There are dozens of Brazilian folk dances: everything from dramatisations of the early wars between the Portuguese and the Indians (Caboclinhos and Caiapós performed in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas), to the Cavalhada of Pirenópolis in the state of Goiás, a theatrical pageant, lasting three days, which depicts the fight between the Christians and the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. The Cavalhada survives from the tradition of medieval tournaments.
Capoeira is an acrobatic form of stylised combat-dance, performed to the accompaniment a distinctive type of music. Though its practitioners can be found throughout Brazil, capoeira is most popular in Bahia, and is particularly associated with the city of Salvador. It evolved from a form of real physical combat that originated in Angola. In the early days of slavery in Brazil, slaves developed the skills of capoeira as a means of concealing fights between two individuals - for which both would be punished by the master - behind a smokescreen of music, song and dance.
Over the years this was refined into a highly athletic sport in which the aim is actually for the two contestants, using only their legs, feet, heels and heads (hands are not allowed), to co-ordinate their movements so as to narrowly avoid landing blows. The combatants move in a series of swift cartwheels and whirling handstands on the floor. The musical ensemble that accompanies capoeira includes the berimbau, a bow-shaped piece of wood with a metal wire running from one end to the other, attached to a painted gourd which acts as a sounding box. The person playing the berimbau strikes the taut wire with a copper coin, producing an unusual and instantly recognisable reverberating sound.
