemain menjadi tidak dapat bersenang-senag dan hanya dikesankan oleh kekuatan dan teknik-tekniknya. Ini membuatnya menjauh dari esensi permainan ini serta mencegahnya menjadi seseorang yang dinamis dalam hidup,bahagia dan menikmati hidup.
Sekarang mungkin kamu akan lebih mengerti bagian prakata “a streetsmat song…” buku ketiga dan terakhir dari buku-buku Nestor capoeira trilogy:

Kawan-kawan
Pemain Capoeira lebih dari sekedar
Petarung yang menghantarkan tendangan-tendangan
Dia adalah seniman
Kekuatannya adalah kesenangan dalam menjalani hidup
Dia mengetahui keta kunci ‘cinta’
Walapun demikian, para pemain mengetahui
Bahwa setan/kejahatan itu ada
Tidak mungkin jika kamu belum mendengar
Apa yang denyanyikan dalam lingkaran di sana sini
Ayam jantan telah berkokok
Dan fajar telah menyingsing.

Dalam ‘Capoeira,Roots of the Dance fight game’ kami menjelaskan bahwa ada banyak teori mengenai asal usul capoeira tapi semuanya menyetujui bahwa capoeira adalah buah karya orang afrika:

• capoeira diciptakan di Afrika dan dibawa ke Brazil oleh budak-budak afrika…diciptakan di brazil oleh budak-budak afrika.
• Dirintis di lading-ladang besar oleh quilimbos (komunitas budak yang melarikan diri ke tengah hutan)…oleh budak-budak –saat itu- di 3 kota di brazil yaitu, Rio,Recife dan Salvador.
• Pastinya datang muncul setelah tahun 1800an…

Pada tahun 1806, don João, raja ke-6 Portugal beserta seluruh tawanan dari napoleon Bonaparte yang telah menjajah negerinya datang ke Brazil, koloni terbesar Portugal saat itu.
Tingkat pengamanan dan ketatnya hukum yang diberlakukan Don João menuai tanggapan dari komunitas budak hitam, lebih spesifiknya grup capoeira budak hitam di Rio de jeneiro (ibukota Brazil saat itu)> Sedikit-demi sedikit capoeirista mulai mengorganisir dirinya dalam maltas(grup, gank). Mulanya, grup-grup ini hanya terdiri dari orang-orang ‘hitam’ tapi lebih lanjut, circa 1850, menjadi bebas..hitam dan putih ikut bergabung. Dan dalam waktu yang sangat singkat malta-malta ini menyerap tidak hanya orang kulit putih miskin dan ‘sampah masyarakat’, tapi juga tentara dan seluruh tingkatan militer, petugas kepolisian, politikus, bahkan beberapa ‘playboy’ terkaya dan terganas tahun 1870an.
Malta-malta itu meneror kota, mengkonfrontasi polisi dan penduduk yang ‘jujur’. Tiap malta mengontrol wilayah tertentu dan disponsori oleh bisnisman atau politikus berpengaruh yang menjadikan mereka tentara jalanan pribadi.
Ketika republik Brazil diproklamasikan pada 1890 dan capoeira secara resmi dianggap melanggar hukum, suatu tindakan yang keras dan mematikan dimulai..yaitu menghancurkan capoeira di Rio…. Tapi tidak di Salvador.
Beberapa tahun kemudian di awal 1900an di kota Salvador , capoeira telah menyerap elemen-elemen tarian,ritual,agama,filosofi,unsur permainan dan musik (termasuk berimbau) dari budaya Afrika yang berbeda di daerah Bahia. Dengan dimensi yang lebih luas dan dalam ini, capoeira menjadi semacam ‘senjata budaya’ yang digunakan oleh budak-budak afrika beserta keturunannya untuk memperjuangkan kebali identitas mereka dari dominasi kulit putih.
Capoeira di Salvador menggunakan strtegi alternatif, bertahan dari perlakuan keras plisi dn terus berkembang secara sembunyi-sembunyi dan menjadi lebih kuat (tidak seperti capoeira di Rio) hingga tahun 1930an, ketika akhirnya latihan capoeira sekali lagi diijinkan oleh negara.
Pada tahun 1930an, Getulio Vargas mengambil alih kekuasaan dan menjadi dictator di Brazil dan terus berkuasa hingga 2 dekade berikutnya. Dia ingin membangun “identitas baru Brazil” berbasis “kerja keras” ,teknologi modern (saat itu) dan industri. (Brazil masih merupakan negara yang bergantung pd pertanian dan peternakan dan sebagian besar hasilnya telah diimpor ke luar negeri dengan harga yg sangat tinggi)
Vargas mengerti bahwa capoeira dapat menjadi bagian dari wajah dan identitas baru Brazil. Tapi bukanlah malta capoeira dari Rio (yang telah dihancurkan oleh polisi karena dianggap melanggar hukum). Bukan pula Capoeira Bahia dari tahun 1920-1930an yang dilatih oleh valentão (orang-orang kuat0 yang selalu dipadu dengan pertarungan jalanan, pelacuran judi serta mabuk-mabukan. Vargas hanya mengijinkan capoeira yang ‘baru’ (dan terkontrol) yang dimainkan secar eksklusif di ‘ruang tertutup’(tidak di jalan,pasar atau lapangan) dengan aturan-aturan dan ijin tertulis yang jelas.
Mestre Bimba pada tahun 1930an dengan “centro de Cultura Fisica Regional” (semacam pusat latihan fisik regional) nya dan mestre Pastinha, pada tahun 1940an dengan Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola (pusat capoeira Angola dan olahraga), mengambil keuntungan dari aturan baru ini dan menawarkan “capoeira baru”.
Walaupun ide serta nilai-nilai yang Bimba dan pastinha anut berbeda, keduanya menggunakan ‘strategi yang menggoda’ pada masyarakat untuk menghimpun ‘tempat’ bagi capoeira dan orang hitam. Ini menunjukkann bahwa meskipun Capoira regional Bimba yang memiliki segi olahraga dan kekerasan lebih kuat tidak terlalu kontras dengan capoeira Angola Pastinha.
Capoeira Salvador ini terus berkembang pada tahun 1950an dan telah dibagi menjadi 2 arus utama, yaitu Angola dan Regional, meluas keluar Brazil, dan pada 1970an atas kerja keras dari mestre-mestre muda di Sao Paulo dan Rio (2 kota terbesar di Brazil), hingga ke Amerika dan Eropa.
Selama 1970an perkembangan capoeira (termasuk guru-guru dari eropa dan amerika) serupa dengan bola salju raksasa yang dimulai dengan sepasang batu kecil yang menggelinding kemudian membawa serta apa saja yang dilaluinya. Hanya sebagai masukan : ketika aku memulai Capoeira pada tahun 1960an, di Rio dan sao Paulo terdapat tidak lebih dari setngah lusin akademi, saat ini (2006) terdapat antara 2-5 ribu akademi yang disebut ‘the big sao paulo’ dan antara 1-5 ribu akademi capoeira di Rio.
Saat ini, ada sekitar 25000 guru capoeira di Brazil (dan sekitar 500.000 pemain); 500 di Amerika utara;500 di eropa (dengan masing-masing sekitar 1500 pemain). Beberapa menyatakan kita dapat melipatgandakan angka-angka tersebut.

Metodologi Mengajar Nestor telah dideskripsikan dengan hati-hait dalam “The Nestor Capoeira Trylogy “ yang dapat kita beli di took buku atau dipesan melalui email di
www.northatlanticsbooks.com atau www.amazon.com (3 judul buku yang tadi..)

Di bawah ini ada sekilas mengenai metode mengajar Nestor….
Semua murid bergabung dalam roda di ‘Escola nestor Capoeira’ di Rio. Tapi murid murid yang ‘medium’ dan ‘advance’ tidak mengeluarkan tendangan atau sapuan (mereka hanya bergerak,Melakukan ‘floreios’ dan ‘esquivas’, mereka tidak menyerang) jika berhadapan dengan murid yang ‘beginner ‘ atau ‘absolute beginner’.
Dengan strategi ini, ‘beginner’ dan ‘absolute beginner’ dapat membangun gerakan menyerang yang mereka pelajari karena ketika bermain tidak perlu khawatir untuk terluka. Selanjutnya mereka diperkenalkan pada cara-cara bertahan (esquiva dll) dengan latihan yang spesific dan contoh-contoh, selanjutnya ‘beginner’ dapat mulai berinteraksi denag murid senior atau pelatihnya secara normal dalam roda, dengan catatan para senior berhati-hati memberi ruang gerak dan bermain sejauh tidak menyakiti para pemula.
Di sisi lain, murid ‘medium’ dan ‘advance’ berlatih keras cara-cara bertahan ketika bermain dengan ‘beginners’ dan ‘absolute beginners’.
Selama Roda, ‘absolute beginners’ dan ‘beginers’ memiliki waktu dan kesempatan yang sama dengan ‘medium’ dan ‘advance’ bahkan gurunya.

