Music

Learn about the different types of song in Capoeira – Know your ladainha from your quadra and your chula from your corrido!

Etymologically the word senzala comes from the bantu language Quimbundo (or Kimbundu) which meant dwelling. Although there is evidence of the occasional use of word in Brazil from the second half of the sixteenth century, it did not begin to be widely used in its current sense until the eighteenth century. A Senzala became the

Possibly the most emblamatic of all Capoeira Songs, Paranauê is a song that every Capoeirista must know. Despite consiting of only one word, when I first heard the song and tried to sing along with the chrous, I was singing “Banana way…”, oops. So what does Paranauê actually mean? As with pretty much all capoeira

Many of Capoeira’s songs actually originated in popular folklore, songs that were first sung by fishermen, sailors, dock workers and slaves, then later incorpoerated into capoeira. The song Marinhero Só is just one such example! Capoeira grew up around the major ports of Brazil, São Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. For this reason many of

Authors: Mestre Bolinha and Mestre Suassuna One day, Mestre Bolinha overheard someone say “Caporeira pra extrangeiro é mato“ At this time, capoeira was already practiced outside of Brazil at little, and some foreigners came to Brazil to train, but nowhere near to the extent that it is today. The capoeiristas from outside Brazil stood out,