Capoeira Ceara

 

Capoeira Ceara

VO
Londoners in the know have found an exciting new way of trimming their waist lines and broadening their horizons.

IV SHY
Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art which was created in Brazil during the slave trade. It's about four hundred to five hundred years old. It was outlawed for a long time, and then during the 1930s a master called Mestray Bimba decided to open up the first Capoeira academy. It slowly but surely came out of obscurity and into the public eye and slowly became one of Brazil's national sports.

VO
But these humble slave origins disguise Capoeira's complexity.

SHY
It's a martial art which incorporates acrobatics, dance, fighting, music. You can not have Capoeira without music. That's one of the reasons that its so set apart from other martial arts, is that if you take the music away you're not really doing Capoeira. You might be performing the movements but Capoeira is the song, its the music, the movement, all together.

VO
And the good news is, you don't need a high level of skill or fitness to go along to one of the Capoeira Ceara classes around the city.

VOX
You've got people from all ages, all backgrounds, you know, whether you're fit or flexible or nevermind, you know, you have to start somewhere and improve.

SHY
Your level of fitness will grow as you train. Come in with no level of fitness at all, and if you enjoy Capoeira after a few months the fitness will grow on you. You're just learning to do the movements in the class. The Harda is where you play Capoeira, is where you use what you've learnt in the class.

VO
The Harda is a fighting rink created very simply by a circle of other players.

SHY
The audience clap, to help with the rhythm, and then there's two people playing Capoeira together in the circle.

VOX
As a child, I lived in Brazil, so I always had a kind of cultural connection with it, and then I never quite got round to doing Capoeira, and then I decided that it was time I got fit so Capoeira seemed like a logical choice and from then I never looked back.

SHY
I think the most important thing to bring to Capoeira Ceara if you want to come and learn Capoeira is an open mind.