Jon_B

They posted another video. I think it's better than the first two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvQ9wjFS2yc

If you watch the whole video, you can see that there are parts where both the Capoeirstas and Kung Fu Practitioners both struggle against each other. It's still not perfect, but I liked it .

Oraenor

All I can say is atleast the music is alright......The kung fu guy is the epitome of crap and as for the capoeira guys....you are who you face.

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polecat63

Still waiting to see the Kung Fu part...........

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7r14ngL3Ch0k3

I thought it was pathetic. Then again i stopped watching 15 seconds into the video when the guy in black couldnt finish the throw.

capoeirista

Capoeira regional isn't technically capoeira. Cap. is a like a cake. If you just use some of it's ingredients then you know longer have cake. If you take away the roda, the music, the traditions, the chamadas, the theatricality, the philosophy, etc... and just use some watered down techniques to fight somebody, you are not doing capoeira. You're just throwing eggs. Actually, egg throwing would make a better fight.

sunfist

I stopped doing Angola Capoeira about 5 years ago. I still do kung fu. Capoera is a lot of fun, and is an excellent exercise. I also feel it is too "inbred" and needs lots of work against other styles so it can adjust.
I was in a Roda (a free fight) against a regional guy who had been a capoeira mestre for 10 years. After I knocked him down several times he realized I wasn't using capoeira exclusively but if the situation called for it I used KF.
Having said that, if you get away from the glitzy public schools and go down in the bad streets you'll see real bad boys and girls doing a mean capoeira.
They carry razors and can use them. Look around Savannah, GA for some of the old folks who remember an art called "knocking and kickin'". Especially one known as "Chicago". These are the guys who do the real capoeira you may have heard of but not seen in the magazines.
Jogo Bonito Capoeira,
sunfist

capoeirista

I know about knocking and kicking, and I feel where you are coming from, and if by Chicago you mean Eric "Chicago" Murray, then, yes, I met him personally. Capoeira is just not a "fighting style" in the western use of the phrase.

If you can get your hands on it, I would highly recommend you read Dr. Thomas J. Desch-Obi's thesis on capoeira, a man who group up studying African Martial Arts, studied with the Knocking and Kicking masters that are still around (not an easy feet to even find one), and studied with the old Engolo Masters (hence Capoeira Angola) in Africa and has and incredible amount to say on these subjects. I was fortunate enough to attend his talk with Chicago earlier this year. He should be coming out with a book soon expanding and correcting his thesis. I'll keep you abreast.

Capoeira Angola is one of the few remaining vestiges of Kalunga worship and Angolan ancestral veneration in Brazil. When you get up on your hands in the roda, you "cross the Kalunga", the line that seperates the world of the living and the world of the ancestors. It was a spiritual fight, a kind of medicine, or nkisi against witchcraft - kindoki: power which when used with malintent causes harm to an individual or community, ie slavery. The movement 'negativa' is a swama (bodily protection) against witchcraft in use in Angola to this day.

The maltas that I'm sure you've heard about, used Engolo (capoeira angola) in this sense. A moleque is kid who hasn't been inducted in engolo. A caxanguele is an engolo neophyte in the malta, and the capoeira was essentially a foot soldier. The maltas kept slave owners in check, were an informal legal system for the slaves, enforcing codes of conduct (if you do not live honorably in this world, you can't attain spiritual enlightenment in the spiritual world, and you won't be reincarnated), used there influence to keep slave families together, and helped protect quilombos by conducting ambushes on soldiers, among other things. Slave fraternal organizations were very common through out South America. It is also a street performance, a game among friends, something to pass the time infront of bars to make some extra cash. This day and age the game and pass time is focused on because very few people are familiar with the cosmologies of the Bantu peoples, but can relate to the use of capoeira festivals and gatherings.

That gives you some idea of what I mean

ps, capoeira angola as it is today syncretized yoruban and portuguese culture and religion with capoeira, redefining many of the Engola symbolisms inherited from the original cosmology. But if you look hard enough, you'll see it.

Check out this paper by Maya Talmon-Chvaicer. This paper does an excellent job in disecting competing historical perspectives.

If you are interested, once Dr. Desch-Obi's book comes out, I'll post the info.

Attached Images

Capoeira Repression.pdf (181.3 KB, 4 views)

dormindo

Thanks for posting that article, Capoeirista. My wife and I were just looking for it. I was there for the lecture as well. I am from Grupo de N'Golo, are you with Free Angola?

Anyhow, thanks for posting. And if you don't already know, the young lady's book is coming out in December, and T.J.'s in January.

paz,

dormindo

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