Capoeira Regional
The capoeira style Mestre Bimba created in Salvador and taught from 1932 in the first officially recognised capoeira school.
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BrazilCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Capoeira Regional
Capoeira Regional is the style of capoeira created in Salvador, in the state of Bahia, by Manoel dos Reis Machado, known as Mestre Bimba (1899-1974). It arose in answer to a double pressure: capoeira had been banned and policed in Brazil under the penal code of 1890, and at the same time, in Bimba's view, it was losing its fighting effectiveness and turning into street entertainment. He therefore called his school luta regional baiana, the regional fight of Bahia, to get around the banned word capoeira, and in 1932 he opened an academy in Salvador; in 1937 the authorities registered it as the first officially recognised capoeira school of all. Technically Bimba added throws and takedowns from the Afro-Brazilian wrestling batuque, in which his father excelled, and organised the teaching into eight practice sequences for pairs, supplemented by the cintura desprezada section of throws over the body. He introduced an entrance test, regular attendance and a formal graduation with silk scarves in place of the earlier informal learning. Musically the style differs in its faster tempo, a single berimbau in the orchestra and its own series of rhythms, among which the iuna reserved for graduates holds a special place. In 1953 Bimba performed capoeira for President Getulio Vargas; the demonstration is usually cited as the moment a persecuted practice became national heritage.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.