UNM’s capoeira club, Capoeira Pegadas, sweeps, kicks and handstands its way into the hearts of newbies like Isaac Burleigh.
After he saw a demonstration of the Brazilian fighting style in November, he wanted to try it for himself.
“I was like ‘Wow this is a pretty extreme workout,’” he said. “It was kind of frustrating and a little embarrassing at the same time. The first game I played I just felt like I was about to die because some dude was kicking at my face.”
Capoeira is the game for a peaceful warrior, said member of two years Robert “Preguica” Staszewski.
“It is a fight, and when I play maybe with Greg or with Sean (two advanced players in the club), we’ll kick each other and do sweeps and kick each other down,” he said. “But the thing about it is there is always respect at the end. It’s never malicious and it’s always in a friendly way that we practice.”
The group meets every Monday and Wednesday night for two hours in Johnson Gym. They begin with a warm-up and then move on to playing against each other.
“Pretty much anytime you go to capoeira, even if it’s your first day, you have to play, even if you only know how to do one move, you have to play,” Burleigh said. “Everybody is really friendly and I’ve made lots of good friends. The workout is awesome, and I was just thinking the other day that this is the happiest I have ever been with my body.”
Even for an athlete, capoeira offers players a new type of physical challenge. Burleigh said he cycles and runs on a regular basis, but his first day of capoeira was different from any other type of sport.
“I’ve never been flexible or anything, and now I can do some backbends and crazy stuff — handstands,” he said. “It’s awesome. It’s like a full-body workout for two hours, because you’re pretty much moving the whole time in a room with 20 people.”
Capoeira is based around a swaying movement called ginga. From there, the movements become more complicated as they evolve into balancing handstands and kicks.
Marcos Estrada is a native Brazilian who plans to attend UNM next year. Estrada said he was impressed with the passion and skill of the UNM capoeiristas.
“If I’m accepted at UNM, I will not only contribute to the academic activities, I will share my cultural knowledge on Brazilian issues with the students,” Estrada said in an e-mail.
Estrada said capoeira came from Afro-Brazilian slaves in Brazil in the 16th century.
The club’s size has fluctuated between five and 25 people over the two years that Staszewski has attended the classes.
“This year, before the January semester, we had maybe about five or six people in our group. And this
semester we’ve just seen a huge growth,” he said.
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For those who want to play capoeira, Burleigh said they should also expect to exercise their lungs and throat a little.
“Music and singing are just as important as the actual game, so when we’re at class everyone is singing and learning the songs,” he said. “We also take turns playing the instruments as well. It’s not just a sport, it’s more of a culture that you get into.”
The rhythm-setting instrument in capoeira is called a berimbau. It’s a single-stringed wooden gourd instrument with a bow. Other instruments used in capoeira are bongos and tambourines.
Staszewski said the music is one of the most captivating parts about capoeira because it comes from all over the world.
“A lot of this stuff comes from Africa, a lot of the traditions and the culture come from Africa, and it’s also blended with the natives who were in Brazil preconquest and also from the Portuguese,” he said. “So those three blend together to make this capoeira, and I think having that known makes it so it can reach everybody.”
