Street event, which takes place spontaneously on Saturdays at the Community Center, has characteristics that are beyond the norm in closed environments
Research carried out by physical educator Renan Almeida Barjud and guided by professor Odilon José Roble, from the Department of Physical Education and Society of the Faculty of Physical Education (FEF) at Unicamp, aimed to study the Roda da Feira, a capoeira activity that takes place at Saturdays during the crafts fair, known as “Feira Hippie”, which takes place on Saturdays at the Centro de Convivência de Campinas. With characteristics that deviate from the traditional, not institutionalized or previously agreed, this capoeira circle is formed marked by spontaneity alongside berimbaus exhibited and sold by the artisan and capoeira master Bill.
The presence of capoeira in Campinas, where slave labor predominated, dates back to the old Vila de São Carlos, whose code stated: “Any black person caught playing capoeira in the streets, squares, or any other place, will suffer a penalty of 35 strokes. in public and eight days in prison.” An advertisement clipping about an escaped slave, published in 1870 in the Gazeta de Campinas, is the oldest document found by the author in the newspaper library of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, which mentions capoeira in the city. The description of the young man who “walks very quickly, indicating that he is a capoeira” draws attention to the lack of need for any explanation of the term, which indicates that the use of the word capoeira was commonly understood to describe a social type with certain bodily skills . This practice, pursued on the streets, became accepted in closed spaces from the second quarter of the last century. This guaranteed its survival and led it to reach a globalized dimension, but it created a distance between capoeira and the street, removing the diversity of movements that came from it.
In fact, a cultural manifestation marked by the African ancestry of enslaved and freed people, the main place where capoeira was experienced was in the beginning the public space, with street circles. But capoeira was persecuted both in Brazil Empire and Brazil Republic. According to historians, this slave practice represented one of the biggest problems in the social order. After centuries of prohibition and persecution, capoeira gained great visibility in the 30s in Bahia. Under new orders of values, it begins to be practiced by groups in closed environments.
Motivations
Involved with capoeira since 1999, Renan Almeida Barjud began practicing it at the age of 14 in a neighborhood headquarters on the outskirts of Campinas, guided by master Bill, capoeira and artisan, who sold berimbaus at the “Hippie Fair”. At that time, he began to frequent the place where what fans call loitering took place, an occasion where they talked, sang and played capoeira.
He interrupted this more systematic interaction during the period in which he studied physical education, moved to Sorocaba, where he taught capoeira classes at the Department of Culture, and faced medical problems, but resumed it ten years later. This is when you begin to experience the well-known and informally called Roda da Feira, a meeting that takes place on Saturdays with Mestre Bill, who continues to sell and play his berimbaus, and which for around 30 years has attracted capoeiras from the most different groups and interested people who pass by. at the fair, they gather to talk and, to the sound of the instrument and songs, they play capoeira.
After a while, Renan realized that it was a very rich space for expression. Its great singularity was the spontaneous, informal and non-institutionalized meeting between capoeiras from different groups and styles, capoeiras without a group, people who approached and even played provoked by the energy of the roda. “It is a space in which the master lets things flow, without worrying about distinguishing his group of origin and without controlling the berimbau, which is even played by other people. He's there like another capoeira. It is rare to find capoeira circles in Brazil that are not linked to a group, where participants can express themselves in a more authentic way and do not need standardized costumes. This caught my attention”, explains the author of the research.
From all these observations, many questions arose for which he had no answers: “I couldn't, for example, understand why things were different when the spaces changed. I noticed that the most beautiful places I found as a physical educator were related to popular culture, which is very rich in expression. Looking at the Roda da Feira, I came across a similar situation, of extreme power, that is, the transformation of a group of individuals into a circle”.
Theoretical foundations
These circumstances motivated him to investigate its causes. To this end, he sought guidance from professor Odilon José Roble, with a background in physical education and philosophy, from the Department of Physical Education and Society at the Faculty of Physical Education (FEF) at Unicamp. As a theoretical reference he adopted one of the first works by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Birth of Tragedy”, which makes an aesthetic analysis of Greek tragedy. In it, the philosopher presents the duality Apollo and Dionísio, which Renan used to read the movements of forces present in capoeira and allowed him more specific reflections on the Roda da Feira in which capoeiras, constantly mobilizing and mobilized by Apollonian and Dionysian forces, in an uninterrupted game between the two deities, they seek to expand the power of life. Hence the title of the dissertation: “Roda da Feira and the yes to life: Dionysian inspirations on a capoeira street circle”.
Nietzsche uses these two deities to analyze the tragedy, attributing to Dionysus a more instinctive force, an immeasurable, uncontrolled energy, while Apollo, the solar god, gives the shape of things, represents that which can be understood, explained. Through the dynamics of these two deities, the philosopher shows the cooling of Dionysus' power as Apollo's power grows. For the philosopher, the strength of the Greek people manifested itself in the period in which there was a constant game between the forces of the two gods.
The author explains that ancient rituals were closely related to mythology and that Greek tragedy originated from them, which over time was progressively institutionalized. The philosopher then shows that a spontaneous manifestation that was related to the sacred is losing space to rational movement. Tragedy progressively loses its Dionysian character, more instinctive, less formatted, and acquires predominantly Apollonian characteristics, with a more linear development, which begins to be designed for people to understand and feel more.
Establishing a parallel with capoeira, the author considers that it manifested itself as a ritual without a standardized form, sensitive to spontaneity, more alive because it took place on the street, in moments of celebration, practiced by enslaved and ex-enslaved people, whose conceptions are much more affects aesthetic, artistic and religious thought linked to African roots. Starting in the 30s of the last century, capoeira left the streets and went to schools, to indoor environments, with a new guise and constrained by regulations. And since then, it has increasingly become standardized, surrounded by sporting, scientific, pedagogical and marketing biases and seems to express an excess of Apollonian forces to the detriment of the Dionysian.
Considerations
Based on the observations made, the researcher highlights three vital aspects: 1) the existence of a non-institutionalized space; 2) the consolidation of a space in which people find the opportunity to express what they feel and want, in which duty gives way to will; 3) the possibility of loitering, that is, conversation, music and loose games, without a set time. This establishes a place without formal logic and an environment that favors movements of the Dionysian order. These findings lead us to reflect on other forms of capoeira and even on other ritualistic aesthetic movements, dance and music that permeate Brazilian popular culture.
For the author, the work also offers the possibility of reflecting on the directions in which capoeira has been heading in recent decades, which allows critical reflections on the movements that make it up, especially because today, faced with the imperatives of modern life, capoeira disconnected from financial return lost ground. He then asks himself: isn't capoeira heading down paths that make it lose very rich, life-giving elements?