# Capoeira/FMA



## Lobo (Jun 8, 2006)

I've heard of a hybrid MA that mixes capoeira and FMA. Its just hearsay, its what some guy told me, has anyone ever heard of this? What do you guys think about this? I mean, i like capoeira, and i like FMA, but mixing them together? to me, they're like sugar and salt, two good things that generally aren't too good when mixed together, unless done properly...


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## Flying Crane (Jun 8, 2006)

Never heard of it, if done the results would certainly no longer be capoeira.

There is a stick and machete dance called Maculele.  It is not part of capoeira, but often capoeira schools include maculele in their training.  Today, maculele is done mostly as just a dance, but I believe the art descended from original stick, machete, and sword techniques.  It is possible that someone who saw capoeira people doing maculele might have misunderstood what they were seeing, and assumed this was capoeira mixed with the Phillipine arts.


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## Seigi (Jun 9, 2006)

I attended a seminar in the Detroit area that had Capoeria & it included stick work. There is a dance similiar to the Jenga, but only done off of one side at a time, unfortunetly that was years ago & I can't remeber the name of the footwork. It flowed rather nicely & was pretty powerful.

Peace


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## Flying Crane (Jun 9, 2006)

Seigi said:
			
		

> I attended a seminar in the Detroit area that had Capoeria & it included stick work. There is a dance similiar to the Jenga, but only done off of one side at a time, unfortunetly that was years ago & I can't remeber the name of the footwork. It flowed rather nicely & was pretty powerful.
> 
> Peace


 
Yes, that would be Maculele


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## Lobo (Jun 9, 2006)

Yeah, but isn't Maculele more of a dance than a self-defence? Capoeira served as a cover in which the slave could learn/practice how to fight, yet looked like a dance. From what i've seen, Maculele is too over-simplistic.


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## Flying Crane (Jun 10, 2006)

Lobo said:
			
		

> Yeah, but isn't Maculele more of a dance than a self-defence? Capoeira served as a cover in which the slave could learn/practice how to fight, yet looked like a dance. From what i've seen, Maculele is too over-simplistic.


 
Today it is done as a dance.  It follows a basic drumming rythm and has a fairly simple pattern, but also has a lot of room for spontaneous physical creativity in the same way that capoeira has.  Some people even work in the acrobatic techniques from capoeira, to spice up maculele.

It is my belief that Maculele came from the stick, machete, and sword arts that the Africans knew during the colonial era in Brazil.  While I cannot prove that, that is what I believe.  It is not done as an overtly viable stick fighting technique anymore, but I still believe it's origins were within the fighting arts.  This is what happens when social circumstances change and the need that an art once filled changes along with it.  This causes the art to change, sometimes to a point where it no longer looks much like what it once was.

The conception that Capoeira was actually disguised as a dance to hide the combat nature is, I think, an oversimplification of the complex circumstances under which the art developed.  It is too complex for me to try to explain here on the forum.  Instead, I suggest you read _Capoeira, the Jogo de Angola from Luanda to Cyberspace_,_ Volume one_, by Gerard Taylor, published by North Atlantic Books.  This book is the best that I have seen, at least in English, in attempting to research and document the vastly complex situation that lead to the development of what we now know as Capoeira.  It is not a clean story, and much historical information has been lost so many things may never truly be known, but this book does a good job of attempting to uncover the story as best as possible.


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