I have no idea about the lyrics but I can listen again later and try to figure it out. That song was the only thing I liked about the movie "Elizabethtown."
There are two major kinds of capoeira: capoeira Angola and capoeira regionale. Angola is the older, more traditional form, that's generally played more slowly and closer to the ground, whereas Regionale is faster and more acrobatic-looking and just generally showier. As I understand it, Regionale, in its early stages in the late 19th/early 20th century, evolved out of Angola when it was made legal to play in Brazil as a performance sport (previously, it was associated with crime and, more to the point, with black slaves, so it was made illegal). The martial art/dance combination comes out of the fact that it was developed as a fighting method that could be concealed as a dance so that slaveowners wouldn't see that their slaves were training to fight.
It's not choreographed. Its dance-like qualities fall more in line with something like contact improvisation, where you're adjusting your movements in response to your partner's with the aim of keeping a flow. That said, it's entirely permissible for your partner to knock you over or sweep your feet out from under you if you give her the opportunity! As for its being a game - it just is. There's no scoring or anything. It's a game because it's play. You're constantly responding to the other person, and there's this kind of coy element to it, so it feels like play the same way that when you're a kid, you make a game out of rolling down a hill or playing hand-clapping games or turning somersaults back and forth across your backyard or even just going out in deep water and bobbing waves.
If your classmate was doing it alone, then he had probably choreographed something himself, or was imagining a partner playing against him. That said, from what little I've seen of Regionale, it seems like they often don't play quite as close together, which would make it easier to play without a partner. Angola, like you see in that video, is played really close. Here's a Regionale video for your comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv-WMFWpjo0
People always duke it out over whether Regionale (which is a lot more popular) or Angola is the better form. I just think they're really different, though you can use them together. Angola is easier in that it doesn't involve as many ridiculous flips, but it's harder in that it's a lot more dance-like and involves closer attention to your partner.
There are two major kinds of capoeira: capoeira Angola and capoeira regionale. Angola is the older, more traditional form, that's generally played more slowly and closer to the ground, whereas Regionale is faster and more acrobatic-looking and just generally showier. As I understand it, Regionale, in its early stages in the late 19th/early 20th century, evolved out of Angola when it was made legal to play in Brazil as a performance sport (previously, it was associated with crime and, more to the point, with black slaves, so it was made illegal). The martial art/dance combination comes out of the fact that it was developed as a fighting method that could be concealed as a dance so that slaveowners wouldn't see that their slaves were training to fight.
It's not choreographed. Its dance-like qualities fall more in line with something like contact improvisation, where you're adjusting your movements in response to your partner's with the aim of keeping a flow. That said, it's entirely permissible for your partner to knock you over or sweep your feet out from under you if you give her the opportunity! As for its being a game - it just is. There's no scoring or anything. It's a game because it's play. You're constantly responding to the other person, and there's this kind of coy element to it, so it feels like play the same way that when you're a kid, you make a game out of rolling down a hill or playing hand-clapping games or turning somersaults back and forth across your backyard or even just going out in deep water and bobbing waves.
If your classmate was doing it alone, then he had probably choreographed something himself, or was imagining a partner playing against him. That said, from what little I've seen of Regionale, it seems like they often don't play quite as close together, which would make it easier to play without a partner. Angola, like you see in that video, is played really close. Here's a Regionale video for your comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv-WMFWpjo0
People always duke it out over whether Regionale (which is a lot more popular) or Angola is the better form. I just think they're really different, though you can use them together. Angola is easier in that it doesn't involve as many ridiculous flips, but it's harder in that it's a lot more dance-like and involves closer attention to your partner.
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