Interaksi antara pemula dan pemain berpengalaman

Ini adalah bagian dari metode pengajaran yang digunakan di “escola Nestor Capoeira”. Bagaimanapun juga ini bukan penemuan dari Mestre Nestor. Merupakan bagian dari pendekatata filosofis yang diwarisi dari mestrenya, mestre Leopoldina dan Leopoldina mendapatkannya dari mestrenya Quinzinho yang muda dan mematikan.
Nestor menjelaskan :

“Quinzinho, seorang pelanggar hukum yang berbahaya yang telah membunuh dan menghabiskan waktu di penjara sebelum dia berusia 20 adalah ‘mestre’ Leopoldina di Rio,sekitar tahun 1950.” (Leopoldina mulai menjadi ‘mestre’ Nestor sejak 1965).Quinzinho dikenal sebagai ketua geng yang terkenal karena kejahatannya, seorang anak muda yang suka kekerasan, selalu bersenjata ,suka melawan polisi serta melanggar hukum. Dia pernah menyarangkan pistol parabelum 9mm ke mulut seorang capoeirista berpengalaman yang menendang pelan kepala Leopoldina ketika leopoldina masih pemula. Quinzinho berteriak :” Aku pernah mengatakan padamu sebelumnya, jangan pernah menendang(mengenai) seorang pemula, atau dia akan menjadi seorang pengecut. Leopoldina tidak akan menjadi pemain berpengalaman, seandainya dia tidak menghargai pertolongan Quinzinho.
Bagian dasar lain dari metode pengajaran Escola Nestor Capoeira adalah “latihan improvisasi” yang diciptakan Nestor pada tahun 1990 :
“Dalam 2 buku pertama dari buku “nestor Capoeira trilogy’ saya. Saya menitikberatkan contoh-contoh latihan pada bab yang berjudul “Learning capoeira”. Contoh-contoh yang dijelaskan dalam buku saling melengkapi, dimulai dari level pemula dan meningkat pada level pemain yang lebih berpengalaman.
Dalam buku I…. Saya memberi gambaran jelas mengenai bagaimana capoeira modern diajarkan dalam gaya dan cara yang bervariasi. Saya menunjukkan perbedaan antara cara mengajar di sekolah yang dipengaruhi capoeira Angola dengan sekolah yang dipengaruhi capoeira regional. Pendekatan mental (tingkah laku) dan tips lain yang ditawarkan dapat membantu pemula dalam 2-3 tahun pertamanya.
Saya juga menyampaikan metode mengajar saya sendiri, yang dibedakan tidak hanya dengan metode pengajaran saya versi kontemporer, tetapi juga pengembangan serta pengenalan pada apa yang saya sebut ‘latihan improvisasi gerakan’ ,’standing up’ dan ‘on the ground’. Saya piker, metode pengajaran kontemporer terlalu ketat yang terlalu menekankan pada pentingnya melakukan gerakan-gerakan dengan caara dan teknik yang benar yang dilakukan dengan latihan style yang spesific di sekolah tsb. Tapi ini bukan berarti metode pengajaran kontemporer tidak bagus dan efektif. Latihan-latihan mekanik dan repetitive yang dilakukan secara berpasangan, seperti bagian bagian dari gerakan-gerakan dasar (attack,defense, bantingan,sapuan dan gerakan-gerakan akrobatik) the blow dan esquiva (gerakan menghindar) atau quedas (menyapu) dlll sederhana tetapi merupakan alat yang efektif sebagai perkenalan pada ‘dialog tubuh bebas’ dalam jogo. Latihan semacam itu dapat dilakukan oleh perorangan atau dengan mengikuri gerakan pelatih beserta irama dan sinkronisasinya. Latihan ini difokuskan pada penyempurnaan tiap-tiap gerakan dasar. Cara ini digunakan oleh semua pelatih dari semua gaya dengan menambahkan sentuhan sendiri serta mengadaptasi gerakan yang digunakannya (regional, Angola) pada infrastruktur metodenya.
Pendekatan untuk mengajar dan belajar capoeira ini yang saya sebut ‘metode belajar kontemporer’ dimulai di Salvador, di negara bagian Bahia dengan mestre Bimba(1900-1974) sebagai pencipta capoeira regional sekitar 1930an. Lebih lanjut pada 1960an merupakan perkembangan pesat dari grup Senzala di Rio, yg dipimpin oleh mestre2 muda dan dipengaruhi capoeira regional di sao Paulo dan Salvador.
Pada 1970, beberapa mestre muda (dan tua) menggunakan struktur yang sama ,tetapi mengadaptasinya ke dalam gerakan capoeira Angola. Sebaguian kecil mestre dan guru Angola ,yang terinspirasi oleh Bimba pad 1930an, capoeira Angola terangkat bersamaan dengan capoeira regional, dan dengan alasan itu,capoeira Angola tidak memiliki kehadiran yang besar dalam beberapa decade.Tapi ketika capoeira Angola kembali munculsekitar tahun 1985, semua mestre Angola menggunakan struktur ini.
Metodenya bagus,dan efektif, dalam 2 tahun, pemula sudah siap bermain capoeira. Dalam 5 atau 7 tahun jika ia benar-benar mendedikasikan dirinya untuk berlatih beberapa jam tiap hari, sereti beberapa pemain di Brazil, para pemain akan mencapai level yang competent, walaupun ia tidak memiliki waktu untuk mematangkan dan menanampak filosofinya..malicia. ada gap antara pengetahuan dengan gerakannya (dan bagaimana memainkan permainan ini), yang telah berada di level permainan tinggi, (tubuh) pengetahuan yang menjangkau pikiran dan jiwa menyadari apa esensi dan arti permainan ini yang sebenarnya. Ilmu jenis itu masih berada pada level rendah. Itu bukan masalah, karena memang tidak ada solusi untuk menyatukan gap ini. Hanya waktu, 20 tahun atau lebih, akan mendidik murid yang berdedikasi hingga ia memahami capoeira pada level yang setara dia memainkannya
Masalah nya adalah cara mengajar kontemporer dan metode latihan tidak memberi ruang untuk kreativitas dan improvisasi. Fakta ini biasanya tidak disadari dalam 10-15 th pertama pemain masih belum menyadari dan mengalaminya. Hanya setelah dia menguasai level keterampilan yang cukup sebagai pemain,barulah dapat merasakan masalah terjebak di antara metode pegajaran yang membuatnya berkembang. Beberapa tidak peduli karena karena mereka merasakan ‘kesuksesan’ dan kesempatan bahwa capoeira di diberikan kepada pemainnya. Tetapi sebagian lagi merasa seperti mereka telah membeli sepasang sepatu yang ukurannya sedikit kekecilan, dan mereka akan bekerja keras sendiri untuk membuatnya muat dipakai.
Gambaran umum ini, pada beberapa perguruan dapat kita lihat bahwa para siswanya bermain dengan kreatifitas dan improvisasi . Tapi ini tergantung pada pengaruh mestre yang bermain dalam roda dengan mereka. Atau karena siswa yang ‘berpetualang’ mengunjungi dan bermain di sekolah-sekolah dengan gaya yang berbeda-beda sejak awal dia belajar capoeira, dan permainan dengan gaya berbeda-beda itu sendirilah yang mengajarinya. Yang saya maksud: ketika kita menemukan siswa yang kreatif, dapat dilihat dari permainan nya, kontak denga beberapa pemain yang lebih berpengalaman yang kreatif dan suka berimprovisasi, serta kreatifitasnya sendiri yang muncul di samping ketatnya metode pengajaran yang rutin yang telah dia alami.
Itu sebabnya , mengapa pada sekitar tahun 1990 ketika saya berusia 45th dan telah bermain sekitar 25th, saya mulai mencoba untuk menciptakan ‘latihan improvisasi gerak’ untuk digunakan secara parallel dan kadang-kadang bersamaan dengan latihan-latihan yang terbaik berikutnya, dan digunakan pula saat ini (2006) dalam ‘metode belajar kontemporer’ kita.
‘The Little Capoeira Book’ berisi latihan-latihan dasar untuk pukulan dan bantingan (elemen yang lebih rumit); urutan2 Bimba;’standing up’ and ‘on the ground’, yang telah saya ciptakan dan uji selama lebih dari 15 tahun. Sajian ini mencakup pendidikan selama 2-5 tahun pertama bagi pemula.
Di buku ke-2 “Caapoeira:Roots….” Saya mulai mengusulkan latihan “movement on the ground for one player’(gerakan di tanah untuk 1 pemain). Yang dapat dilakukan oelh pemula, karena tidak sulit. Bagaimanapun juga di sekolah saya, saya hanya mengajarkannya pada murid yang sudah berpengalaman antara 3-4 tahun, untuk menghindari terciptanya pemain yang seperti ‘robot’ yang dapat bergerak sangat bagus di tanah (dalam latihan mekanik yang terorganisasi) tetapi tidak mampu berimprovisasi dan kreatif ketika bergerak. Mereka terpaku pada beberapa urut-urutan yang mereka pelajari dan kombinasi-kombinasi yang dapat dilakukan dengan menukar-nukar elemen-elemen gerakan.
Menurut saya lebih baik memberikan latihan “movement improvisation on the ground” (gimprovisasi gerakan…dicari yg paling pas bt dirinya sendiri) pada tahun pertama dan setelah para siswa dapat bergerak dengan bebas baru diajarkan latihan “movement on the ground for one player”. Di buku ke-2 saya juga mendeskripsikan “lemparan-lemparan ketika diserang di atas tanah”(cara ngelempar waktu kita ada di’bawah’). Ini dapat dilakukan oleh siswa dengan jam terbang latihan lebih sedikit walaupun saya menyarankan agar gerakan itu diajarkan ketika mereka sudah mempelajari ‘basic’ selama 4-5 tahun.
Teknik latihan ini bekerja dengan baik , dan pemain ‘on the ground’ memiliki beberapa kesempatan untuk membanting/ melempar pemain yang menyerang mereka ketika mereka berada pd posisi di bawah. Walaupun bantingan ini semudah(sesulit) dilakukan dalam permainan yang sebenarnya (contoh) memberei ‘cruz’ pada ‘bencao’, ‘banda’ pada ‘martelo’ bahkan ‘rasteira pada armada’ , latihan yang lebih rumit pada buku pertama, jarang kita lihat diaplikasikan dalam permainan walaupun ada kesempatan Pelatih pada umumnya tidak menunjukkan metode latihan ini, dan pemain juga tidak mendedikasikan dirinya untuk melatih itu..
Akhirnya saya memunculkan latuhan ‘upside down’, seri gerakan akrobatok yang disisipkan pada saat yang tepat dan nyaman dalam permainan, yang kita sebut “floreio” (tempat bunga/vas bunga). Beberapa gerakan ini bahkan terlalu sulit ntuk ahli.
Seperti pada buku pertama, saya juga memberi beberapa tips dan strategi serta “mental attitudes” (sikap mental) dalam buku 2, yang semoga dapat membantu siswa yang telah memiliki pengalaman dalam capoeira.
Dalam buku terakhir, “a streetsmart song” saya memunculkan latihan-latihan yang mengimbangi latihan “movement improvisation standing up”, dengan cara yang sama dengan yang saya tunjukkan di buku ke-2 : latihan untuk mengimbangi “movement improvisation on the ground” . Beberapa dari gerakan ini digunakan oleh pemain2 level tinggi, sisanya digunakan oleh sebagian kecil. Tapi, sejauh yang saya tahu, melatih gerakan ini secara spesifik tidaklah umum dilakukan..
Ketika kita bermain dan permainannya mengalir tanpa cela, tanpa kekasaran primitif yang ingin menunjukkan bahwa dirinya lebih baik dai yang lain, tanpa keadaan tidak sadar yang mengumbar ego dan berakar pada ketidak PD an, kemudian kita memahami apa yang dimaksud Mestre Pastinha dalam manuscripnya…..”Sebagian memuja bentuk pertarungan paling indah ini ketika 2 orang sahabat bermain tanpa keegoisan,tanpa kesombongan; hal itu sangatlah bagus sekali dan berpendidikan.”
Gaya menulis Pastinha selalu puitis yang ‘penuh ornamen’ dan metaforis. Dia menciptakan kata-kata yang pada kenyataannya tidak ada seperti maravilhosima. Maravilhosa berarti ‘merveolous’(bagus sekali), dan suffix –ima dimaksudkan untuk membuat nilai superlativ pada subjeknya, padahal maravilhosa artinya sudah superlativ.. Teatapi, Pastinha, dalam tulisannya lebih memperhatikan nilai puitis daripada grammar. Dan jika kamu bermain dengan seseorang tanpa ‘keegaisan dan kesombongan’ (jarang terjadi), atau ketika kamu melohat kawanmu bermain seperti itu…capoeira tentunya sangan maravilhosima…;) Di sisi lain yang berlawanan ketika permainan ini terjadi kamu juga akan memahai maksud Mestre Bimba berkata dengan senyum aneh dan kilatan gelap di matanya (halahh..T_T) : “capoeira adalah kejahatan” (“Capoeira e Mardade”)
Padahal kata ‘mardade itu tidak ada, yang ada ‘maldade’ yang artinya setan, kejahatan, sesuatu yang dapat menyakiti orang”. Ini bukannya Bimba gak bias bahasa portugis yang bener.. tapi karena dia pengen mengungkapkan ‘mardade’ yang sedikit berbeda. Dan sedikit perbedaan itu hanya dipahami oleh pemain yang sudah berpengalaman; walaupun beberapa pemula yang baru beberapa bulan latihan, jika dia menyadari dan tidak berusaha terlalu keras untuk memahaminya mungkin saja dapat mengerti maksud Bimba tsb. Bimba mengatakan bahwa permainan yang baik harus dapat mewujudkan aspek energi gelap dan terang, sisi positif dan negatif manusia, bahkan ketika permainan ini dimainkan tanpa kekerasan, tanpa keegoisan dan kesombongan (dan dengan banyak kreatifitas,kesenangan dan keindaha estetika).
Semuanya, gelap dan terang, positif dan negatif, harus ada, walaupun itu sifatnya ritual, teatrikal, membuat kepercayaan tapi tidak akan menjadi kenyataan sampai kapanpun. Karena capoeira adalah tentang semua itu. Itulah yang membuat capoeira unik, dan itulah yang membedakan capoeira dengan tari, beladiri, olahraga lain dlll……

