What is Capoeira?

Capoeira is the Brazilian martial art that evolved in the colonial period. There are two common styles of Capoeira known as “Angola” and “regional.” This type of fighting has a mixed origin, believed to have been created in Africa or in Brazil. A large group of competitors form a circle and take turns playing instruments, singing and sparring one-on-one in the center of the circle. The music that is integrated into Capoeira varies from slow to fast tempo and can be historic stories, silly songs, or songs of inspiration. The fighting styles of Capoeira do not focus on hurting the opponent, but rather the skill of your own fighting style. Capoeira competitors show movement but do not complete an attack to show their advanced level of skill.

In this series of fun and instructional videos, you can learn how to fight in the Capoeira style. Get an expert’s introduction to traditional Capoeira in this series of expert interviews. Watch our expert demonstrate the different instruments and moves that are associated with this type of fighting. See the various acrobatic moves such as back flips, kicks, dodges and take downs. Learn to defend yourself against another Capoeira attacker with various attacks, defense and combination moves demonstrated in these videos.

"Hello! I am Instructor Shin and this is Instructor Maurice from Capoeira School of Bahia. On behalf of Expert Village.com, we are going to be talking about capoeira. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art born in Brazil by the African slaves which has music and history. We are going to talk a little bit about the instruments later and also Capoeira is a game. This game could be a straight fight to a nice game. You usually have fun when you play capoeira so I am going to sing a little song for you and you are going to see. I hope you enjoyed it."