Capoeira Salvador — Jogo
176.53 $
Two capoeiristas photographed in the jogo (game) in Salvador da Bahia’s Pelourinho — the fluid ginga movements caught in a 1/2000 second freeze, the white alves and coleta belts signalling their grade, the baroque colonial architecture behind.
Description
Capoeira — the Afro-Brazilian martial art-dance-music form developed by enslaved African people in Brazil’s Bahia state — is practiced as a ‘jogo’ (game) between two practitioners who improvise a continuous conversation of attacks and evasions in response to the rhythmic guidance of the berimbau musical bow. The jogo is simultaneously combat, dance, and acrobatics — the practitioners moving in the ginga (swing), executing au (cartwheel), giro (spin), and bênção (kick) movements in a flow that can appear either gentle and playful or dangerous depending on the practitioners’ intent. Salvador’s Pelourinho — the historic Afro-Brazilian cultural quarter — is capoeira’s spiritual home. This photograph was made during an open roda (circle) practice session in the Pelourinho square using a 1/2000 second exposure that freezes the precisely balanced athleticism of the jogo at its most aesthetically compelling.