T_T… FiuuuHHHhhhhhhh……..rrRrrrrRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Dari artikelnya bang Aul
Translated by: KeyBoNcS…

Mestre Bimba

2007-04-24T10:52:00.000+07:00

Mestre Bimba (born Manuel dos Reis Machado November 23, 1900, Salvador, Brazil - February 15, 1974) was a mestre (a master practitioner) of the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira.

The son of Luiz Cândido Machado and Maria Martinha do Bonfim, Manuel he was born at the "bairro do Engenho Velho", Salvador. The nickname "Bimba" came up due to a bet between his mother and the midwife during his birth; his mother bet that he was going to be a girl and the midwife bet he would be a boy. After he was delivered, the midwife said... it's a boy, look at his "bimba" (male sexual organ).

He started learning Capoeira when he was 12 years old, with a capitão da Companhia Baiana de Navegação (Navigation Captain) from Estrada das Boiadas (present day bairro da Liberdade) in Salvador called Bentinho, even though, in those days, Capoeira was still being persecuted by the authorities. He would later be known as one of the legendary founding fathers of contemporary Capoeira. The other would be Mestre Pastinha, the father of Capoeira Angola

The Birth of the Regional Style

At 18, Bimba felt that Capoeira had lost all its efficiency as a martial art and an instrument of resistance, becoming a folkloric activity reduced to nine movements. It was then that Bimba started to retrieve movements from the original Capoeira fights and added movements from another African fight called Batuque - a vicious grappling type of martial art that he learned from his father (of which his father was a champion), as well as introducing movements created by himself. This was the beginning of the development of Capoeira Regional.

In 1928, a new chapter in the history of Capoeira began, as well as a change in the way black people (of African descent, brought to Brazil as slaves) were looked upon by the Brazilian society. After a performance at the palace of Bahia's Governor, Juracy Magalhães, Mestre Bimba was finally successful in convincing the authorities of the cultural value of Capoeira, thus ending its official ban in the 1930s.

Mestre Bimba founded the first Capoeira school in 1932, the Academia-escola de Cultura Regional, at the Engenho de Brotas in Salvador, Bahia. Previously, Capoeira was only practiced and played on the streets. However, Capoeira was still heavily discriminated by upper class Brazilian society. In order to change the slyness, stealthy and malicious reputation associated with Capoeira practitioners at that time, Bimba set new standards to the art.

His students had to wear a clean, white uniform, show proof of grade proficiency from school, show good posture and many other standards. As a result, doctors, lawyers, politicians, upper middle class people, and women (until then excluded) started to join his school, providing Bimba with better support.

Capoeira Regional is Established

In 1936, Bimba challenged fighters of any martial art style to test his Regional style. He had four matches, fighting against Vítor Benedito Lopes, Henrique Bahia, José Custódio dos Santos (Zé I) and Américo Ciência. Bimba won all matches.

In 1937, he earned the state board of education certificate after he was invited to demonstrate Capoeira to the then President of Brazil, Getúlio Dorneles Vargas.

In 1942, Mestre Bimba opened his second school at the Terreiro de Jesus - rua das Laranjeiras; today rua Francisco Muniz Barreto. The school is still open today and supervised by his former student, "Vermelho". He also taught capoeira to the army and at the police academy. He was then considered "the father of modern Capoeira".

Important names to the Brazilian society at that time such as Dr. Joaquim de Araújo Lima (Ex-Governador of Guaporé), Jaime Tavares, Rui Gouveia, Alberto Barreto, Jaime Machado, Delsimar Cavalvanti, César Sá, Decio Seabra, José Sisnando and many others were Bimba's students.

Bimba's Legacy

Mestre Bimba was a coalman, carpenter, warehouse man, longshoreman, horse coach conductor, but mainly Capoeirista. Unhappy with false promises and lack of support from local authorities in Bahia, he moved to Goiânia in 1973 by invitation from a former student. He died a year later, on February 15, 1974 at the Hospital das Clínicas de Goiânia due to a stroke.

Bimba managed to recover the original values within Capoeira, which were used amongst the black slaves centuries before him. For Bimba, Capoeira was a fight but "competition" should be permanently avoided since he believed it was a "cooperation" fight, where the stronger player was always responsible for the weaker player and helped him to excel in his own fighting techniques.

Mestre Bimba fought all his life for what he strongly believed was best for Capoeira and succeeded. After he died in 1974 one of his sons, Mestre Nenel (Manoel Nascimento Machado), at 14, took over his father's Capoeira academy. Mestre Nenel is still responsible for the remarkable cultural and historical legacy his father left him and he is the President of Filhos de Bimba School of Capoeira.

Bimba's Academy Rules

Bimba strongly believed Capoeira had an extraordinary value as a self-defence martial art, hence his efforts to develop its learning in a structured and methodical way.

Bimba developed a Capoeira teaching method with commandments, principles and traditions, which are still part of the Capoeira Regional up to this day. Some of his commandments are:

To stop smoking and drinking since it interferes with the players' performance;
To avoid demonstrating one's progression as a Capoeira player outside the academy (the "surprise" factor is crucial);
Avoid conversation during training, instead observe and learn from watching.
Practice daily the basic fundamentals.
Do not be afraid to come close to your opponent - the closer that you get, the more you will learn.
Keep your body relaxed.
It is better to get beat up in the roda than on the streets.
Students must maintain good grades in school

Bimba also established his own Capoeira principles to fundament his Capoeira teaching method:

“ Gingar sempre ” (to keep oneself in constant movement when fighting); “Ginga” is the Capoeira basic movement;
“ Esquivar sempre ” (to dodge away from the opponent's attacks);
All movements must have a purpose (attack and correspondent defense movement);
To preserve a constant fixed position on the ground (acrobatic jumps makes one vulnerable);
To play according to the rhythm determined by the berimbau (Capoeira musical instrument):
To respect a player when he/she can no longer defend an attack movement;
To protect the opponent's physical and moral integrity (during the practice, the stronger will protect the weaker player).

