Shaping up with the boys from Brazil (From This Is Lancashire)

Shaping up with the boys from Brazil

12:00pm Saturday 7th March 2009

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YOU might recognise its style from the Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire film. Originating from Brazil, capoeira is the UK’s newest and most spectacular martial arts movement. Amy Dennis reports

WHEN I walked into the Cordao de Ouro Capoeira training hall I was entranced.

With heavy Brazilian music and people in white uniforms dancing and almost kicking each other, it all seemed bizarre, but now I have been training hard and find it the perfect keep fit exercise.

The capoeiristas dance around each other doing handstands and cartwheels, sharply kicking at their opponents, and diving to the floor to escape when they are kicked at.

With each class lasting two to two and a half hours, it is an intense all-body workout with elements of dance, combat and acrobatics.

Based in Manchester, the classes are for all levels from beginners to experienced martial-artists. It is a non-contact sport, and with the mixture of rhythm, dancing and martial skills it attracts as many men as women.

The man leading the class is a friendly Brazilian, whose nickname Parente, means “friend to all” in Portuguese.

Parente is a contra-mestre, the second highest ranking of capoeirista. He has been based in the UK for six years, and gives classes around Europe.

He said: “After football, capoeira is the biggest sport in Brazil. In my home town Minas Gerais there would be people on the streets fighting and a huge roda every weekend. I got my first belt and started playing because it looked cool, I was only 13,”

According to the Brazilian masters, capoeira originated among the slaves taken from Africa to Brazil by the Portuguese colonists in the 1500s.

A typical class has a warm-up session easing the group of around 20 people into kicks, escapes and acrobatics, with routines getting more technical for the more advanced. After working the group for almost two hours Parente brings everyone together to do a roda — where the group joins in a circle to sing and clap while two people at a time “fight” each other. It is at this moment where the real buzz of the sport comes out.

Five people play instruments — a drum, some tambourines, a cow bell and a berimbau — and as the roda comes to a climax the kicks get faster and only the brave dare enter the ring.

Then, once the capoeira is over there are 10 minutes of samba dancing before the session finishes.

The craze reached a wider audience in 2005 when expert Ponciano Almeida appeared in a scene in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

On April 4-5 there is a Cordao de Ouro event where teachers from all over the world will come to Manchester to train for three days, culminating in a huge roda and party.

l For more information visit manchesterliverpoolcapoeira.co.uk or for photographs and videos cdonw.co.uk

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