Professionalizing capoeira: The politics of play in twenty-first-century Brazil

The global expansion of capoeira has radically transformed the practice and reach of the Afro-Brazilian fight/dance/game known as capoeira. Once a weapon of the weak, informally learned by male slaves on the streets and outlawed by Brazilian authorities, capoeira today is taught to men, women, and children in schools, health clubs, dance studios, and community centers throughout Brazil and around the world. Accompanying the global commodification and consumption of capoeira as an exotic, hip, multicultural activity is a trend within Brazil to professionalize its teaching. Recent debates around the institutionalization of capoeira offer a revealing window onto the contradictions of nationalism, citizenship, and democracy in Brazil. While the increased emphasis on pedagogy and professionalism is transforming the actual "play" of capoeira, the practice remains, albeit in new ways, a mobilizing agent in the struggle against social inequalities and uneven citizenship in Brazil. © 2012 Latin American Perspectives, Inc.

Duke Scholars

Author Katya Wesolowski Cultural Anthropology