Consequently, Bimba created several traditions and rituals to support his methodology:

A chair was used in order to train beginner students/players;
The “ charanga ” is the Capoeira orchestra, composed by a berimbau and two pandeiros;
The singing ( quadras e corridos ), songs composed by Bimba to accompany the game;
The “ batizado ” (baptism) (first time the student plays Capoeira at the sound of berimbau).

The aspects that still makes Capoeira Regional so peculiar and outstanding is its method:

Admission exam (physical test made with Capoeira movements to identify students' abilities);
The “ sequência ” (sequence) of the basic 17 Capoeira attack and defence movements;
Practice of the different rhythms of the game;
Specific movements: traumatizing, projection, connected and unbalancing;
Practice of “ cintura desprezada ” (second sequence practice by advanced students);
“ Formatura ” (Capoeira teacher graduation);
“ Especialização ” and “ emboscada ” (specific advanced exams).

References
http://www.capoeiranyc.com/bimba.html
http://www.bimba.co.uk
http://www.filhosdebimba.rg3.net

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestre_Bimba

Mestre Pastinha

2007-04-23T11:08:00.000+07:00

Mestre Pastinha (born Vicente Ferreira Pastinha April 5, 1889, Salvador, Brazil - November 13, 1981) was a mestre (a master practitioner) of the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira.

The son of José Señor Pastinha and Eugênia Maria de Carvalho, he was exposed to Capoeira at the age of 8 by an African named Benedito. The story goes that an older and stronger boy from Pastinha's neighborhood would often bully and beat him up. One day Benedito saw the aggression that Pastinha suffered, then told him to stop by his house as he was going to teach him few things. In his next encounter with that boy, Pastinha defeated him so quickly that the older boy became his admirer.

Formative Years

Mestre Pastinha had a happy and modest childhood. In the mornings he would take art classes at the Liceu de Artes e Ofício school where he learned to paint; afternoons were spent playing with kites and practicing Capoeira. He continued his training with Benedito for three more years.

Later, he joined a sailor school by his fathers wishes, which would not support the Capoeira practice. At the school he would teach Capoeira to his friends. At the age of 21, he left the sailor school to become a professional painter. In his spare time he would secretly practice Capoeira, since it was still illegal at that time.

Inheriting Capoeira Angola

In 1941, by Aberrê's (Pastinha's former student) invitation, Pastinha went to a Sunday roda at ladeira do Gengibirra located at bairro da Liberdade, where the best Capoeira mestres would hang out. Aberrê was already famous in these rodas (see Capoeira), and after spending the afternoon there, one of the greatest mestres of Bahia, mestre Amorzinho, asked Pastinha to take charge of Capoeira Angola.

As a result, in 1942 Pastinha founded the first Angola school, the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola, located at the Pelourinho. His students would wear black pants and yellow t-shirt, the same colour of the "Ypiranga Futebol Clube", his favorite soccer club.

He participated with the Brazilian delegation of the "First International Festival de Artes Negras" in Dakar, Senegal (1966), bringing with him João Grande, João Pequeno, Mestre Gato Preto, Mestre Gildo Alfinete, Mestre Roberto Satanás and Camafeu de Oxossi.

Twilight Years

Pastinha worked as shoe shiner, tailor, gold prospector, security guard (leão de chácara) at a gambling house (casa de jogo) and construction worker at the Porto de Salvador to support himself financially so he could do what he loved the most, to be an Angoleiro.

Eventually Pastinha's academy fell on hard times. Pastinha, old, sick and almost totally blind, was asked by the government to vacate his building for renovations. But the space was never returned to him. Instead it became a restaurant and entertainment outlet. Pastinha died a broken man and bitter about his treatment, but never regretted living the life of a Capoeirista. Pastinha was left abandoned in a city shelter (abrigo D. Pedro II - Salvador).

Having dedicated his entire life to Capoeira Angola, he played his last game of Capoeira on April 12, 1981. Mestre Pastinha, the father and protector of Capoeira Angola, died at the age of 92 on November 13, 1981. He is survived by two of his most learned students, João Grande and João Pequeno who continue to share Pastinha's Capoeira Angola with the world.

Dr. C. Daniel Dawson would later write,
'Pastinha was a brilliant Capoeirista whose game was characterized by his agility, quickness and intelligence (…). Pastinha wanted his students to understand the practice, philosophy and tradition of pure Capoeira Angola. As he said, "I practice the true Capoeira Angola and in my school they learn to be sincere and just. That is the Angola law. I inherited it from my grandfather. It is the law of loyalty. The Capoeira Angola that I learned - I did not change it here in my school… When my students go on they go on to know about everything. They know; this is fight, this is cunning. We must be calm. It is not an offensive fight. Capoeira waits (…). The good Capoeirista must know how to sing, play Capoeira and the instruments of Capoeira."'

Excerpt from Capoeira Angola and Mestre João Grande by C. Daniel Dawson

References
http://www.capoeiranyc.com/pastinha.html
http://www.joaogrande.org/mestre.htm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestre_Pastinha

2007-04-23T01:48:00.000+07:00

lambang batizado grupo capoeira estar feliz

GRUPO CAPOEIRA ESTAR FELIZ BLOG

2007-04-21T01:55:00.000+07:00

Unjuk Kebolehan di Taman Bungkul

2007-04-09T15:08:00.000+07:00

SURABAYA - Sejak dibuka untuk umum pada 21 Maret lalu, Taman Bungkul tak pernah sepi. Terlebih di akhir pekan. Semakin banyak yang bertandang. Mereka bukan hanya orang-orang yang ingin berjalan-jalan. Ada juga beberapa kelompok komunitas yang memanfaatkan lokasi tersebut sebagai tempat unjuk kebolehan. Misalnya, yang dilakukan kelompok Capoeira de Soerabaya dan Capoeira Estar Feliz pada Sabtu malam lalu.

Begitu datang, dua klub itu langsung membentuk lingkaran, memainkan musik, dan mengadakan permainan Capoeira. Suara musik serta gerak tari indah para capoeirista yang rancak sontak menarik perhatian pengunjung taman di Jalan Raya Darmo itu. Tak sedikit di antara mereka yang rela berdesak-desakan demi melihat pertunjukan tersebut.

Pengunjung juga tak segan bertepuk tangan ketika para capoeirista yang bermain dalam roda (hoda) memeragakan gerakan akrobatik. "Atraktif sekali. Saya belum pernah melihat capoeira secara langsung. Baru sekarang ini saya bisa menikmatinya," ujar Agus, seorang pengunjung yang datang bersama pasangannya.

Rhoni Dachi, ketua Capoeira de Soerabaya, menjelaskan, pihaknya baru kali pertama bermain di Taman Bungkul. "Biasanya, kami ekshibisi di Taman Gubernur Suryo," ujarnya.

Sayangnya, sejak taman itu diberi pagar tanaman, klub tersebut tak bisa memanfaatkan lagi. "Makanya, begitu Taman Bungkul dibuka, kami berniat menjajal bermain di sini," ungkapnya.

Ternyata, respons yang didapat memang sangat positif. "Jauh lebih ramai dibandingkan ketika kami bermain di Taman Gubernur Suryo," tegas lelaki berkepala plontos tersebut.

Sayangnya, aksi kedua klub itu tak berlangsung lama. Di tengah atraksi, mereka terpaksa menghentikan aktivitas. Sebab, pihak keamanan taman tersebut menyatakan berkeberatan atas atraksi mereka yang memang menyedot perhatian banyak pengunjung itu. "Katanya, mereka mengkhawatirkan keamanan pengunjung. Sebab, banyak copet yang berkeliaran di sini. Makanya, lebih baik kami melapor lebih dulu sebelum beratraksi," ujar Rhoni. (ign)

http://www.jawapos.com/index.php?act=detail_c&id=279731

About

2007-02-14T09:50:00.000+07:00

About: tes by irmão

Journal of Combative Sport, Aug 2000

2007-01-10T13:40:00.000+07:00

Capoeira is Brazilian. That much is certain. Beyond that, it is many things at once, being simultaneously a dance, a kind of game, a Brazilian cultural and musical art, and a martial art.

Until the 1930s, books usually referred to capoeira as Jogo de Capoeiras ("Game of the Capoeiras") or Capoeiragem, and "capoeira" referred to the player of the game rather than the game itself. (And "players" is the correct term; while outsiders often call people who practice capoeira "fighters," the participants consider it a game rather than a fight.)

Capoeira, at least as played today, developed among working-class black people in Brazil, and its history, which was rarely written before the nineteenth century, is based on oral tradition rather than old documents or paintings. Thus there is a lot of myth and folklore, but not much that is certain.

For example, there is a story that Zumbi, who was the leader of Quilombo dos Palmares, created capoeira during the seventeenth century. Quilombos were strongholds built by fugitive slaves (quilombolas) and the biggest and most famous of these strongholds was the Quilombo dos Palmares, which was destroyed around the end of seventeenth century. Zumbi seems to have been a historic person, but nobody knows if he really knew capoeira, and there are documents suggesting that capoeira was practiced before Quilombo dos Palmares was built.

There is another story that capoeira came from Angola. Now, while capoeira has a distinctly African flavor, researchers who have gone to the various parts of Africa where the slaves were captured have not found anything like it. Perhaps the African arts died out under colonialism, but still one does not find in capoeira the orishas and other manifestations of African religion that one finds in Candomblé, Santeria, or Vodoun. So this suggests that capoeira is Brazilian rather than African.

A picture by the famous French artist Jean-Baptiste Debret depicting capoeira; the artist lived in Rio from 1816-1831.

Certainly the word "capoeira" is not of African origin. There are varying explanations of what it means, but the most convincing is that it is the Tupi-Guarani Indian word for "tall grass."

