Title: A capoeiragem no Rio de Janeiro
Description: André Luiz Lacé Lopes revolutionizes the late 20th century writings on capoeiragem (capoeira), by presenting a well documented account on Brazil's perhaps most legitimate tradition of capoeiragem, the one practiced and developed in Rio de Janeiro ("carioca" means from Rio de Janeiro). With the great popularity of the tradition practiced and developed in Salvador, which became sort of "standard" althrough the century (in Brazil and internationally), almost all authors considered the Rio tradition a piece of past history, extinguished by the Republican police, and capoeira only (re)introduced in Rio de Janeiro by Bahians, by the 1960's. In this book (following writings he has presented since from the 1960's), Lacé presents the most decisive and best documented account showing that none of such has been the case. He follows the developments of capoeiragem carioca allthrough the XXth century, including major characters such as Cyríaco "Macaco-Velho", Annibal "Zuma" Bulamarqui, Inezil Penna Marinho, and most importantly, Agenor "Sinhozinho" Sampaio, and his most important students, such as André Jansen, Luiz "Cirandinha" and Rudolf Hermanny. The book also features Artur Emídio, an outstanding (although outstream) Bahian capoeira expert, who brought his version of the art to Rio de Janeiro in the 1950's. Particularly interesting and well documented in this book, are the historical disputes: (a) between Bahia's Master Bimba students and Rio's Master Sinhozinho students (in 1949), won by the cariocas; (b) the Hermanny vs. Emídio dispute (in 1952), won by Hermanny; and the clash between the Gracie students and the Sinhozinho students (in 1953), in which "Cirandinha" was defeated by Carlson Gracie, but Hermanny fought with success against Guanair Vial. Although extremely respectful with the Bahia tradition, especially "angola", Lacé is extremely critical about the myths built around Bahia's "regional" tradition. He presents historical evidence and arguments to the thesis that regional was much influenced by the modernizing projects put to work first in Rio de Janeiro. Because it challenges the prevailing view, the book has not been treated with justice by writers and most researchers. It has had an impact upon the capoeiragem studies, however; although this has hardly been recognized, unfortunately.
Subjects: Capoeira (Dance), History
Places: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
People: Inezil Penna Marinho (1915-1937), Rudolf Hermanny, Rudolf Hermanny (1931-), Sinhozinho (1891-1962)
Time periods: 20th century