Capoeira Regional
A style of capoeira created in Salvador by Mestre Bimba. Teaching in training sequences, an entrance examination, the grades calouro and formado, and the São Bento Grande rhythm.
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About Capoeira Regional
Capoeira Regional is a style of capoeira created in Salvador, Bahia, by Manoel dos Reis Machado, Mestre Bimba (1899, or 1900 – 1974). He first called it Luta Regional Baiana. Sources differ on the date of origin: they give the years 1929–1930, or the founding of a school in 1932. The official registration of the first capoeira center took place on 9 June 1937. Bimba added to the method movements of batuque, fighting dances that he learned from his father. He built the teaching on training combinations: the sequência of 17 attacking and defensive movements and the cintura desprezada for advanced students. The roda is led by one berimbau, and the rhythms iúna, banguela and São Bento Grande determine the character of the game. Admission to the school was through an examination, at first a three-minute choke hold, later a demonstration of flexibility and a written test. In the sixties the style had the grades calouro, formado and formado especializado, and after 1964 a course graduate received a silk scarf. In 1953 Bimba demonstrated capoeira to President Getúlio Vargas. In 1964 the group Senzala was founded in Rio, an influential Regional group of the seventies and eighties. Bimba’s son Nenel teaches in his father’s tradition in Bahia. The anthropologist Alejandro Frigerio describes Regional as a sport and Angola as an art.
History
Capoeira Regional was established as a school within capoeira at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, roughly ten years before Angola. The Brazilian government banned capoeira itself until the early 20th century. In 2014 UNESCO inscribed the capoeira circle on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The style was created by Manoel dos Reis Machado, Mestre Bimba, born in Salvador. Sources give his date of birth as 23 November 1900 or the year 1899, and he died on 5 February 1974 in Goiânia. He first called the style Luta Regional Baiana, because capoeira was still illegal, and later shortened it to capoeira regional. Sources disagree on when it arose. According to the IPHAN dossier, Bimba declared that he created Regional in 1928, Sandra Pelegrini in the journal História (2008) gives the years 1929–1930, and other sources place the founding of the school in Salvador in 1932. On 9 June 1937 Bimba obtained a certificate from the state education administration and officially registered the first capoeira centre. According to Downey, he demonstrated capoeira to President Getúlio Vargas on 23 July 1953, while the IPHAN dossier gives 1954. In 1973, disappointed by unfulfilled promises and the lack of support from the authorities in Bahia, he moved to Goiânia. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit (Ordem do Mérito Cultural).
How it differs
According to the 2008 registration by Brazil's authority IPHAN, Capoeira Regional and Capoeira Angola are the two basic modalities of capoeira. The historian Matthias Röhrig Assunção says that Bimba focused on effectiveness against other martial arts, whereas Pastinha stressed capoeira as Afro-Brazilian culture and tradition. According to the IPHAN dossier, Bimba presented capoeira as a Brazilian martial art, while the Angola side stresses its African origin. Scholarly texts describe a difference in tempo and approach. According to Wanessa Pires Lott, Regional focuses on fighting, while Angola stresses malícia, low movements, slow music and ritual. Ramos reports for Regional higher speed, more movements and a grade system with coloured cordões, while Angola, he says, has neither uniforms nor a recognised grade hierarchy. Celso de Brito places Regional at the pole of sport and physical education, Angola at that of culture and tradition. Mestre Chico tells Lott in an interview that Regional is faster, not more violent. According to de Brito, capoeira contemporânea is not a separate style but the name for today's space between sporting and cultural conceptions. The Senzala group, founded in Rio in the nineteen-sixties, preserved according to the IPHAN dossier Bimba's teaching with the movements and instruments of Angola.
