Field Research Findings

occurs towards a “global capoeira community”. They elevate the status of being capoeirista to a wider spectrum not limited to national boundaries. In this particular aspect capoeira does not have a nationality.

An important second aspect of the interviewees’ discourse was a criticism of their own national culture. Since they have a lot of contact with Brazilians and Brazilian culture, and thus they identify the Brazilian-ness in capoeira, it is natural for them to compare some elements of both cultures. And what they feel is lacking in their national culture, capoeira seems to fulfill.

One of the most recurrent complaints is about the predictability of German life and behaviour. Every aspect of one’s life is so planned, and they consider it to be too strict, too serious, and too rigid. They would not know how to deal with the unforeseeable, because they believe they were not educated to have flexibility.

Maybe it can be good if you overthink, ok. But on the negative side, you are so stuck in thinking that you don’t really get anything good out of it (INT01).

[we are] less open to the spontaneous. It is not so easy the spontaneous. If there is anything that departs from the plan… oh! I think this is the reason why some people here like it [capoeira] a lot (INT07).

Blind obedience to the rules (…). The people here – even myself sometimes – the Germans think more in the future than in the present: they plan. They plan a lot what tomorrow will be, next year, and sometimes they lose a bit of the vision of what they have now. And this is what capoeira teaches: the present (INT06).

For some, this rigidity also has a physical impact on their own bodies and in their ways of moving, which makes the fluidity of capoeira movements even more challenging for them.

Once we said in acting school: the German hip is closed (…). Well if you don’t dance excessively in your culture, your hips don’t learn to dance so much (INT01).

I think they [Brazilians] are more outgoing, more open, and they dance better!

They can really really dance better. And the moves! They are just more fluid and energized. You see a German and a Brazilian dancing you say:

nooooooooo. The German is like a robot somehow; the Brazilian is fluid (INT9).

The criticism of the German need for precision gets harder when they feel it can lead to intolerance and to closure to those who are different. Among the

interviewees, there could be identified a subtle feeling of embarrassment towards some German extreme nationalist groups.

There is really a hard [part] of German culture [that wants] Germany only for Germans (…) Even before [nationalism] they [German poets] say how German can be so focused on small things and make themselves so small (…). I hate these people around me (INT01).

Here is this problem with Nazis, with nationalism, that I really… I… I do not know what to say about my country… you feel like this: “I wanna get away from here” (INT04).

This feeling is also somewhat expressed when they report a lack of sense of belonging, solicitude, and caring for the others. They criticize what they consider a kind of abstraction of what is going on around the world – the inequality, insecurity, and uncertainty that exist beyond Germany’s borders. Through capoeira, which is inclusive by definition and essence, they manage to neutralize the disagreement they feel towards this perceived trait of their national fellows.

This sometimes get missed here a bit too: people taking care of each other, looking out for others, talking to each other (…). Here people give off the energy of: “[Get out!], this is my space!” (INT07).

I don’t want to be part of the system (…), I want to think more about how to help people. I am not a saint, I am not Mother Teresa, but I really am always thinking about how to do a good thing (INT04).

This criticism of distancing was not limited to Germany, however. A French capoeirista, after a class observed in Caen, reported that capoeira works like a rescue for him. He said that France “is done”, lost in its values and abundance, and that through his contact with his Brazilian master he managed to recover a "sense of sharing" (OBS04). He demonstrated nostalgia for the “good old France”. The distancing seems to also impregnate the gestures and limits of physical contact among people. Attending a festival in Rouen, a conversation with a Dutch counter-master²³ was interrupted by several capoeiristas who came to greet and hug him, and he observed: “Look, even this touching when we say hello here... I have many Dutch friends of childhood, friends for years and years, that I’ve never have hugged in my whole life. But here in capoeira, that is common, it is how we do from the moment we first meet” (OBS02, p.4).

23 the second highest graduation level in capoeira.

