produced by the school in the 1960s: ‘We intend to offer you a complete course in personal defense of the
highest efficiency’.^47 In opposition to the ethos of idleness, Bimba’s students were encouraged to stop smoking
and drinking, to restrain from showing off their knowledge outside the roda, and even to abstain from
talking during classes: ‘You are paying for the time you pass in the academy, and watching other fighters,
you will learn more’.
New rituals and a new constituency
As all great mestres, Bimba played capoeira music according to a very personal style. He performed and
taught his students seven different toques: São Bento Grande, Benguela (sometimes spelled Banguela),
Cavalaria, Santa Maria, IúZna, Idalina, Amazonas.^48 The rhythms Iúna and Amazonas are usually
considered to be of his own invention. It is however possible that the Iúna rhythm already existed in Bahian
capoeira and that Bimba only re-dimensioned its function, according it a central role in his style.^49 As
already mentioned, in vadiação no absolute consistency existed among berimbau players regarding the
number of toques, their names and the rhythmic patterns they designed. Bimba, for instance, played São
Bento Grande according to a very particular pattern, still today the hallmark of the ‘genuine’ Regional. Even
though his toques were distinct from all others mestres, they still remained within the range of variation
common among traditional capoeira, and one can not really consider that a major rupture with vadiação
took place in this realm.
The Regional orchestra could consist of several berimbaus and pandeiros, with no absolute consistency
over time.^50 After some initial change Bimba seemed to have preferred only one berimbau and two
pandeiros. According to Decânio, this allowed for a ‘purer’ and ‘stronger’ rhythm, better suited for the
faster Regional style. Bimba has often been accused of ‘eliminating’ the drum (atabaque) from capoeira,
and his detractors have interpreted this as evidence for his ‘whitening’ of the art. As we have seen the
atabaque was by no means a regular feature of street rodas in Bahia.
As a further departure from rituals, Bimba did not start his rodas with the traditional ‘prayer’ (ladainha)
—‘too slow and lethargic’ for his temperament.^51 He rather sang the same lyrics within the faster quadra
pattern, also a common form among the vadiação and in wider Brazilian popular culture. He also seems to
have excelled in singing cantigas de sotaque, where players challenged each other in improvised verses
before playing.^52 Yet, during rodas and performances he seems to have preferred a repertoire of well-known
songs from the public domain, which he rearranged and altered according to the needs of the situation, rather
than introduce entirely new compositions which would have set his lyrics apart from other mestres. He
probably was less keen to invent new songs than worried about how the cadence of the rhythm or the lyrics
could stimulate the capoeirista and improve his movements and overall performance.
Like all great Bahian capoeira mestres, he used a wide range of melodic-rhythmic patterns or toques and
established a link between these and the specific types of game they accompanied or inspired. Decânio and
Muniz Sodré give a detailed description of the type of game accompanying each toque. Other students,
among them Itapoan and Acordeon, however assert that Bimba only used São Bento Grande, Banguela and
Iúna for capoeira games, the other rhythms being merely executed outside the roda.^53
Bimba must have been aware of how ritualization is crucial to identity building. His extraordinary ability
to create rituals that build on existing Afro-Bahian customs but also drew from other traditions certainly
contributed to his success in creating a new style. In fact few people could be in a better position to create
new rituals. Bimba had been exposed to the world of candomblé since his childhood. His mother, a
descendant of native Brazilians, was member of a candomblé de caboclo and devoted to the worship of the
Caboclo Cinco Penas. According to the testimony of Bimba’s widow given to Muniz Sodré, the mestre
134 BIMBA AND ‘REGIONAL’ STYLE