CAPOEIRA EN EL BARRIO (BRAZILIAN DANCE)

DO YOU WANT TO WORKOUT WHILE HAVING FUN, LEARNING BRAZILIAN PORTUGUES, SAMBA AND MORE? FOR MORE INFO: 615 418 1045 LEON BERRIOS. Come to play Capoeira a Brazilian Dance created by the slaves. The ritual combat dance know as Capoeira is one of the primary expressions of an African, specifically Kongo-Angolan, continuum in Brazil. Its origins may go back as far as the 16th century, when slaves from western Central Africa arrived in Salvador and the surrounding Recôncavo region. They came in great numbers throughout the 17th centruy, when they formed the majority of slaves in Brazil. Parts of Angola were almost depopulated in the process. Since Angolans were the first of the large African groups in Brazil, they came into contact with the Amerindians and caboclos, people of Portuguese-Amerindian descent. To this day in Brazil, one often finds Angolan and Amerindian elements closely associated, as in the expression caboclos de Aruanda, literally Indians from Luanda, the capital of Angola. In Afro-Brazilian religious contexts, a caboclo is the spirit of a dead Indian, and Aruanda means something like "spiritland."