IS IT A song? Is it a dance? Is it self-defence or a martial art? Is it exercise? Or just a complete waste of time?
Ask a range of people what Brazilian capoeira is and chances are, you’ll get a range of different answers, if you even get an answer.
But Brazilian-born Vladimir Enrique, one of the country’s foremost practitioners of it with 16 years’ experience under his belt in the er, pastime, does a neat job in condensing it down.
“It’s a form of Brazilian martial art that involves song, dance, acrobatics and self-defence.
“It was developed in Brazil by African slaves 500 years ago and only now is it being taken on in gyms and viewed as physical exercise. Instead of playing football to keep fit, Brazilians practice capoeira too.”
Enrique explains how it’s growing in popularity amongst all population demographics here and abroad because it has something for everyone. No one is averse to it.
“It is healthy, that’s the first thing,” he outlines. “The main thing in capoeira is you don’t need to be strong, or skinny, fat or short, old, young, black, white, whatever. Anyone can contribute to it.
He details how in capoeira, some people might not be good at jumping for whatever reason, but that doesn’t mean they can’t contribute to what is essentially, a performance.
“Someone who might be 45 years old and isn’t good at jumps but they go to capoeira and there is other things you can do like play instruments or sing or dance. And it’s all in Portuguese too so you’ll learn some words of a new language!
“A good capoeirissa sings and plays instruments and contributes how they can.”
So aside from that, what are the actual benefits?
“It all depends on how much you train. For sure you can be more flexible from it, for sure you will be stronger because you do things like handstands and also you develop your ability to do more than one thing at the time.
“Some of the movements can be quite tricky but in a good class you’ll burn up to 500 calories.
“You have to play to a song so if it’s fast you have to go faster – that means you get a great cardio workout, and if it’s slow you have to go slow. So you have to pay attention to the music.
“It develops your awareness because there is so much happening around you.”
What’s more is that kids can also take part and Enrique explains how they can benefit specifically.
“The younger people start exercising the better off for their long-term health. Children are not allowed in gyms, sometimes the roads are dangerous to cycle on and there are some barriers to other forms of physical exercise but this as much exercise as a social workout.
“Boys enjoy it, girls love it and it helps develop their social skills while improving motor co-ordination, building self-esteem and again, leaning a new language and working in a team environment.”
For more information on Brazilian capoeira classes in Ireland check out capoeira.ie.