Comments on: Capoeira é Dança, Part 1: Maculelê

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:30:08 +0000

Between you and Shayna, Chan, I would be completely willing to give up my high school French for a year of Portuguese right about now!

And ditto to what Xixarro said.

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:28:18 +0000

Hey, that’s a good point Mariposa; I think similar things have been said about capoeira origin stories, as well. For example, I’ve heard or read at one point or another that the acrobatics and kicks became important because the slaves’ hands were chained together… although it’s also possible they used capoeira and/or maculele precisely to escape and forget about those things!

By: xixarro

xixarro — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:43:16 +0000

I would very much like it if a copy of your translation ended up in my mailbox chan

By: chan

chan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:19:13 +0000

hey guys
the book written by emilia biancardi is called raizes musicais da bahia,- the musical roots of bahia.
The other book about maculele I was talking about is called maculele and is written by maria mutti. This book is fantastic. I am translating it slowly, but I am unsure of how to post it without copyright issues. I think I may just try and write a synopsis.
there is also another awesome book/study on the songs of capoeira called cantos e ladainhas capoeira da bahia by carlos pereira and monica bori.
Shayna have you ever translated ‘o abc da capoeira angola’? by mestre noronha?
that is a book worth translating I think, and also ‘mestre atenilo’ relampago da capoeira regional, by itapoan.
Hopefully this gives you guys a bit of work to do.
lots of axe
chan.

By: Mariposa

Mariposa — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:18:21 +0000

Hi! Just wanted to share a point of view to the version of the slaves working in sugar cane fields playing/dancing during their brakes… Just imagine what were the conditions of working in the open fields – over 35 degrees Celcius in open sun, no shade, limited water and food, working day from before sunrise and after dawn and not to forget that the slaves were chained to each other. It’s kind of hard to dance and play in such conditions…

Axeee!

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:28:57 +0000

Wow Shayna, that’s amazing–thank you so much! I will definitely be reading this some time soon.

By: Shayna

Shayna — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:29:55 +0000

Joaninha,

Here’s a synopsis and translation of Olele Maculele:
http://capoeira-connection.com/main/downloads/Olele_Maculele.pdf

Unfortunately I didn’t have access to a scanner when I was reading this book, so I didn’t get any of the cool pictures – but the text is pretty interesting!

I’ll have to look further into the book that Chan mentioned… if I can get my hands on that I’d love to translate it.

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:09:48 +0000

That would be awesome. Thanks so much!
p.s. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but seriously, where do you manage to find all this historical (and sometimes seemingly obscure) information from?? Or wait, can you read Portuguese?

By: chan

chan — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:10:50 +0000

emilia biancardi wrote an extensive book to help choreograph a famous show that she produced, (from what I can remember), I have some copies of the maculele section somewhere, but it also had a great song list, and other really interesting things, like the various types of berimbaus that people have made and used over time and also heaps of sheet music for various folkloric things.
So no it is not the book I am talking about, the maculele book is different. I am going away this weekend but when I get back I will try and find them for you and give you a summary.

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:34:08 +0000

Thanks, Chan! Hehe, puxada de rede is already on the list, I hope to get through all of them, eventually.

I haven’t actually, but somewhere along the way in my research I read about a book called Olele Maculele, by Emilia Biancardi. Is that the one you’re talking about?