According to one version of the story, runaway slaves and Capitàes do Mato (literally, Captains of the Bush, but meaning slave-catchers) ambushed one another in the tall grass, and thus capoeira came to mean the kind of fighting done by desperate men outside of town. This sounds good but isn't very sensible if you think about it. After all, slave-catchers were armed, so individual runaways would have avoided them whenever possible. On the other hand, when banded together in quilombos, then the runaway slaves would have fought with spears, machetes, and firearms, just like anybody else.

According to another version of the story, people travelling in the country cut paths through the tall grass. Criminals and highwaymen awaited the unwary, so townspeople started saying, "Beware the capoeiras," meaning "Beware the bandits who lurk in the tall grass." But keep in mind that back then, Brazilian society was based on slavery, and that white people typically considered any strange black, Indian, or mulatto to be a potential bandit. So whenever a group of these people got together to talk or play, the white people said, "They were playing capoeira," but meaning any suspicious get-together.

There is a theory at the Bahia Federal University that capoeira had its origin on the Bahian docks. According to this theory, which the authors heard from Renato Alcantara, sailors and stevedores played physical games such as capoeiragem and batuque (bah-too-keh), that required the players to move their opponents outside a circle without the use of hands. Capoeiragem was therefore simply a physical game.

Anyway, some more legends. Around 1815 the Crown Prince of Brazil (and later its first Emperor, and later still King of Portugal), Pedro Orleans and Bragança supposedly learned capoeira from his palace slaves. But this is unlikely, as back then a Brazilian prince with imperial ambitions would have been more likely to learn Spanish fencing than capoeira. It has also been said that some early nineteenth century police officers were also capoeira players. But capoeira was illegal in Brazil from 1810, and it's not likely that policemen would risk their jobs to play a game that didn't pay money.

Sometimes you hear about a battalion of capoeira players during a Brazilian war with Paraguay. What happened is that in 1864 Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay formed a Triple Alliance against Paraguay, and one Brazilian battalion, the Zuavos, was formed of runaway slaves who after being caught were offered the choice of being shot or joining the army. Of course the men from the capoeira volunteered for the army, and as a result they became known as the Voluntários da Pátria, or "Volunteers of the Nation".

Until the 1830s, capoeira was apparently practiced without music. Because of laws against capoeira, there is a theory that the music was introduced as a way of disguising the practice as a dance. But if Alcantara's theory that sailors and longshoremen created capoeira for recreation is correct, then probably the sailors and longshoremen added music simply to make their games more fun. Either way, the introduction of music changed technical aspects of the game, and rhythm started to become more important to the players. Ultimately this led to capoeira having a ludic aspect that it apparently lacked before, and to capoeiragem being played in the streets before audiences.

Meanwhile, in Rio de Janeiro, maltas, or street gangs, recruited thugs that the newspapers called "capoeiras" and used them to extort money from people. Politicians employed these same thugs to persuade people to vote for them, and eventually election reforms led to new bans on capoeira. This is why another old name for capoeira is "Vadiação," a word meaning something like "vagabondery".

With so many thugs playing the game, Rio capoeira was rough stuff, and its teachers eliminated all the pretty moves that were not much use in real fights. For example, kicks were lower, and aimed at the body rather than the head. The hands were used in various ways to deceive or to deliver punches to the body or finger strikes to the eyes. There was no music, no cartwheels, and no acrobatics except those that were combat-oriented.

Capoeira Carioca (Carioca means "born in Rio") also included training in weapons. These weapons were not firearms, because those were expensive, but straight razors, canes, and wooden sticks. The razors were known as Santo Christo, or Holy Christ, probably after the crossing patterns, while the sticks were known as "petropolis." That means "Peter's City," which is the name of a community in Rio, so perhaps that is where the technique developed.

Rio gangsters also wore red silk scarves around their necks. This was mostly to look dashing and show their gang affiliations, but they said that it was to protect their necks from razor cuts. (Usually a razor blade does not cut silk, instead it gets stuck.)

Strangely, capoeira Carioca was the first capoeira to be documented in a military manual! This one was written in 1907 by a naval officer who preferred to stay anonymous, and was entitled "The Guide of Capoeira -- Brazilian Gymnastics." The idea was probably to introduce a national form of fighting into recruit training, as the British had done with boxing, the French with savate, and the Japanese with judo.

In 1916, Captain Ataliba Nogueira and Lieutenants Lapa and Leite, all of them members of the Military Police, published another "Manual of Capoeira." Intended for military personnel only -- capoeira was still banned by law -- this was one of the best books on capoeira ever written. These authors would have been white, as back then blacks were hardly ever promoted higher than the rank of sergeant.

Of course soldiers and sailors were not the only ones doing capoeira in Brazil, just the only ones publishing books about it in the nation's capital. Capoeira Angola (though not yet known by that name) was the method most practiced in the northeastern states of Bahia and Pernambuco. As most practitioners were working men of African descent, it continued to have an unsavory reputation with white people, and therefore it remained illegal.

Then capoeira Regional came to be.

In this case one man made the difference. He was named Manuel dos Reis Machado, but was better known as Mestre Bimba. (It is a capoeira tradition that people take nicknames upon promotion to mestre. It isn't required, but almost everybody does it.)

Mestre Bimba (pronounced been-bah) was born in the Bahian capital of Salvador in 1900, and started learning capoeira from a merchant marine captain named Bentinho around 1912. By the time he was 19, he was a master, and since he preferred the martial aspect to the ludic (although he did both very well), he became feared as a terrific fighter, winning challenge matches against boxers, jujutsu men, etc. He never fought for money, just for the pleasure, but probably others made money betting on him, or lost it betting against him.

Mestre Bimba earned his living working as a stevedore. Although he did not know how to read or write, he was a personable and intelligent man, and because he was a famous fighter, soon wealthy young men began approaching him asking for instruction. At first he taught students in their homes, but by 1932 he had so many students that he decided to open an academy. This was the first non-military capoeira school in Brazil, and it is today in the same place.

With all these white, middle-class, and Catholic young men training in an art that had previously been done mostly by black, working-class, and Candomblé-practicing young men, Bimba knew that capoeira had to change. You see, the traditional Bahian capoeira, the kind today called Angola, was not taught in schools. Instead, a prospective student approached the group, and if he was accepted he watched and tried to imitate the others. Bimba's well-educated white students were used to different methods, so to please them Bimba started teaching his classes in the same way the Catholic schools did, namely by taking beginners aside and teaching them increasingly difficult techniques in a systematic method. Furthermore, because his patrons were mostly white, he also stressed capoeira's Brazilian rather than African roots.

It is true that Bimba preferred some movements to others, particularly the ones most suited to combat, but contrary to the purely violent version practiced in Rio he kept a lot of elements of the traditional capoeira, such as music. Indeed, he was a talented player of the traditional instruments berimbau (pronounced beh-rin-bow), caxixi (pronounced kah-she-she) and atabaque (pronounced ah-tah-bah-keh), and he added some prayers and rituals from Candomblé religion.

Bimba is said to have incorporated some techniques from boxing and judo, but probably there isn't much truth to this. After all, the hands are used for striking in Angola, too, and while Regional has some hip throws and arm locks you don't need to know judo to know how to do those. But it is possible, as you don't see these techniques in Carioca or Angola, only Regional.

Anyway, Bimba wanted to teach students a mixture of practical fighting and traditional culture. So he taught them to play musical instruments and to set traps and ambushes and use dirty tricks, and he talked about capoeira's Brazilian rather than African heritage. Nevertheless the pedagogical method was Bimba's true innovation, and this was most responsible for making a formerly working-class art palatable to rich white people.

Of course capoeira was still illegal. So to open his school Bimba couldn't say he was teaching capoeira. But, as boxing, wrestling, and judo were not illegal, one of Bimba's students, a lawyer, suggested that Bimba should simply use a different name. The name chosen was Luta Regional Bahiana, which could be translated as "Bahia's way of fighting." But everybody knew what it was and so everybody called it capoeira Regional ("from that region" "local").

Shortly after, Bimba's students, some of whom were the sons of big-shot politicians, started to work for capoeira to be legalized, and they were lucky. During the 1930s Brazil was under the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas. Vargas was a fascist, but he was also a nationalist, and in capoeira he saw a national art that should be promoted rather than banned. Therefore new laws were written that allowed capoeira to be taught in licensed academies and demonstrated publicly provided permits were obtained.

With the new laws, traditional teachers also began renting rooms and obtaining business licenses, and soon there were capoeira schools everywhere. To distinguish between traditional capoeira and capoeira Regional, during the 1950s people started calling the traditional method "Angola." No one knows who first started this name, or precisely what it meant. A good bet is that the name referred to the slaves who started capoeira and who came from Angola and the Kongo kingdoms, in Africa. But that is a guess.

While Regional grew like crazy during the 1950s, Carioca did not. The reason was that as Bimba's students moved south to Rio, they brought a new, less violent and more acceptable, respectable, and beautiful form of capoeira to the capital. Carioca on the other hand continued to be associated with gangsters and the Brazilian military and police. (Military and bandits, a strange combination, isn't it. Or maybe not so strange, if you think about it long enough.) So during the 1940s and 1950s there was only one Carioca school in all Brazil that was open to the public. This school was at Ipanema Beach in Rio, and headed by Mestre Sinhozinho (Agenor Moreira Ferreira).

Sinhozinho (pronounced Seen-yo-zeen-yo) was born in Santos (the largest port in Brazil) in 1891. The son of an army officer, he learned his capoeira on the docks of both Santos and Rio. He also wrestled Greco-Roman and arm-wrestled.

Like Bimba, Sinhozinho knew how to make money teaching capoeira. The capoeira he taught had no music and emphasized combat-effectiveness rather than tradition. And, like Bimba, he catered to middle-class students. Some became famous, too, to include Pan-American judo champion Rudolf Hermany and musician Tom Jobim.