The third category of findings show the effects of capoeira. It has changed them for the better. They demonstrate examples of enhancement of their self-esteem, their self-confidence, and therefore, their self-image as a whole. Being able to go to the middle of a “roda de capoeira”, to make those fluid movements, to play different instruments, to sing in an uncommon language (an “outgoing, expressive, nicely sounding language” – INT09), demands for most of them a great effort, not just an obviously physical one, but emotional and social as well. And in this, they show a great deal of pride and a sense of improvement. They feel different from who they were before capoeira and different from others who are not capoeiristas.

If something doesn’t work out, it is okay. And we try again, again and again.

And that is the progress part of it. Sometimes I don’t get the movement right, but next time you do that one. So, my body changes and gives me more opportunities (INT09).

I am much more sporty nowadays. I have a better body, much better health (…), but capoeira taught me the value of the feeling, of the unforeseen and of the inexplicable. Sometimes, even the value of spirituality (INT05).

In 14 years of capoeira, I started to grow up; a whole part of my life grew up totally. Capoeira has taught me a lot (INT03).

It is something good to do something that is different from who you are… to change. And in capoeira you learn how to change. You have to ‘esquivar’²⁴ anyhow, otherwise you will get beaten [as in life] (…) you are forced into a transformation (INT04).

Overcoming all the initial obstacles makes them feel progress, by “crossing their own borders a little bit and putting these borders behind” (INT04). A very remarkable ritual in capoeira is the “troca de cordas” (changing of belt). The colour of the “corda”, represents the graduation level of the capoeirista. The change of the colour shows that the improvement and progress of the capoeirista is recognized by his/her Mestre, and therefore, by the whole group.

I think before every ‘corda’, before every ‘troca de corda’ [it] was the same (…) ‘how can I be good enough for the graduation corda?’ (…). Mestre Joel asked ‘do you think you are ready for this corda?’ [In the first moment I wanted to say] no, I am not ready and I think to myself ‘yes, it is okay, take it’ (…). You have to be in control of your feelings, to get in peace with these feelings (INT01).

A defining element that helps to burst their confidence is connection with the other capoeiristas of the group. The social aspect of capoeira is insistently mentioned

24 Esquivar is a capoeira movement, for one to dodge a blow, to avoid the contact.

by the interviewees as a differentiator of capoeira in relation to other physical activities in which they have already engaged. It provides a sense of community that helps them to open up.

Everyone who gets here is invited to be our friend and with the other sports I have done a little bit we don’t have this, there was not this agreement (INT01).

Especially in capoeira, people are very outgoing, expressive, but also on the other hand, very accepting. To accept you and take you as the person you are. There is of course a very positive experience. It is just okay, I am alright, it is okay to be there, it is okay to be me (INT09).

I was very just like turned to myself, not really outgoing, and the group accepted me and gave me an opportunity to and I opened up. I gained more self-confidence and I was aimed to get more in contact with people (…). It was a perfect opportunity to calm down and to see where I stand in my life, in this world (INT08).

The resulting feeling of all of this is joy. Demonstrations and reports of moments of happiness and pleasure were constant and unanimous in all points of contact in the field research. They express that they get to feel like children again, spontaneous and happy, and therefore they feel authentic again.

When I get back from the capoeira classes, after the class, the whole evening, I am happy (…), because of the music, of taking out a lot of my bad thinking (INT01).

The joy… the energy of the class, that you can really feel. Energy that you can almost touch with your hands (INT06).

I think I always had that in me [joy and slyness], but it is not part of German culture and in capoeira I can live it. The self-esteem to show this side of me.

If you talk to my friends, everyone will say: ‘since you started capoeira, you have changed a lot (INT06).

This collection of self-enhancement findings in the research field can be summarized by the following statement: “if I have to describe capoeira in three words, I would say: ‘fun, progress and acceptance’” (INT09).

The combination of criticism and feelings of disagreement with some aspects of their own countries and cultures seems to propel them to search something to conciliate and neutralize the dissonance and to improve their self-image. An important issue to be clear, is that at no time do they show a preference for one culture over the other, or deny their own culture. They only understand the differences and the strengths of each one of them. And through the consumption of capoeira, they manage

to have it all: “I feel lucky. I have the best of two worlds: the security from Holland, and the joy of Brazil” (Dutch counter-master, OBS02)