Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

‘I'm your teacher, I'm Brazilian!’ Authenticity and authority in European capoeira

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13573320903461061

1470-1243

Claudio de Campos Rosario, Neil Stephens, Sara Delamont,

Diversity and Impact of Dance

Abstract Capoeira, the Brazilian dance and martial art is now globalised and taught widely outside Brazil. Instruction is provided by Brazilians who are living in self-imposed exile from their homeland. The authentic capoeira that such teachers provide is a major attraction for non-Brazilian students. However, there is little research available on the motivations and strategies of overseas capoeira instructors. Building on a long term ethnographic study, this paper showcases the goals and strategies of one successful Brazilian teacher, from the Beribazu Group of Capoeira, working in the UK. This teacher reflects upon his four interlocking aims for his students and the strategies for achieving them. They should develop social cohesion, appreciate Brazilian culture, play good capoeira and learn to move their bodies acrobatically, flexibly and beautifully. Two sociologists embed the teacher's perspective on his work in an analytic framework derived from Bourdieu. Keywords: CapoeiraSocial cohesionBrazilian cultureFlexibilityHabitusEmbodiment Acknowledgements We are grateful to Rodrigo Ribeiro and Clovis Zapata (Brazilian social scientists) for helpful comments. We wish to thank all the teachers and students observed in the UK, New Zealand, Vancouver and across Europe, and especially the British discipulos interviewed. Rosemary Bartle Jones word processed the paper, for which we are grateful. Notes 1. To reiterate, all the places mentioned except London, all the teachers except Achilles and his Brazilian mestres, and all the students except Trovao are carefully protected by pseudonyms: teachers with classical names like Perseus, male students with names from The Jungle Book, female students with flowers. 2. Bruxa has written about her research and enthusiasm elsewhere (Delamont, Citation2005a, Citation2005b, Citation2006), and collaborated with Trovao on papers about embodied fieldwork and the capoeira body (Stephens & Delamont, Citation2006a, Citation2006b; Delamont & Stephens, Citation2008). 3. Bumba meu boi is a Brazilian folk phenomenon (see Mukuna, Citation1999). It is a burlesque; and a miracle play: a prized ox is slain and brought back to life. Beribazu groups perform the Bumba meu boi periodically, for enjoyment, to celebrate Brazilian culture, and, in the case of the Cloisterham parade in May 2005, to publicise the club. The procession danced along a row of shops near the university, into a park, where they formed a capoeira roda and displayed their skills. 4. Axé, energy or force, is a vital component of good capoeira. In a roda the clapping and singing, focused into the ring, create the energy that fuels the play. Patrokles explained axé to a Cloisterham class as follows: 'Axé is the petrol that drives capoeira. You create the petrol'. 5. There are distinguished women teachers, but our research is on classes taught by men. 6. Senzala is named for the slave quarters on the plantations, Corda de Ouro means golden cord. 7. Achilles lives in Cloisterham, and teaches seven classes a week there. He also teaches twice a week in Tolnbridge and supervises a class in Bramborough visiting it once a month. 8. If the axé is good the capoeira is more likely to be beautiful, and vice versa: beautiful games increase the axé, clumsy, ugly or violent ones reduce it. 9. A pseudonym for a commercial venue where one Tolnbridge Batizado was held. At all master classes and festivals to which visiting teachers have been invited the host ensures that food is provided, especially fruit, and that there is plenty of water, fruit juice and coffee. 10. Tolnbridge and Cloisterham, as multi-racial cities with universities, have capoeira clubs with students of many nationalities. It is entirely normal to find a Japanese Ph.D. student training with a waiter from a Greek restaurant. 11. The malandro is, or was, an ambivalent figure in urban Brazil: well-dressed, irresistible to women, living without a job, using drugs and alcohol in a controlled way; embodying the skills of escaping everything serious and unpleasant. Pele was described (metaphorically) as a malandro on the football field (Da Matta, Citation1980).