However, unlike Bimba, who systematized his classes, Sinhozinho taught all his students in an individual way, each differently from the other. In the end, everyone knew the same techniques, they just got there by different routes. Did it work?

Well, once Bimba brought two of his best students to fight Sinhozinho’s students and after a couple of minutes both Bimba's students needed to go to a hospital. Bimba did not fight, but it is said that he absorbed some movements he saw in the fight and when he got back to Bahia he incorporated them into Regional.

Nevertheless, Carioca under Sinhozinho was not a system, just a school. So when Sinhozinho died in the early 1960s his method died with him. The more standardized Regional, however, flourished. So in this regard it is fair to consider Bimba the Jigoro Kano of capoeira.

And what became of Angola?

It survived, thanks mostly to the efforts of Bahia’s most famous master, Mestre Pastinha. Pastinha was born on April 4, 1889. His father was a Spaniard while his mother was a black Brazilian, and his full name was Vicente Joaquim Ferreira. As a boy, Pastinha (pronounced Paz-teen-ya) learned capoeira from a black man called Mestre Benidido, and by the time he was twelve he was such a good fighter that he was able to obtain employment as a bouncer in a brothel. (Nice job for a twelve-year old, eh?) He got enough fighting in his day job so when he opened a capoeira school in 1941, he taught it in the old way, by observation, without a formal method, and in this way he kept the traditions alive.

Pastinha and his students were soon giving demonstrations to groups of tourists in the hotels of Salvador, Bahia’s capital city, and recording capoeira’s music. This made them lots of friends among intellectuals who saw Pastinha as a treasure of black culture and this helped him stay with his pursuit.

Bimba liked Pastinha, and respected what he was trying to do. Personally he thought many of the old moves were technically useless, so he did not allow beginners to do them, but he encouraged advanced students to learn them. So today it is common (not the rule, but common) for capoeira players to practice both "families," as Regional and Angola are termed in Portuguese.

Bimba died on February 5, 1974, with many students, many friends, and little money. Pastinha met the same fate in a public asylum on November 13, 1981. About the same time, capoeira began going abroad, especially to the United States. Two of the pioneers were Bira Almeida in California and Jelon Vieira in New York. Some people have said that Vieira's methods influenced the break-dancing craze of the 1980s, but that was really owed to the New York City dance troupe called High Times Crew.

So having gone through some history, what is the difference between Angola and Regional? Technically, not much. Both use music and teach traditions, and both are ludic as well as combative in nature. There is, however, a difference in spirit and approach. In Regional, the Brazilian roots are stressed and the game is usually played from an erect stance. And, while the speed of the acrobatic movements varies from player to player, Regional is generally fast. On the other hand, in Angola the so-called "African roots" are stressed and the game is generally played very slowly from low stances. The reason, say the Angolans, is that this allows them to do a better job of hiding their true intentions, plus serves to lure the unwary into traps.

Capoeira uniforms are not standardized and the reason is a touchy one. Originally there was no such a thing as a uniform. Instead you just played in your everyday clothes. Some say that Regional's trend toward white uniforms came from the fact that people played capoeira after attending Mass, right in front of the church, and that the white shirts and pants commemorate the white suits that used to be fashionable in tropical Bahia. And some say that you can tell if a player was good by the state of his suit afterwards -- if he goes close to the ground and does not touch, then his suit stays clean and he must be a good player. Well, this may be true or not, but the fact is that Regional students started to wear white pants and t-shirts only recently. And, to distinguish themselves from Regional players, the Angola players have taken to wearing blue pants with yellow shirts. Why these colors? Easy -- they were the colors of Ipiranga Football (soccer) Club, Pastinha’s favorite team.

Both Regional and Angola are also practiced without shirts. Currently only men play it this way, but nothing says women can't, too!

During the early 1970s the government of Brazil was controlled by the military, and during that time the government tried to transform capoeira into a competitive sport. (Militaries like sports better than art because you can put a lot of regulations into sport that you can’t put into an art.) Federations were soon created, and the politicians in charge of them decided that capoeira had to become a sport like boxing instead of staying that typically Brazilian mixture of dance, fighting, and trickiness. Well, that did not work, but even today there are still some who dream of getting capoeira into the Olympics.

Belt rankings were introduced during this time, too. Although the belts were made from rope, otherwise this ranking system was similar to (and borrowed from) the similar systems used in judo and other Japanese martial arts. The basic structure is:
No belt (beginner)
Green belt. This is also known as the "baptized" rank, as there is a ceremony in which you play in public for the first time with a master other than your own. This is a strenuous testing rather than a mugging, and it comes after about a year of training and after passing the examination you're accepted as one of the boys.
Green and yellow.
Yellow and blue.
Blue. At this level you are allowed to teach under supervision, but you can’t open a school of your own.
Blue, yellow, green, and white. Known as graded (formado) or secondary master (contra-mestre), people of these grades can open schools under the supervision of a mestre.
White (mestre).
Not coincidentally, those are also the colors of the Brazilian flag.

Lately some teachers have adopted additional colors for use by children. Usually these are red, orange, and purple. But nowhere is there standardization, and so each organization has its own system of grading and belt colors.

Some capoeira schools also teach maculelê (mah-koo-lay-lay), which is a kind of dance that features whirling machetes and flaming torches. Although some people say that maculelê was originally a fighting method developed by Pernambuco sugar cane workers, this is probably just another story; instead, it seems likely that maculelê was actually developed during the 1940s for the purpose of entertaining tourists.

During the twentieth century there were sometimes fights between capoeira players and judo men and Western boxers. For example, in a book about capoeira, there is a tale of a fight that supposedly took place in 1913 between a capoeira player named Ciriaco and a Japanese jujutsu champion named Sada Myako. According to the story, the Japanese was knocked out with a violent spinning kick, a technique called "meia-lua de compasso". Well, nobody ever heard of a capoeira player named Ciriaco, and while there was a Japanese wrestler named Taro Miyake and another named Sada Kazu Uyenishi, neither was in Brazil at the time. Furthermore, when Japanese wrestlers and judo men did come to Brazil, they seem to have won most of their matches. [EN1] So this story could be a fantasy.

In Bahia, before Bimba, there is no written record of this kind of fight, but doubtless they happened. After all, there were boxers and wrestlers on board visiting merchant ships and capoeira players among the Brazilian longshoremen, and Bimba said he fought many times and never lost to anybody. But let's be fair here -- he never met Maeda or the Gracies, either. The Gracies fought a lot of capoeira players during the 1950s and 1960s and always won, but the only Brazilian (let's keep Masahiko Kimura out of this) to ever beat Helio Gracie was Waldemar Santana, who had studied under both Helio Gracie and Mestre Bimba’s student Arthur Emidio in Rio. And some years ago in an "Ultimate Fighting" event, a capoeira player called Mestre Hulk knocked out a Gracie Jiu Jitsu champion named Amauri Biteti. Biteti was the favorite and was beating everybody that night and then during the final match he made a big mistake. Instead of going to the ground where he was supreme, he chose to fight Mestre Hulk in a boxing style and was knocked out cold.

The most famous capoeira players of the old days are surrounded by legends. Examples include Zumbi, who was described above, and Manduca da Praia. Manduca was from Rio, and nobody ever knew his real name. He was a hired gun for dirty politicians, and his most famous battle was with a visiting Portuguese congressman named Santa Ana. Congressmen were sprightly in those days, too, as according to the story Santa Ana was a famous street fighter in Europe, and the contest ended with both men exhausted and drinking champagne in a brothel. The last part may be true. There was also a Major Vidigal who was supposed to have been a policeman in Rio during the early 1800s, but outside of novels no one seems to know much about him.

In the twentieth century there were some famous players who were not legendary. One was Manuel Henrique of Bahia, whose capoeira name was Besouro Mangangá. ("Besouro" means "beetle" while Mangangá means "Devil's horse," and refers to an aggressive Brazilian wasp.) Mangangá believed himself a Filho de Santo, Son of a Saint. In Candomblé, a Son of a Saint is someone who has taken on an African spirit and is therefore impervious to wounds. As a result he believed that no bullet could catch him, no blade could cut him, and he was one hell of a capoeira player, too.

Mangangá came to a sad end, however. It seems he worked as a mercenary for some corrupt politician, and one day some people he didn't know were his enemies offered to buy him a lot of drinks, and when he finally got really drunk, they stabbed him. He did not die on the spot, though. Instead it took him a whole day to die, and the guys who stabbed him made sure nobody helped him.

Then there was 22 from Marajó. The number refers to the man's number in the navy and the latter is where he came from, an island in the extreme north of Brazil. In his time he was said to be invincible, and he was immortalized in a short story written by one of Brazil’s most famous writers, Monteiro Lobato.

Some of the best recent Regional players were Arthur Emidio, Suassuna, and Atenilo. Their peers among the Angolans included Bola 7 and Canjiquinha.

And, finally, let's not forget the last of the capoeira bandits, Rio's Madame Satan. Satan was colorful, to say the least -- he was a transvestite, the owner of a Rio brothel, the leader of a gang of thieves, and reportedly the killer of more than ten people. But he was also a modest man, and in a published interview Satan denied killing anybody, he just made some holes in people and God killed them. In his prime, even the police were afraid of Satan but in the end he was betrayed by his lover and spent the rest of his life in jail, where he died during the early 1970s. His real name was Aristoteles de Jesus.

