CAPOEIRA CHOREOGRAPHY

Creating a Capoeira show is only limited by your imagination. Regardless your limitations, there is always a way of being able to do something that will make an impact.

So many people worry about getting the best tricks, or focusing on showing ‘something that has never been done before’. From my experience, it is not what you can do, it is in how you present it.

THINK OUTSIDE THE SQUARE
Do some research. Don’t necessarily look soley at Capoeira performances, try and watch dance performances and study the formations. Look at the ways they use their bodies to create a certain effect.

THE DETAILS
It is really all in the details. Don’t settle for near enough is good enough. Fix something that is not working straight away. Every arm movement, every facial expression, every position will make a difference on the overall impression of the show.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
What kind of lighting is there at the performance place? Does the music sync completely with the performance? If you are doing live music, will you use mics? Can you create breaks and changes in the music to give a better flow to the performance?
Are you sure you are meeting your clients exact wishes? Are you keeping integrity in the art? Where did you place the highlights and ‘wow’ factors in the show? Will the audience be able to understand what you are expressing?

Many Capoeira Performances are just rodas. There is nothing wrong with that, but, there are always things that you can do to spruce up the roda to make it more audience friendly. Think about involving the audience in the story you are creating. Try and think about the best things you get out of capoeira and find ways of being able to express this to the audience.

Good luck with your creations! If anyone needs help with a performance or is interested in hiring us for a performance don’t hesitate in contacting me.
chan@soulcapoeira.org

I have broken the combination down into the three movements to make it easier to grasp.

Movement 1.
Queixada-Dobrado (a name I just made up then).

Go into the movement as if you were about to kick the queixada. twist the hip, but dont lift the queixada kicking leg just yet.
Sink the weight through the bum and reach with the arm (the arm that is closest to your queixada kicking side). Turn the hip over as you lean and kick through with the opposite leg. (not the queixada kicking leg).
Land like an S-dobrado. It is essentially an S-dobrado from a queixada position. Try and practice landing with the body high, and keeping the second leg that comes around, off the floor at the end of the movement. (will make it easier for you to join it in the combination later on).

Movement 2.
Helicoptor
For the ease of explanation, i am going to refer to the way it is done in this video.
The helicoptor is a movement that I found extremely difficult to learn by myself. Thus I would recommend finding someone who can do it to help you.
Begin by doing an Au then the leg that you would normally land on, in this case, the left leg, will sweep through, low to the ground. The right leg is open, and follows the left.

keep both hands on the floor as long as possible. The movement has three stages, the descent and isolation of the hands going down, the hands staying fixed on the ground and the turning of the legs, and then the third stage is when the Right foot lands on the ground, the legs stay almost neutral whilst the body unwinds itself.

in this third stage, you must push off hard from the ground with the arms, and keep the right leg hard. You must not bend in the hip or you will not be able to push up and out of the movement.

movement 3
backwards walkover, one handed switch

this movement you can begin practicing as if you were practicing an Au. Try and begin facing side on. You could also just practice doing it like a backwards walkover, (if you can do them already), but land on the opposite leg you normally would. You dont need to do it on just one arm, but it does look a little cooler if you do.

tips
Try and do each of the movements individually first, before putting them into the combination.
keep the body rolling, let the motion guide you. Slow it down, no need to rush through it, this will help with the balance.
If you cant do the whole sequence but only parts of it, that is great! use some of those movements to create your own unique combinations!

This combination of reasonable difficulty and would require some level of prior capoeira movement ability to achieve, as you will see below:

TIPS:

TIP 1.
When you are doing the Armada into Queda de Rins, to make it look more beautiful do not touch the ground with the kicking foot. Sweep it all the way through.

When first learning this movement, put your arms on the ground first and then hop and switch the legs as you sink into the queda de rins.

When you go into the switch queda de rins, think of the legs keeping open both laterally and vertically. This will create a windmill effect and make the movement look more aesthetically pleasing.

When you have built yourself up more, you will be able to do a bigger hop, jumping into the queda de rins from the armada.

TIP 2.
From the switch queda de rins position, you will require some arm strength to keep this next part smooth.
Push up with the arms and land the leg that was on top in the queda de rins, first.

Twist the body as you land the second leg landing in almost a ginga type lunge position. Dont rush this part and break it down so that you feel balanced. you can always speed it up later.

TIP 3.
This Au (cartwheel) is quite difficult and will take some getting used to. You are basically taking off from the foot that you would not normally take off from when doing a normal Au. So you swing the back leg first and hop off the front leg.

You land on the leg you hop off.

With the other leg you swing it through so that you can get your body in position ready to do your ponte (back arch).

If you would like you can also do an Au Esquisito instead to add to the aesthetics of the movement (an Au esquisito is like doing a backbend or arching the back and legs in the middle of the Au).

TIP 4.
Almost there! When threading through that second leg really reach with it. This will help you not travel as much in the sequence. instead of doing a full backbend, try and use the first arm for a support and the second arm goes straight into the queda position. You can choose to hop off the furthest leg from your queda arm or just hop off both legs and balance yourself whilst rotating.

Another useful tip is the arm you do not have as much weight on, use it to push yourself around. Land the leg that is closest to the queda hand first and sweep the other leg.

Try and make sure you do not get disorientated within the combination. It is very easy to lose the structure and end up facing all different kinds of ways. So break each step down and be patient. If your wrists/back/body starts to ache, stop doing the movements and do some cool downs. you can always conquer it tomorrow!

