Capoeira combines music, culture, history and sport. It is a dance, a game, a martial art, an acrobatic disguise. The capoeirista can balance, sing, defend and inspire. 

In the sixteenth century, African slaves in Brazil developed capoeira as a form of self-defence against their slave-masters. It was played in groups. Some men would fight without touching, others would sing and play the berimbau.  The defensive aspect of capoeira was hidden from slave-masters by its elegance, baffling acrobatics and the engaging rhythms of its music. The dance was a tool of escape that affirmed strength, self-reliance and self-esteem. 

The Portuguese began to fortify their economy by massively increasing the trade in captive slaves from West Central Africa. In 1650, around 5,000 slaves were transported each year; a little over one hundred years later, the figure had increased to around 40,000, until eventually over 4 million African men, women and children had moved through the slave ports of Luanda and Benguela into Recife, Salvador, Rio De Janeiro and Santos.            
The survival and evolution of Capoeira is the result of the dedicated work of numerous old-time masters. One such individual is Mestre Sombra, who runs the Senzala Academy in Santos, about two hours drive from São Paulo. The Academy is in a rough end of town, near to South America’s biggest port, where Mestre Sombra used to work during the day. Senzala is overlooked by a steep hillside of lush greenery, dotted by small ramshackle houses. It’s a long, humid room, the walls are covered with texts from slavery days and a picture of a slave being whipped. Over the door is written the inscription, "At Senzala, we are all aspects of the same face ". A heavy punch bag hangs in one corner, a skipping rope coiled beneath it on the floor.

There's no glamour about this place, but there's an indefinable atmosphere there, so heavy and tangible that it almost knocks you off your feet as you walk through the door. It's here that Mestre Sombra has trained 3 generations of Brazil's very greatest champions and Capoeiristas. Outside Brazil they are unknown, yet amongst Capoeiristas they are granted the respect afforded to any of those who have perfected  their art in any sphere.

Mestre Sombra has ruled over Senzala for a quarter of a century with a calm assurance that has won him respect all over Brazil. It has long been his dream to see Capoeira spread from Brazil into America and Europe, for it to become universally recognised and established as a worldwide activity. Amazingly, in recent years this is exactly what has begun to happen. Mestre Sombra's students set up shop in Boston, Paris, Barcelona and London.

Mestre Sylvia Bazzarelli and Contra-Mestre Marcos Dos Santos, graduates of Senzala Academy of Santos, opened the London School of Capoeira in 1988 and since then it has gone from strength to strength. Many children, women and men are now studying Capoeira on a long-term serious level, or simply practising it as a good way of keeping fit and having fun.
The art continues to flourish in academies from Salvador to Rio Grande do Sul. National competitions of Capoeira are competitively fought by super-fit male and female athletes, and Capoeira is on the curricula of many Brazilian universities. The art and sport is regulated by the Confederação Brasileira de Capoeira, and there is a grading system determined by a series of belts, not dissimilar to those in Oriental martial arts. The highest "master" grades take thirty to forty years to achieve.
With its many facets: fighting style, acrobatics, dance, music and sport, it might seem difficult to define Capoeira. When Master Sombra was asked to do so at a recent seminar, he simply replied, "Capoeira is a prayer."

UK CLUBS

Capoeira crosses exercise with art.  Clubs and classes run throughout the UK. Here are contact details for some of them:

The London School of Capoeira  Units 1 and 2, Leeds Place, Tollington Park, London N4 3RQ 
Tel: 020 7281 2020
W: www.londonschoolofcapoeira.co.uk

Capoeira UK run classes at Magnet Leisure Centre, Maidenhead and Windsor Leisure Centre
Tel: 016286 72256
W: www.capoeirauk.co.uk

Capoeira Norte 
Manchester  New Capitol Theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester
Tel: 0161 273 2101
W: www.capoeira-norte.com

Birmingham  Dance Xchange, Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorp Street, Birmingham
Tel: 0121 689 3170

Bangor  The Anglican Church, Maesgeirchen, Nr Bangor, Wales
T: 01286 870263

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