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MARTIAL ARTS…for the uninitiated

Last update - Thursday, June 28, 2007, 00:00 By Metro Éireann

 Each week sports reporter ROBERT CARRY tries out martial arts from around the world. This week it’s Brazil’s art of Capoeira 

Capoeira is a difficult art to define. Although I researched it before I went along to the Friday night class at the Carmelite Community Centre in Dublin – run by international capoeira organisation Grupo Candeias – I wasn’t totally clear on what exactly it was. My best shot at describing it now, having attended the class, is that it’s a cross between a martial art without violence and a music-assisted performance art, with a competitive twist.

The best way to get your head around capoeira is to look at its history, which began around 400 years ago when the first West African slaves were landed in Brazil. Many sought to develop their fighting skills – but were unable to do so through any sort of conventional means under the noses of their captors – so they masked the combat style they developed under the various other forms of cultural expression they carried with them from home. Music, dance and acrobatics acted as cover, and eventually formed part of the fight style that developed.

The rituals that sprang up around the practice of capoeira in turn served to reinforce and keep alive the forms of cultural expression that defended it. After Brazil’s slaves were emancipated in 1888, the violent aspect of capoeira raised its head among the criminal gangs of former slaves that the country’s racist and unequal system threw up in and around its bigger cities. Vicious street battles between mobs of capoeira practitioners – or capoeirista – became commonplace. Some capoeirista went as far as fighting with cutthroat razors in each hand and/or attached to each foot.

The style’s illegal status continued, and led to capoeiristas adopting false names once they reached a certain level of proficiency in order to protect their real identities and interestingly, this practice remained in place beyond capoeira’s unbanning in the 1930s. In fact, false names given on the basis of the way capoeiristas perform capoeira are still awarded today. The practice was only fully liberated throughout Brazil in the 1930s, but by that stage it had began to spread around the world.

The blend of music, dance and fighting makes capoeira quite a spectacle. Practitioners stay in constant motion, moving rhythmically between two stances and throwing fantastically acrobatic kicks in the direction of their opponent. Yet the idea isn’t to hit the opponent, and bouts are generally non-contact. Instead, you’re supposed to prompt your opposite number into the suitable defence for the move you throw, so the end result looks more like a dance-off than a fight. The ‘winner’ is the capoeirista who performs best.

So into the class I wandered. I was met by the Grupo Candeias instructor, Professor Pele – a Brazilian who has been teaching capoeira with the organisation he established here since he arrived in Ireland four years ago. It was chucking down rain outside, and the professor reckoned it would be a sparse class, but capoeira’s practitioners proved a hardy bunch, and a good 15-20 people braved the elements. The majority of people there were from outside Ireland, but only around half of the non-Irish were from Brazil.

“We get a lot of different nationalities,” explained Prof Pele. “As well as Brazilian and Irish we’ve got Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian. They’re from all over the place,” he added, gesturing towards the damp-yet-cheerful individuals shuffling through the hall doors.

With the introductions over, it was time to get stuck in. Being somewhat of an old-fashioned chap, I’m renowned for my proficiency with a dance floor – and the CD player, assembled tribal drums and other instruments set the alarm bells ringing. Nonetheless, I took up my position at the back of the class, who were now lined up facing an instructor at the top of the room.

One of the first things you’ll notice about a capoeira class, especially when you stand at the back of it, is that everyone wears extremely tight, white trousers with a coloured rope around the waist. Prof Pele later told me that, rather like in the Asian martial arts, the belts symbolise the level the wearer is at.

After a brief aerobic warm-up, a second instructor began putting the durability of his students’ trousers to the test, by rhythmically bouncing between the two stances and inviting the group to follow. I hadn’t a bog what to do, but luckily Prof Pele came to my aid. He trotted down to the back of the class and began giving me pointers on how to properly move from one stance to the other, before throwing in a third stance you’re supposed to adopt when someone throws a high kick in your general direction. By the time he started throwing a few kicks into the mix for me to learn, I was really starting to struggle. With the Afro-Brazilian sounds blaring out of the radio in the corner of the room, I felt more like I was learning a dance routine than how to fight.

Eventually, something seemed to click and I started to nail a few of the moves. The ever-encouraging Prof Pele then suggested we speed up a bit by breaking out what is probably the finest quote I’ve heard in a martial arts class. He said: “Let’s move up a gear. The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.”

Suitably inspired (but not totally convinced he’d made that one up himself), I pressed on, although the only battle in which the stuff I was learning could be of use would be a Run-DMC video. Unfortunately, the rest of the class had to rush off to a demonstration, so the jogos – bouts/games of capoeira, which normally take place inside a clapping circle of people –had to be skipped. I was a bit disappointed by this because I’d watched these before, and they are impressive.

All in all, capoeira just wasn’t my cup of tea, mainly due to how far it is from anything resembling a practical fighting style. The training is light so it won’t do a huge amount for your fitness levels, and it has no self-defence application as far as I could see.

That said, a lot of people would love this class, and anyone into dancing, acrobatics or African music would lap it up. What I do really like about it is its story and how it helped keep alive the culture of African slaves that might otherwise have been obliterated – but that, unfortunately, wouldn’t be enough to make me go along a second time.

For more information on capoeira classes, which take place in a number of locations around the country, visit www.candeiasireland.com

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