♪ Capoiera is... cultural, movement, acrobatics, a fight and a very ancient game.

♪ My name is Brandon Glenn, originally from South Carolina, born and raised.

I'm an instructor of Capoiera.

♪ The art was created by African diaspora coming from the Angola area of Africa, primarily, right, when they were brought over forcefully, the art began to take its form in Brazil.

It was used historically as a means of liberation and resistance.

And you can think resistance in the form of, you know, fighting for your freedom, when necessary, but liberation in that you are free here first.

You're free here first, and Capoiera it in its practice, when it all comes together, it frees you.

in that way.

It keeps you dynamic.

It keeps you open and keeps you from feeling restrained.

And that in and of itself became a mainstay, a vein for life to continue for these people, the diaspora, the Africans in, in Brazil.

Capoiera Angola, which is what I practice, the traditional form is just as widespread, and we hold close to those traditions, close to those roots.

♪ ♪ Capoiera isn't a Portuguese word, it's actually more of the African diaspora's word, as I've come to understand it, like roda in of itself just means circle.

Right?

But roda in and of itself has meaning to it.

So, Capoiera in and of itself, as opposed to having a meaning to the word may be something that you got to come see.

Got to come feel, you know, whether it be in the music, in that just performative aspect of it or in the movement.

Come join it.

♪ ♪ It's a kicking art, so to speak.

Right.

But we pride ourselves on control.

We don't make haphazard contact.

And wearing white is a statement to that.

If somebody lacks control and you start dirtying your partner's clothes, it says something.

It's, it's a visual thing.

Other people will say it has traditionally spiritual significance in the same way that for various spiritual traditions around the world and in Christianity and what have you, they'll wear white as a symbol of purity and just honest intention and everything like that.

♪ The music in and of itself, it throws energy into the roda that...players use, It also can narrate the game and tell people what's happening.

It can tell players what to pay attention to or what to be careful of.

There are songs that we tell people, will tell each other to slow down.

There are songs that tell you to release more and express more.

There are songs that ode to the history, There are songs that are just playful and about the melody and the harmony.

And they're more like chants, like in sports and in football, like they have a team chant that they'll do to get into the energy.

♪ It's that.

♪ The flagship instrument of Capoiera is the berimbau, which is a musical bow, and there's a gourd on the end that resonates the sound.

There are three tones that you play, but when you really get it down, you can make the berimbau sound like, you know, it sounds like a thousand different instruments, especially when they all get together, they all being three.

You have the gunga, which controls everything.

It's the largest.

You have the medio which holds the the basic drive keeps things together.

You can consider that the mother where the gunga is the father.

Then you have the viola which is the smallest one, which will be a lot more variance and just free play.

And it all comes together to create a greater sound.

You have the pandeiro with your hand drums akin to tambourine, but you're not.

(laughs) You have the atabaque, which is like the heart beat.

You have the main large drum.

You have the minor instruments, the reco-reco, which is a scraping instrument, and you have the agogo, which can be bells.

It can be coconuts, but it's a two tone like cowbell.

♪ ♪ One song that we'll sing very often is, (Capoiera song in Portuguese) Como ta como ta Camungerê O como vai voce Camungerê Como vai de saudé Camungerê O para mim em prazer Camungerê, That song Camungerê is actually, an old kind of African, more traditional word, so it doesn't translate very clearly.

But the rest of the song is, is like, how are you, how are you doing?

How is your health?

Like, it's a welcoming song.

So you might start the roda, we might start the performance with that.

Or if there are people coming from out of town that it's new for the group it's new to the interactions, We'll talk to them through the music.

There are other songs like I (Capoiera song in Portuguese) Abalou Capoeira Abalou Mas se abalou vai abalar You know that song is about when Capoiera shakes like a tree shakes, you let it, you let it.

That's the song about release.

When the when the game is getting live, when interaction is getting intense or very vibrant, let it, let it.

And then there's (Capoiera song in Portuguese) Devagar, Devagar Devagar, Devagarinho which is a slow down song like bring it in.

Maybe things are getting a little bit too wild so that, you know, is a sense of how we might talk with the music.

♪ There's a old swordsman.

It's the most famous swordsman in Japan, the Miyamoto Musashi.

And there's a quote from that book is the way you do one thing is the way that you do everything.

♪ And for me, I've taken that and I've made it my own.

I say, the way that you move is the way that you move in the world.

The way that you move your body is the way that you move in the world.

And it's, it's, there's power in that.

People don't harness their bodies enough to me, and know what is, what we're here for, what...what its, there for.

What we can do with it.

"Joga Bonito" means the beautiful game, and the beautiful game is, is a sense of creating harmony with the person that you're with.

So we're looking for in our movements, creating that harmony.

That harmony will look like choreography when you, when you catch it.

And it's really a feeling.

But that's not always there.

You know, in certain in some groups, the games are Jogo Euro like a...game.

♪ So we say, Toma Cuidado be careful.

Right.

Capoeira And it's a very wily game.

You have to be present because life is tricky, right.

But here we focus on Joga Bonito.

And when we are, Brian, me and Brian are moving, we are trying to find that harmony that read on each other, because that's really the element that you take regardless of how you move.

That's the element when you can harmonize with a person, with the moment, with the music, the life.

That's the magic.

♪