Browse Items (193 total)

  • Collection: Documenting Living Culture - Capoeira

Students in Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira training during Professora Amazonas’ children’s class. The students pictured here are siblings. Training as a family is encouraged in Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira.

Student in Professora Amazonas’ children’s class waiting for a kick during a training session.

In Professora Amazonas classes, all students, including the children, study and learn the instruments of capoeira, from the drums to the berimbau, and play during the roda.

Students “play” capoeira in the roda, applying the skills and sequences they learned during their classes and training sessions. Every class ends in a Roda where all participating students have the chance to play in the roda and the batería.

The end of each class in Professora Amazonas’ capoeira academy features a roda, where students play capoeira to practice the sequences and skills they learned throughout the class and trainings sessions.

Students in Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira train and play a combination of dance, combat and acrobatics, and utilize all three when playing in the Roda.

Students in Professora Amazonas’ children’s class as young as three years old practice all aspects of capoeira, from training to music to songs to playing in the roda.

Professora Amazonas integrates acrobatics into her classes and training sessions, and students have the chance to apply what they learn in the roda at the end of each class.

Members of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira studying and practicing the music, songs, and rhythms of samba.

Cavalo, a member of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira, plays pandeiro in the batería at Professora Amazonas’ class.

Members of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira practice the songs of capoeira.

Professora Amazonas plays and teaches drum patterns and songs in her adult capoeira class. Here, she is playing a conga drum which is often used to train, teach and demonstrate, but the traditional drum used in the roda is the atabaque, which is…

The heartbeat of the music of capoeira revolves around the drums and the berimbau.

A pandeiro is a hand-held frame drum used in the music of capoeira and other Brazilian musical genres such as samba, coco, chore and more.

Professora Amazonas sharing and practicing the songs of capoeira with her adult classes.

Pandeiro is one of the instruments used in the batería of capoeira. Like the other instruments used in the batería, the pandeiro is also of African origin.

The berimbau is an African instrument that leads the batería in capoeira. It is considered a percussion instrument and consists of a wooden bow called verga (made from the wood of the beriba tree), a single metal string called arame, a hollow gourd…

Abelha, a member of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira, singing in the batería during one of Professora Amazonas’ classes.

Cavalo, a member of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira, singing in the batería during one of Professora Amazonas’ classes.

João Pequeno, a member of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira, singing in the batería during one of Professora Amazonas’ classes.

The dobrão is a thick stone or coin used to play the berimbau. It is used to change the tension on the arame or string, in order to change the pitch and quality of the sound being played. The dobrão can also be called pedra (stone) or moeda (coin).

Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira practicing the rhythms of capoeira on the agogô, pandeiro, and conga.

The agogô is a set of bells used in the batería of capoeira and throughout the African diaspora.
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