‘elements which reaffirm the ethnic identity in songs, berimbau toques and the very movements’. In her
view Regional established a mediation between two different value systems—the Afro-Brazilian and the
dominant white—creating an ambivalent symbolic field.^94 She therefore insists that Regional represents an
alternative, black modernization.
Since capoeira is a complex manifestation, a holistic art involving very different dimensions, the
assessment of the extension and meaning of the changes introduced by Bimba is particularly difficult.
Interpretations usually privilege some of the multiple dimensions of the art. It might therefore help to
identify first the ‘ruptures’ Regional introduced in different domains in order to reach an overall conclusion.
Bimba’s music clearly ranged within the Afro-Bahian tradition, even if this was not the case for some of
his students or alleged followers (as we are going to examine in Chapter 7). The common accusation that he
eliminated the atabaque drum from capoeira is not borne out by evidence, which shows that drums were not
commonly used in Bahian capoeira at his time. Bimba in fact was rather fond of playing atabaque, but
within his religious tradition, the candomblé.
The importance which he accorded to songs and rhythms attest to his respect for that dimension of
capoeira. What is more, the particular toques he promoted stimulated the type of games he wanted his
students to develop. This reinforced the traditional pattern of intimate relationship between music and
game.
The introduction of new kicks or defences per se can hardly be condemned as not ‘African’, as long as
they were integrated into an overall practice that retained its original meaning. In other words, unless new
movements disrupt the fundamental flow of the game, they can be considered as an innovation within the
tradition. However, the introduction of grabbing moves implemented a change of the game in so far as it
prevents certain types of ‘inner game’ to develop.
Bimba taught a more direct, confrontational style than many other famous capoeira mestres of his
generation. To interpret this as ‘white’, less ‘African’, and so on, seems to adhere to a rather stereotyped and
simplistic view of what these terms mean. As we have seen, tough guys were a regular feature of Bahian
vadiação or Cariocan capoeiragem, and even Bimba’s most violent students were certainly no worse than a
Pedro Mineiro or Besouro Mangangá.^95 This can be seen as constituting various modalities within a broader
Afro-Brazilian or even African tradition, just as different candomblé ‘nations’ existed along side each other,
without necessarily one being more ‘traditional’ than the other.^96
A more serious challenge is the common observation that Regional students play more upright, in contrast
to the crouched style of (contemporary) angoleiros. It has to be said, however, that some famous angoleiros
(such as Canjiquina and Cobra Verde) equally made wide use of upright positions. Nevertheless a shift in
emphasis is undeniable between the lower centre of gravity of most African ways of dancing and moving,
and the emphasis on stretching and upright positions in modern Western gymnastics. Yet Bimba probably
did not move like any of his students. According to the informants interviewed by Greg Downey, Bimba
rather moved like an angoleiro such as João Grande!^97 In other words, it was rather the teaching of his style
to new audiences that led to a major kinaesthetic change.
Bimba’s teaching methods certainly represented a major departure from traditional capoeira. Despite the
attempt by some scholars to present the ‘sequence’ as ‘grounded in the customs of African knowledge’,^98 it
does seem difficult not to view them as a modernization inspired by Western gymnastics and Eastern martial
arts. The ‘sequences’, for instance, were rehearsed without rhythm or music, and no longer encapsulated
any ludic element.^99 They also paved the way for the standardization of movements, and the transformation
of capoeira into a mass culture.
A now common opinion is that Bimba reflected ‘the military spirit which spread through Brazilian
society at the time of the development of capoeira Regional.’^100 Bimba’s overall insistence on an ascetic
142 BIMBA AND ‘REGIONAL’ STYLE