By Ariel Teplitsky
It’s an acrobatic dance, a type of music, a traditional form of fighting and for some, a way of life.
It’s called capoeira and it’s making waves — actually, ripples — in Ottawa.
Capoeira (pronounced ca-PWAY-ra) is a high-velocity martial arts dance that somewhat resembles breakdancing — incorporating such moves as backflips and head spins.
It was developed more than 400 years ago by African slaves in Brazil. Still, it remains relatively unknown in Canada today, with a few groups scattered across the country and certified schools in Vancouver and Halifax.
Ottawa’s capoeira scene is so small the Brazilian Embassy didn’t even know it existed.
That could soon change.
Organizers say the local chapter is gradually growing, mostly through word-of-mouth.
For the first time, they plan to hold public performances around Ottawa this summer to increase awareness of the art.
Maxwell Brennan, a local capoeira tutor, says he was “won over” after becoming skilled at tae kwon do and jiu jitsu in his hometown of Halifax.
“Capoeira requires so much control of your body, so much flexibility, agility, balance,” Brennan says.
“Doing flips and stuff as an attack or as defence — a lot of martial arts don’t have that. To do handstands in an attacking movement, you have to have absolute control.”
“I’m just scratching the surface, and I’ve been doing it for four years.”
Since the summer, he and a group of local capoeiristas — there are about 20 regulars now — head to the Dance Network Studio on Rideau Street every Monday night to “play capoeira.” There, they practice their manoeuvres with one another before the roda begins.
The roda (HAW-da) is the essence of the capoeira game, where people form a circle around two opponents who compete in an intense dance of spinning limbs and torsos, aimed at but not hitting the opponent.
The onlookers clap their hands and chant, while others outside the circle perform the ambient capoeira music, led by a person playing the berimbau — a bow-shaped instrument whose strummed notes resonate through a hollowed gourd.
Fabio Eduardo Nacimento, 26, came to Canada from Recife, Brazil only one month ago. Performing in the studio, his skill noticeably exceeds the other capoeiristas. After all, he has been playing capoeira since he was 12 and practices daily.
“Capoeira is a part of me,” he says. “I can’t see myself ever leaving it.”
But not everyone who comes out is a pro.
While some may be intimidated by the Monday gathering, for beginners there is also a class Wednesday nights at Routhier Community Centre.
“You learn pretty quickly,” says Maryeve Vermette, 18, a newcomer to the scene.
“Usually you feel really awkward at first, especially in the roda. . . . But you get used to it. People are not there to judge you.”
Capoeira leads many to wonder whether it is primarily a dance or a martial art.
The answer is, well, both.
Historians state that some slaves in Brazil created the martial art as a means of escape, disguising it as a ritualized dance to fool their masters.
It was later outlawed in the country until the first school was formed in the 1930s.
Today, the two facets of capoeira, along with its music and varied ritual, remain equally important and inseparable.
“Capoeira always dances on the razor’s edge,” says Brennan.
“Is it a fight or is it a game? Am I going to kick you for real or am I just going to trip you? There’s always that sort of tension.”