Capoeira was developed surreptitiously, with two men pretending that they are taking part in a dance, when in fact they are practicing kicks and blows. There is also a whole style of Capoeira music which goes along with the martial arts culture. In areas of Brazil where gangs are rampant, youth learn this dance and the drumming music that goes along with it is a positive alternative to fighting each other and is a peaceful way to ward off anger and aggression in youth (MacSwan 19).
The discipline fuses flexibility, agility, strength, balance, self-confidence, self-defense, coordination and rhythm; creating a workout like no other. To hide despair and intention of rebellion from their masters, the dancers combined playful and graceful dance and acrobatic movements with moves of attacks and defense using only the legs. While training they would avoid unnecessary harm by having very little contact with each other. They added clapping hands; singing and playing instruments to make it look like a dance. For the masters it was entertainment, but for the slaves it was a fight for liberation (Lima-Moore 4).
After the abolition of slavery in 1888, the government banned Capoeira. If one were caught practicing the art, the punishment would be imprisonment or deportation. Because of this, other Afro-Brazilian dances such as samba, afoxe, candomble, etc. were banned as well. Eventually, Capoeira became more acceptable and the government allowed the art to be taught in academics. It became increasingly popular in Brazil, and Capoeira became the second most popular sport, after soccer. Capoeira is taught in thousands of academies and is part of the physical education programs in Brazilian schools and universities today. It was brought to the U.S....
Dorrance Dance's ETM: Double Down The Dorrance Dance Company is the brainchild of MacArthur Genius Grant Winner Michelle Dorrance. Although the viewer might presume that tap-dancing is a relatively traditional, even hackneyed form of American dance, Dorrance infuses it with new life and gives it a hip-hop beat. As noted in its review of the most recent Dorrance Dance production by the NY Theater Guide, ETM: Double Down at the
Music Culture: Congado The purpose of this work is to review the article written by Lucas Glaura about the music rituals of the Afro-Brazilian Group who has the "Ceremony of Congado." Each year religious musical festivals take place in Minas Gerais, Brazil in which musical worship is the focus. These festivals and ceremonies hail from a past when the whites were actively making slaves of the blacks and these ceremonies were
House music also influenced the development of b-boying, or breakdancing, which took house dance moves and made them more aggressive. Close physical posture and movement without physical contact in b-boying can be seen in capoeira. Like capoeira, house dance styles varied by region. For instance, in Chicago and Detroit, jacking was a major element of house dance. Jacking was a dance move that focused on torso movements and created
Charles Perrone, in Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Music discusses the vocal lyrics of the Brazilian music scene and describes the breadth and depth of Brazilian song writing. In this work he discusses another aspect of the music, its meaning and context, building on the idea of nationalism and universalities that are present in Samba and other forms of Brazilian popular music and culture (in this case looking at only 6
Jelon Vierira, a master of this dance martial art and founder of DanceBrazil in the U.S., says, "Capoeira is a game. it's a fight like a dance, a dance like a fight. it's not about winning or losing, but who plays smarter." The body becomes a weapon when learning capoeira. The games are played, not fought. One can use it to kill, but that is not the reason for learning
shores, coasts, and then hinterlands of Brazil were filled with African slaves, a new culture took hold, invoking memories of the past and sustaining a culture for the future. The slaves, who had been surrounded by Europeans for years of their own lives and centuries of a history, carried with them a motley version of the Western African Bantu language. One of its many soulful, multi-faceted words was semba,
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