Jogo do Capoeira (the other best game in the world)

If your predictive searching turns up the same phrases mine does, when you enter the words “capoeira is” into Google three out of the four phrases that come up first will include “stupid”, “useless”, and “a joke”.  Of course this ticks me off more than a little, but I realize that a lot of these opinions come from a place of ignorance and misunderstanding.  In fact, the majority of the people to whom I mention that I play capoeira either react with “What’s that?” or “Oh, you mean like Only the Strong?”  Oh my god, that movie.  I wonder if people who practice karate get as enraged about The Karate Kid as I do about that movie.  The movie itself is pretty cheesy but more or less inoffensive - its your average 90’s flick about the upstanding teacher trying to reform a group of renegade students with the power of togetherness and self-confidence.  But I’m pretty sure all their research on capoeira was done by playing Tekken, and honestly it is painful for me to watch.  The first “real” fight scene is so far removed from any capoeira that has ever existed ever in the universe it might as well be a spotted pink ferret.  Its just two guys stepping jerkily in a triangle pattern and flailing at each other.  Don’t think because you included a real corrido in your movie I will forgive you, Only the Strong, its one of the most basic and popular ones out there.  I will not be fooled.  Also, I’ve known a couple people who formed their opinion on the game based solely on that movie and refused to revisit their ideas no matter what I told them.  I knew this one dude when I was bartending in Seattle that would WITHOUT FAIL bring up that movie whenever the subject came up and just would not process anything else.  Probably didn’t help that I was sober and he’d usually had at least 3 PBRs and two giant tumblers of Jim Beam by the time he brought it up.  Seriously, f@#$%! that movie.

Ok, the Rage has subsided.  I can be rational about this, I swear.  The first thing I like to tell people when they’re interesting in really learning about capoeira is that it is not just a martial art.  It it is a fight, a dance, a culture, a song, a game, and a way of life.  Here’s an excellent quote from Mestre Accordeon, my teacher’s teacher, that sums it up really well:

A venerable capoeirista once said to me: "I wished to be a dancer and I
could not be. Today I dance in capoeira. I wanted to be a fighter, so
I fight in capoeira. Because I want to be an artist and express
myself, have self-esteem, and be a real human being, I am a
capoeirista."
For us capoeiristas, the jogo do capoeira transcends each occasion of
its actual performance and translates to every moment in the life.
Capoeira is not a costume to be worn and taken off according to the
situation or tournament. It is our own skin. We carry it all the
time. We are cats, rats and monkeys, ferocious and gentle beasts in
cavalcade through the many rodas of life. We are clowns, masters and
slaves of the art who regain the freedom of ourselves only when
cooked in the cauldron of Medea which is the jogo in the roda.

(Jogo means ‘game’.)

There is an ongoing argument in the community about whether capoeira is a dance that became a fighting style, or the other way around.  What is commonly accepted is that it has roots in Africa and was practiced by Brazilian slaves.  The dance-like aspect of the movements were exaggerated to keep the plantation owners from knowing they were training.  Capoeira was practiced in a circle (roda in Portuguese) with an orchestra of instruments including the berimbau, pandeiro, and atabaque.  This reinforced the notion that it was only a dance.  When slaves escaped they continued to practice, gathering in remote settlements called quilombos, where they didn’t have to disguise their art but the dance-like movements and musical tradition remained.

So one thing that really distinguishes capoeira from other martial arts is that it was born and grew to adulthood in secret.  Jujutsu was developed by the Japanese samurai, who were at the time honored members of society.  Muay Thai was supported in the 1800s by the ruler of the country.  The point is that practitioners of many martial arts are respected and honored for their discipline.  That wasn't true of capoeira for a long time.  In fact, the practice of capoeira was illegal in Brazil until the early 1900s.  Because of this we have the tradition of nicknames, or appellidos.  Today, gaining your nickname is a sign of acceptance into the community but back then it was a way of protecting the capoeirista’s identity from the police.  Even after the prohibition against capoeira ended, it was still viewed as something practiced only by gang members and lazy people, and only relatively recently has gained legitimate recognition.

These are all things I try to mention to people when they argue that its a useless fighting style, along with reinforcing that it is not simply a fighting style.  The very first teacher I ever met told me something that really stuck with me.  He said that when a capoeirista gets into a fight he doesn’t do a bunch of flashy movements and dance steps like a moron.  He fakes a back injury until his opponent comes in for the kill and then lightning-kicks him in the kneecaps and runs with a grin on his face.  Its not about showcasing your awesome physical prowess, although that’s part of it.  Capoeira has a soul made of secrets and trickery, but also playfulness and exuberance.  When we play the game we make it beautiful, but people shouldn’t think that means it is useless.  If a real fight comes along, we may be laughing but we’re also ready.  And there may be razorblades in between our toes.