Capoeira faces new challenges in the twenty-first century. Doubtless capoeira will flourish in the new globalized society, which is good, but it would be sad if it lost its Brazilian character. To be capoeira, it must remain more or less the same thing in France, the United States, or Japan as it is in Brazil. This is not a matter of martial aspects from other cultures being incorporated in the art, as this has always happened. For example, if kids watch kung fu movies and then incorporate those kicks into capoeira, it will still be capoeira. The problem is not rhythm or music, either. After all, it doesn't matter if you sing the song in Portuguese or English or German. The difficult part will be maintaining the Afro-Brazilian ritual. In Brazil, even if you are Roman Catholic or Jewish, you still feel the African and Candomblé roots, but in Australia or Canada you might not. To be Brazilian is to be very mixed.

How this will work out, only time will tell.

For Further Reading

Portuguese

Books
Capoeira, Nestor (Nestor S. de Campos Neto). Capoeira, os fundamentos da malicia (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record, 1996)

-----. Capoeira, o galo já cantou (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record, 1997)

-----. Pequeno Manual do Jogador de Capoeira (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record, 1999)

Mestre Bola 7 (José Luiz Oliveira). Capoeira Angola na Bahia (São Paulo: Editora Ground, 1999)

Pereira da Costa, Lamartine. Capoeira sem mestre (Rio de Janeiro: Edições de Ouro, 1963)

Valdeloir do Rego. Capoeira Angola (Salvador: Editora Itapuã, 1968)

Zuma (Anibal Burlamaqui). Ginastica Nacional e Capoeiragem Metodizada e Regrada (Rio de Janeiro: Self-published, 1928)
Pamphlets
Carneiro, Edison. "Capoeira." (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Campanha de Defesa do Folclore Brasileiro, 1971)

Ministério da Educação e Cultura. "Revista Brasileira de Folclore" (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura, 3:5, 1963)
Articles

Capoeira, numbers 3, 5, 6, 7 and 11 (1998-1999)

Kiai, number 22 (1994)

Do, numbers 1, 3, 4 and 5 (1978)

English

Books
Almeida, Ubirajara G. Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form (Palo Alto, CA: Sun Wave, 1981)

-----. Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2nd edition, 1986)

DeMarinis, Valerie. "Movement as Mediator of Meaning: An Investigation of the Psychosocial and Spiritual Function of Dance in Religious Ritual," in Dance as Religious Studies, ed. by Doug Adams and Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (New York: Crossroad, 1993)

Gilbey, John F. Secret Fighting Arts of the World (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1963)

-----. The Way of a Warrior (Richmond, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1992)

Holloway, Thomas H. Policing Rio de Janeiro: Repression and Resistance in a 19th-Century City (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993)

Lewis, J. Lowell. Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992)

Marre, Jeremy and Hannah Charlton. Beats of the Heart: Popular Music of the World (London: Pluto Press, 1985)

Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992)

-----. The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition 1641-1718 (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983)
Articles

"Capoeira," New Yorker, May 15, 1989

Internet

Although most English-language Internet sites dedicated to capoeira are nothing but commercials, there are several useful Portuguese-language sites. If you don't read Portuguese, visit http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn for translation assistance. Recommended sites include:
http://www.bibvirt.futuro.usp.br/acervo/paradidat/capoeira/capoeira.htm
http://www.capoeira.com
www.capoeiranyc.com/usa/raizesdobrail.html
http://www.cds.ufsc.br/~falcao/beribazu/LIVROS.HTML
www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/cavern/5961
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/capoeuropa/literat.htm

Endnotes

EN1. An example, from the Seattle, Washington Japanese-American Courier, October 4, 1928: "One report from Sao Paulo declares that Jiu Jitsu is truly an art and that in an interesting exhibition in the side tent to the big circus a Bahian negro of monstrous dimensions met his waterloo at the hands of a diminutive Japanese wrestler. The negro was an expert at Capoeira, an old South American style of fighting, but after putting the Japanese on his back and trying to kick his head… the little oriental by the use of a Jiu Jitsu hold threw the Bahian and after a short struggle he was found sitting on the silent frame of the massive opponent."

About the Authors
Brazilian Antonio Rodrigues is a former capoeira player, judoka, and karateka who is now an aikido instructor. He has lots of friends, and he likes reading and writing about the martial arts as much as he enjoys training in them.

Joseph R. Svinth is editor of Journal of Combative Sports.
JCS Aug 2000

A Malandragem

2007-01-10T12:34:00.000+07:00

By Justin Miller

“Menino quem te fez?
Quem te deu tanta guarida,
Quem te mostrou a beleza
De dançar dentro da briga?
Boy, who made you?
Who gave you such support,
Who revealed to you the beauty
Of dancing within the fight?”
Ronaldo Santos

A LUTA LINDA - Capoeira can be very effective as a martial art. Mestres Bimba and Pastinha were well known for their fighting capabilities. Almost 70 years ago Bimba fought "Luta Livre" matches (free fighting) against fighters from other styles, and Pastinha was such a good fighter by the age of 12 that he was employed as a bouncer in a brothel! The now-extinct Capoeira Carioca style was also famous for its deadly effectiveness when used for street-fighting by Rio gangsters, analogous to Kung-fu in Hong Kong.

Capoeira can be very effective as a martial art. Mestres Bimba and Pastinha were well known for their fighting capabilities. Almost 70 years ago Bimba fought "Luta Livre" matches (free fighting) against fighters from other styles, and Pastinha was such a good fighter by the age of 12 that he was employed as a bouncer in a brothel! The now-extinct Capoeira Carioca style was also famous for its deadly effectiveness when used for street-fighting by Rio gangsters, analogous to Kung-fu in Hong Kong.

CARIOCA
Capoeira Carioca (an extinct style of Capoeira from Rio De Janeiro) was reknown for its lethal techniques. With many gangsters involved in its practice and training, Rio Capoeira was the real deal for real street-fights, with none of the elegant movements seen in Angola or Regional. There was no singing or instruments, no acrobatics, nothing that wasn´t considered combat-effective. The masters invented various techniques and applications that resembled traditional Asian martial arts. Kicks were aimed at the body and legs of the opponent rather than the head. The hands were used in various ways to trap/feint, allowing the attacker to strike the sensitive areas like the eyes, throat or joints.

Carioca (slang for "native of Rio de Janeiro") also included weapons training. Usually straight razors known as "Santo Christo" (Holy Christ) and wooden sticks that were called "Petropolis"(Greek for "City of Peter" which is a neighbourhood in Rio, perhaps where the technique originated). Rio gangsters wore red silk scarves around their necks to advertise their underground connections. This also served the more functional purpose of protecting their necks against razors blades, which have difficulty penetrating silk.

Capoeira Carioca was also the first style of Capoeira recorded in a military training handbook. Written in 1907 by a naval officer, entitled "The Guide to Capoeira - Brazilian Gymnastics" perhaps to popularise the national martial art, such as the Koreans did with Tae Kwon Do, Thailand with Muay Thai, France with Savate, the Japanese with Karate/Judo/Jiu-Jitsu and the English with Boxing.

During the 1950s, Regional and Angola expanded as Carioca slowly died out. As Bimba's students moved south from Bahia, they brought the newer form of Capoeira to Rio where it came to be established and popular amongst the wider community. Carioca kept its underground crime affiliations and slowly dwindled away. By the 1950s there was only one public Carioca school in Brazil. It was headed by Mestre Sinhozinho (Agenor Moreira Ferreira) at Ipanema Beach in Rio. Sinhozinho, born in Santos in 1891 and the son of an army officer, learned Capoeira on the docks of Santos and Rio. He also learned Greco-Roman wrestling.

The Capoeira he taught had no music and emphasized combat-effectiveness rather than folkloric traditions. He taught mostly middle-class students (as Bimba did), some of whom were quite famous, including Pan-American judo champion Rudolf Hermany and Bossa Nova song-writer and musician Tom Jobim.

Unfortunately Sinhozinho´s Carioca was never systematized like Bimba´s Regional and this made it hard for his students to pass it on. Sinhozinho never employed a standardized methodolgy, instead teaching his students individually. Thus in the 1960s when Sinhozinho passed away, the style died too. But by all accounts, it was the most effective Capoeira style in terms of fighting. Bimba once took his two best fighters to challege Sinhozinho’s school. Very quickly after the bout started both of them required hospitalization, defeated easily by Sinhozinho´s Carioca style. Bimba himself didn´t compete, but he incorporated what he observed into Regional.

REGIONAL
Bimba liked to emphasis the combat movements to his students but maintained many cultural elements of Capoeira Angola. Regional is therefore a mixture of fighting and folklore. He himself was a talented player of the traditional instruments like the berimbau and kept the prayers and rituals from the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé present in Capoeira Angola, stressing Capoeira's Brazilian rather than African origins. Bimba also incorporated techniques from boxing and karate into Regional as well as hip throws and arm locks from judo. These are techniques not seen in Angola. When he opened his first school Bimba couldn't say he was teaching Capoeira as it was still illegal. One of Bimba's students, who was a lawyer, suggested that Bimba call it something else. So Bimba came up with the name "Luta Regional Bahiana" (Bahian Regional Fighting). The systemization of Capoeira was Bimba's greatest modification. This is what transformed Capoeira from an outlawed folk tradition into a nationally accepted artform and sport.

INTER-STYLE FIGHTING
During the 20th century there have been many fights between Capoeira players and martial artists from other styles. There is the legendary fight that occured between a Capoeirista named Ciriaco and a Japanese jiu-jitsu champion named Sada Myako. According to the song, the Japanese was knocked unconcious by a "meia-lua de compasso" (a powerful spinning kick). In Bahia, even before Bimba´s time, fights between different styles would definately have taken place. The visiting merchant ships would have had boxers and wrestlers on board and many Brazilian dock workers and longshoremen were skilled Capoeiristas. Bimba is reputed to have fought many times and never lost a fight. The only Brazilian to ever beat the famous Jiu-Jitsu master Helio Gracie was Waldemar Santana. He studied Jiu-Jitsu with Gracie himself and Capoeira in Rio de Janeiro with Mestre Bimba’s student Arthur Emidio.

