Grupo Muzenza Capoeira
Brighton & Hove

Capoeira’s fighting roots trace back to the Portuguese colonisation and slave trade between Angola and modern-day Brazil. While there has been long-standing debate about whether Capoeira’s essence was created in West Africa, or whether it only became fully formed in Brazil, modern day Capoeira has gone through over a century of clear transformation and codification in many of its practices. Techniques were given names, playstyles were solified, and traditions were born and kept through generations of Capoeiristas.

Capoeira’s technique all start from it’s unique base movement – the ginga. From there the Capoeirista has an assortment of circular kicks: ‘meia lua’ (half moon), ‘armada’, ‘quixada’; straight kicks: ‘chapa de frente’ (front kick), ‘martelo’ (roundhouse kick), to name but a few. Depending on the academy’s style, you might find incorporation of further techniques such as sweeps and grappling, often evolved from martial arts such as Judo, Greco-Roman wrestling, or French savate.

Every Capoeira roda (circle) is led by a bateria (the instruments), the most key of which is the berimbau – a wooden, bowed instrument amplified by a gourd, the wire struck by a stick and pitched with a stone to create different notes. A typical Muzenza roda consists of three berimbau – gunga (bass), medio (medium) and viola (alto) – two pandeiros (a type of tamborine), an atabaque (drum), and on occasion an agogô (a type of bell) or reco-reco (a notched wooden tube similar to a guiro).

The toque (rhythm) that the berimbau play dictate the playstyle within the roda.

Furthermore, those forming the capoeira roda will sing and clap in time with the music. Capoeira songs are sung in Brazilian Portuguese, and have a wide range of styles, rhythms, and meanings – from the most famous, such as Paranaué, to much more complex, intimate songs about life and overcoming its hardships.

The story goes that part of Capoeira’s unique movement, the ginga (meaning “to sway, swing, or move with a rhythmic, fluid grace”) stems from the need of the slaves to disguise their fighting techniques and practice as a dance. That cunning, or malandragem, lives on in the modern capoerista’s movement. Each person’s ginga is unique to them, a metaphorical fingerprint inheriting aspects of their style and body language.

Beyond the ginga, you will find many traditional Afro-Brazilian dances performed across the Capoeira world, such as: samba de roda, coco de roda, maculelê, and puxada de rede.