Technique
Bimba learned batuque, a related martial dance, from his father Luis Cândido Machado and added its movements to his method. Batuque was a north-eastern martial style that has since died out. Whether he also drew on jiu-jitsu, boxing and catch wrestling is disputed. He built his teaching on sequências de ensino, training combinations that are cited as the first teaching method of capoeira. According to Araújo, who cites Nestor Capoeira, the method rests on eight sequences of strikes, counterstrikes and evasions practised in pairs, and cintura desprezada is an exercise for advanced students. Regional stresses attack, evasion, counterattack, precision and discipline. A Regional roda is led by one berimbau, and the other instruments are the pandeiro, atabaque and agogô. The rhythm iúna calls for a more acrobatic game, banguela for a low and cunning game, and São Bento Grande for speed and strength.
Training
Admission to Bimba’s school was through an examination. At first it was a three-minute choke hold on the neck that the applicant had to endure without tapping to signal surrender. After the arrival of Bimba’s assistant Cisnando Lima the examination changed to a demonstration of flexibility and a written test. The Regional entrance examination also includes a physical test with capoeira movements.
Ranks and progression
In the 1960s Regional had its first system of grades: according to Araújo calouro (novice), batizado (baptised), formado (graduate) and especialista. After 1964 the teacher tied a silk scarf around the neck of a course graduate at a ceremony. Coloured cordões around the waist are the most common system in capoeira today in general, not a peculiarity of Bimba's style, and capoeira does not agree on a single system of grades.
Today
In 1964 Grupo Senzala was founded in Rio, which became an influential Regional group of the seventies and eighties and adopted elements of Shotokan karate. From the sixties uniform group outfits spread. Nenel, Bimba’s son, continues to teach in his father’s tradition in Bahia. Mestre Pastinha rejected Bimba’s innovations and preferred musicality and self-expression. The anthropologist Alejandro Frigerio describes Angola as an art and Regional as a sport. Nestor Capoeira states that Bimba’s emphasis on fighting is closer to the capoeira documented in 1835. Sandra Pelegrini in the journal História (2008) states that Bimba claimed a Brazilian origin of capoeira, Pastinha an African one.
Did you know
In February 1936, according to the historian Assunção, Bimba defeated Henrique Bahia and was declared the Bahian capoeira champion, but in 1949 he lost fights in São Paulo and Rio. Around 1945 and 1946 he declared that his Regional is for real situations, not for the ring, and he also called his capoeira ex-capoeira. Bimba's fights in Parque Odeon in the years 1935 to 1937 are read, according to the IPHAN dossier, as a symbol of the split between Regional and Angola. In 1937 Bimba obtained permission to run the Centro de Cultura Física e Capoeira Regional. Coloured grades appeared in capoeira, according to Araújo, only in 1972 through the Federação Brasileira de Pugilismo, and are not attributed to Bimba. Toque Amazonas, of which Bimba is the author, is used to greet a visiting mestre at batizados. By decree of 3 November 2005 Bimba was admitted in memoriam to the Ordem do Mérito Cultural in the highest class, Grã-Cruz.
Frequently asked questions
What is capoeira regional?
Capoeira Regional is a modality of capoeira created in Bahia by Manoel dos Reis Machado, known as Mestre Bimba. He called it Luta Regional Baiana and, according to the dossier of the Brazilian agency IPHAN, presented it as a Brazilian martial art with a new teaching method. The 2008 IPHAN registration lists it alongside Angola as one of the two basic modalities of capoeira.
Who was Mestre Bimba?
Mestre Bimba, born Manoel dos Reis Machado, was the creator of Capoeira Regional. He was born in Salvador, according to sources on 23 November 1900 or in 1899, and died on 5 February 1974 in Goiânia. In 2005 he was admitted posthumously to the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural.
What are Mestre Bimba's sequences?
Bimba's sequences (sequências de ensino) are predefined combinations of strikes, counterstrikes and evasions practiced by pairs of students. According to Araújo, who cites Nestor Capoeira, Bimba created eight of them and they are cited as the first teaching method of capoeira.
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