Capoeirstas still fight in the many worldwide fighting tournaments with some success. In 1995, during an "Ultimate Fighting" event, a Capoeirista called Mestre Hulk vanquished Amauri Biteti, a Gracie Jiu Jitsu champion. Biteti had defeated all his other opponents that evening but during the final he decided to fight in an upright boxing stance (instead of wrestling on the ground where he had a huge advantage). He was finally knocked out by a punch, after Mestre Hulk first employed a series of capoeira techniques (a martelo cruzado, followed by a chapa and then a meia-lua) to disorientate his opponent. When the fight ended, Meste Hulk felt that he had achieved a significant victory for Capoeira. He was later quoted as saying:

"Eu atribuo a minha vitória à capoeira. Foi ela que me deu disposição de entrar lá, porque eu não fui para o ringue contando com um pouquinho do boxe, do karatê e da luta livre que eu domino. Entrei contando com a capoeira, ela que me deu confiança". - "I attribute my victory to Capoeira. It was Capoeira that gave me the courage to enter the ring. Because I didn´t go into the fight just trusting the bit of Boxing or Karate or Mixed Martial Art that I know. I entered the ring trusting in Capoeira and it was this that gave me confidence!"

Many of the most successful fighters in these ultimate fighting matches have more than a passing contact with Capoeira. These include famous Brazilian Mixed Martial artists Marcos Ruas and Pedro Rizzo, who use Capoeira in their training approach as well as Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing and other styles to fight in tournaments around the world.

Source: www.carfweb.net

MESTRE SUASSUNA

2007-01-10T03:16:00.000+07:00

Mestre Suassuna

Mestre Suassuna, as he is known, was born in Bahia in 1938. Reinaldo Ramos Suassuna, born in Ilheus and raised in Itabuna, started to practice Capoeira in the beginning of the 50’s, against his will. Due to a physical handicap in his legs, the doctor recommended that he involve himself in a sport that was not soccer. Under the influence of two friends that had begun Capoeira and his medications, Suassuna started to practice this Brazilian art.

Suassuna states that in the beginning he had not liked Capoeira at all because he had difficulty learning the ginga and its unique sway and he lacked rhythm to sing, but with time he started to enjoy the taste of capoeira so much that he began to take his training seriously and at this point his mother thought he was sick or ill.

When Suassuna started Capoeira he did not fixate himself to a group, but rather, he learned to love capoeira as a whole, independent of whether it was Angola or Regional. He met people from the Academies of Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha. He participated in presentations in Salvador with Mestre Canjiquinha, Gato, Caicara … and all of this has served as an excellent base for developing his work and arriving to where he is today: international recognition.

At the beginning of the 60’s, Suassuna shone in Bahia with his Capoeira presentations and consequently many invitations from other states and from abroad were offered. In 1965, after two of his friends kept on insisting for him to come to Sao Paulo, he left Bahia and went to the land of the rain with the intention of opening an Academy and succeeding in life with Capoeira. His mission was to develop Capoeira as folklore and as a sport.

At the beginning it was very hard; he was far from his friends, he worked at various jobs, went through financial difficulties, needless to mention how much he missed the old Bahia.

After a lot of struggle, he met some people from Itabuna that took him to Ze Freita’s Academy, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That is where he met Mestre Brasilia. In 1967, together with Mestre Brasilia, he founded the “Associacao de Capoeira Cordão de Ouro”.

Today, Mestre Suassuna is dearly liked and respected. He is proud to see that his group’s work is well structured and full of creativity, with members found all over the world.

His many doings include various presentations, the recording of 5 cds, the directing of the Show Group of Cordao de Ouro, the creation and development of the “Miudinho Game” and the conducting of workshops and seminars in several states in Brazil and around the world.

Reference:

* http://www.epitaciocdo.cjb.net/ (retrieved in March, 2003).
* www.capoeiradobrasil.com.br (retrieved in March, 2003).

HISTÓRIA DO GRUPO DE CAPOEIRA CORDÃO DE OURO

2007-01-10T03:12:00.000+07:00

History of the Group of Capoeira CORDÃO de Ouro

O Grupo Cordão de Ouro foi fundado em 1967 por Mestre Suassuna e Mestre Brasília, numa sala de casarão que estava sendo demolido na Avenida Angélica.

Mestre Suassuna and Mestre Brasília, in a room of a mansion on Av.Angelica in Sao Paulo, which was being demolished, founded the group Cordão de Ouro in 1967.

Como Mestre Suassuna seguia uma linha mais regional e Mestre Brasília uma linha angola, decidiram dar um nome ao grupo que fosse neutro, não tendesse nem para um estilo nem, para o outro. Na época que estava discutindo os nomes, ouviram a música cantada por Elis Regina “... adeus Bahia, zum zum zum Cordão de Ouro...” então decidiram batizar a Academia de Cordão de ouro, em homenagem ao capoeirista Besouro Cordão de Ouro, que não era angoleiro nem regional era simplesmente capoeira.

As Mestre Suassuna followed more of a regional path and Mestre Brasilia followed more of an Angola path, they decided to give a name to the group that was neutral, which would not lean in either direction or style. During the time when they were discussing names for the group, they heard a song by Elis Regina “… Farewell Bahia, zum zum zum Cordao de Ouro …” so they decided to baptize the Academy of Cordao de Ouro, in honor of the Capoeirista Besouro Cordao de Ouro, who was neither angoleiro nor regional, but who was simply capoeira.

Passado algum tempo tiveram que abandonar a sala do casarão devido às obras de construção, transferindo a Academia para a Rua das palmeiras. nº104. logo após a inauguração do novo espaço começou o período da ditadura militar.

After some time, Mestre Suassuna and Mestre Brasilia had to abandon their room in the mansion on Av.Angelica, due to construction. They moved the Academy to Rua das palmeiras, n.104, still found in Sao Paulo. Right after the inauguration of this new space for their Academy the period of military dictatorship was in place in Brazil.

Foi uma fase muito difícil pra os capoeiristas, pois não era permitida a prática da capoeira nas ruas, universidades, escolas, bares... Mestre Brasília e Mestre Suassuna tiveram até que simular briga nas rua na tentativa de conseguir alunos para Cordão de Ouro. Nessa época, como havia muitos capoeiristas baianos sem pai, sem mãe, sem família em São Paulo, Mestre Suassuna decidiu reunir todos para uma roda que acontecia aos sábados na Cordão de Ouro, de forma que a Academia tornou-se uma espécie de consulado Baiano.

This was a very difficult phase for the capoeiristas. They were not allowed to practice capoeira in the streets, at the universities, in schools, or in bars … Mestre Brasilia and Mestre Suassuna had to simulate fights in the streets as a way to get students to come to Cordao de Ouro. During this time, as there were many capoeiristas from Bahia without a father, a mother, or family in Sao Paulo, Mestre Suassuna decided to unite these capoeiristas at a roda that happened on Saturdays at Cordao de Ouro, and this way the Academy became a sort of Bahian Consulate.

Cada vez mais apareciam baianos capoeirista na Cordão de Ouro, até que um dia Mestre Suassuna, preocupado com o crescimento da capoeira em São Paulo, reuniu todo mundo e disse: “a partir do mês que vem cada um vai ter que procurar um lugar para dar aula, a capoeira tem que crescer em São Paulo”.

There were more and more Bahian capoeiristas showing up at Cordao de Ouro, until one day, Mestre Suassuna, worried about the growth of capoeira in Sao Paulo, united everyone and said: “from next month on, each one of you will have to look for a place to give your own classes, Capoeira needs to grow in Sao Paulo”.

Então, Mestre Limão tomou coragem e abriu uma Academia em Santo Amaro; Silvestre abriu outra no Brooklin, e assim por diante. O grupo Cordão de Ouro realizou seu 1º batizado, com doze alunos, organizou o 1º campeonato de Capoeira: “O chão é o limite”e os três primeiros festivais de Capoeira. Mas apesar do progresso que os capoeiristas estavam fazendo a ditadura continuava em cima, sendo que Mestre Suassuna chegou a ser preso pela Polícia Federal, acusado de líder de uma comunidade subversiva, apanhou e tomou choque injustamente pois na verdade não tinha envolvimento algum com subversão,alguns de seus alunos realmente estavam envolvidos com subversão mas ele não tinha nada a ver com a história.

So then, Mestre Limão took up courage and opened an Academy in Santo Amaro ; Silvestre opened another one in Brooklin, and so forth. The group Cordao de Ouro had their first batizado with twelve students, and they then organized their 1st tournament of Capoeira: “The floor is the limit”, and they also organized the first three Capoeira festivals. Despite the progress being made by these capoeiristas, the dictatorship did not let up, and Mestre Suassuna was even put in jail by the Federal Police, being accused of being a leader of a subversive community. Mestre Suassuna was beaten and given shocks. This was very unjust because the truth was that he had absolutely no involvement with subversion. Some of his students had been involved in subversive acts, but he had nothing to do with their actions.

Com a fundação da Federação Paulista de Capoeira, em 1974, nossa arte brasileira foi conquistando cada vez mais espaço na sociedade de forma que hoje o Grupo Cordão de Ouro tem milhares de integrantes espalhados pelos Estados Unidos, França, Israel, Japão, Portugal, México, Inglaterra, Itália...

With the foundation of the Paulista Federation of Capoeira, in 1974, our Brazilian art went on acquiring more and more space in society in such a way that today the group Cordao de Ouro has thousands of members spread around the United States, France, Israel, Japan, Portugal, Mexico, England, Italy ...

References:

* http://www.grupocordaodeouro.hpg.ig.com.br/

Articles

2007-01-01T12:23:00.000+07:00

Interview: Mestre Paulinho

Capoeira Roda & Philosophy

A Malandragem

Journal of Combative Sport, Aug 2000

...