My Capoeira Philosophy

First of all, let me tell you that I'm not  a Capoeira Mestre  , I am, like many of you out there in the path, a committed student.

My Major frustration, in relation to Capoeira is the way some people view the art. There are those people who, on account of ignorance and their own personal bias cannot or will not see the Truth of Capoeira, instead they choose to relegate Capoeira to some lesser class, rather than elevating it to its proper position in our/their lives.

It may appear to you, the individual reading all this, that I too, am somewhat biased in my love for Capoeira, and this may indeed be true, for I have found in the Art a means of personal self-expression, creativity and "meaning".

To me, Capoeira is everything, not just dance or acrobatics or fighting or playing or singing, but all of these things and yet not any of them individually.
Capoeira is not "about" anything, it IS everything, it IS dance, it IS song, it IS the fight.


Capoeira is to me, a perfect representation of this adventure we call LIFE....,only on a smaller scale. Puzzled? Let me explain.
In our lives we can experience many things, just as in the Roda, in Life we can experience Joy, Fear, Anger,  Pain,  Victory, Happiness, Frustration .We exhibit our Creativity, Strengths and Weaknesses and at the end of our personal lives each man transcends this existence, perhaps to be born again or to live in another place (I'm not sure what the Truth of this matter is) and we call this Death.

Now, in the Roda we have the same thing, we have our Joys when we play well or better than we expected to, we have our Fear when we come up against another player whom we think is superior to us, our Anger comes through our Frustration at times with ourselves and our seeming lack of progress, we all know Pain, sometimes too familiar Pain is, Victory is another friend we know,..sometimes he accompanies us well, other times,... not.

Our Creativity is shown in how we play, Strengths and Weaknesses are sometimes apparent, at other times we must seek them actively in order to find them and either use them or transcend them.

Death comes in various forms in the Roda, just as in our lives, it may be the Death of false pride or an obnoxious ego or even the Death of fear or frustration, and there is the physical Death, when a Capoeirista dies in the Roda.

Through the play, Capoeira brings about a kind of psychological integration (at least it has in my case and in the cases of several others I've known), the play allows you the individual to develop on many levels simultaneously and allows us to free our "selves" from ourselves, I've seen shy and introverted persons become confident and assured in so short a space of time and the reverse truth for those people who are externally aggressive and easily agitated.
In some secret way Capoeira makes us whole and true as human beings and I believe that all people owe it to themselves to embrace the Art as part of their lives

WHAT IS CAPOEIRA???

When asked that same question, Mestre Pastinha replied," It is everything that the mouth eats."
This means everything in life, in our lives we accept three dimensions, the Physical, Mental & Spiritual dimensions, Capoeira nurtures these three simultaneously.
In the play we see the physical aspects easily, but do we stop long enough to see the Mental & Spiritual aspects? do we observe the strategy of the players? Do they themselves strategize? or are we too caught up in the "game" and "fun" aspects of the Art to see its deadly serious implications?

I could say:

Capoeira is a Spiritual dialogue expressed by Physical bodies!
Capoeira is a way of living & being!
Capoeira is a martial art!
Capoeira is......???
Yeah... all of these but none of these and some people just dont get that, they want Capoeira to be only a game or only a sport or they want to use it only for fitness.. but.. tell me this can you really appreciate a country if you don't know its' history? Can you truly admire another if you know nothing of their past? Can you know where you are going if you don't know where you have been?

CAPOEIRA SIMPLY..IS!!!

To give it the most beautiful or even the most profound definition is to limit it......She (Capoeira) is a Gift to this World, love her, embrace her, but not so tightly that you strangle her. Allow her to be all that she is...then the day will come when you will see that all the words in all the worlds would not be enough to describe her!!
Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about,... I certainly won't expect everyone to practice Capoeira, (although that would be really great) but at the same time an open mind must be kept by all approaching this Art Form!