The Queda de Rins in capoeira is so versatile and can open up a whole new range of motion and movement in your game.
It is important to try and practice quedas as I have found that it has given me a new outlook on creating and expressing within capoeira.

This is a combination that uses elements of the last queda combination that I have posted, however the beginning and the end of the combination has varied.

A FEW NOTES:
1. The first movement is like a handspin from a Au. I often practice these by breaking it down very simply by placing my hands down, and then switching my legs as I push of my hands and rotate my body inwards. Then I begin to try to lift my legs within the movement.

2. The second movement is a difficult one, and looks easy but I have found it a hard one to teach. The timing of when to switch the legs is a crucial point. The other thing is when I push off my feet I do not go over my wrists. If I go over it will turn into another movement all together and will not look the same at all. So I try to project my legs around. I switch the legs early and go into the queda position early. When I am in the queda with my legs wide open I am in a kind of L-shape position with my body and my legs. Then my legs swivel around and my body and legs reach a straight line.

3. At this point that is when I push off the other hand and swap the queda side. Remember, the positioning of the leg behind (in the case in the video the left leg) is crucial to ensuring that I am facing my partner when doing this exercise.

4. The last part is bringing that arm in to queda into, and then sweeping around into an S-Au, like the S-dobrado but just trying to lift those hips up further to come around like an au.

I hope you enjoy this combination, would love to hear any feedback you have about this combo, and keep a look out for more to come!

Stumble It!

The Raiz in Capoeira is one of those movements that constantly needs work. The Raiz constantly changes and can look different depending on the angle of projection and the height of your first leg swinging.

The third movement is the most common kind of raiz, with a step into the movement.
The step provides a small kind of run up.

Stumble It!

Here are a few more capoeira backsaults for your enjoyment.
Remember, that this is only for reference, they should not be used as a ‘tutorial’ or replaced for a qualified teacher.
All of these saults are dangerous and it is always best to have a qualified teacher to be able to take you through the necessary steps.

1. Split Leg Sidesault.

A FEW NOTES:
1. when I come out of my round off, I generally try to land side on. This makes it easier so that I do not have to skew my body when I am in the air.
2. When I am in the air I pull my left leg up towards my head and let my right leg lag. I sometimes pull it towards the front of my face or to the side of my head depending. They both give a different effect.
3. Before I attempted this sault I made sure that I had plenty of height and time in the air.

2. One legged backsault

A FEW NOTES:
1. From the round off (that only lands one leg instead of two), I kick the right leg through hard. I think about my right leg as the one that gets the momentum, and the left as one that gets the height.

2. As soon as I land the left leg in the roundoff I try to jump off of it straight away. The longer I wait to jump the more momentum I use. So the jumping comes more from the ankle than the quads/knees.

3. I use my arms to help with the whip around and also for balance. I push through with the chest, and most of the rotation and power comes from driving the hips.

3. 360 Backsault.

A FEW NOTES:
1. Before I attempted this I made sure I could do layouts and layout half twists.
2. I try to spot the ground as a reference point as I spin my body around.
3. I use my arms in a particular way to help with the twist.
4. I make sure I get as much height as possible before twisting.

Stumble It!

Just a few things to pay attention to in the first combination:

1. When I am swinging the left leg around I make sure I rotate it all the way until my bum is facing the partner. (this enables me to not end up facing a different direction).

“bum facing partner”

2. When I go into the queda de rins position, my body and my legs are in an L-shape, this enables me to sweep the legs over a longer range of motion. Otherwise, if I was to begin with my body and my legs straight, All the rotation would have to come from spinning on the palm (which is a lot harder and a different movement).

“L-shape”

3. When my legs are straight with my body, I bend the left leg in and push up off of the left hand. The closer that left foot lands near my hand the easier it is to push out. If I try to rotate my legs past the straight body/leg position, and curve my legs around, I will probably hyperflex my wrist which will be bad and hurt my wrist a lot.
Splitting the legs in the air adds to the illusion and the effect of the movement, the more I can split and have straight legs the better it looks.

“push out position”

4. I do not actually rotate the wrist until I have landed my feet. When I push up and out of the position I rotate my wrist to help take pressure off of it, but whilst in the movement it is not really necessary.

“hand close to knee, wrist rotated”

THE SECOND COMBINATION- Observations:

1. Once I have completed the first queda de rins I push off my right hand and bring it in towards my body. This helps me to roll onto the other side (my right queda).

“Push off the right hand position”

“right hand landed in the right position”

2. Once I am in the right queda position I pay special attention to my right leg. I make sure that it reaches in front of me and around as much as possible. This is really important, and the key for me to be able to push up into my ponte (backbend) whilst still being able to watch and face my partner.

“look how far around I have put my right leg…”

3. Once I am in the ponte, I bring that left hand in towards my body (repositioning the hand) and lower myself onto that queda. From their I can do 2 things. I can choose to lift the left leg and push and jump around with the right, or I can push around off of both legs at the same time. Either way I need to bring that left leg into a crouching position, and land that left foot near my left hand.

If anyone has any questions/queries and or comments please don’t hesitate to ask!

Chan.

Stumble It!

Capoeira Acrobatics is spontaneous, agile and sometimes mysterious, I remember watching countless amounts of videos, searching the world for new tricks, different movements. The more I have experimented and tried different movements the more I have come to realise three things:

1. It is always better to have an instructor who understands the movement to go through it with you.
2. You should always try and build up the necessary areas of the body that are needed for that type of movement BEFORE you attempt to do it.
3. The movement should be broken down into certain steps, and it is these steps that should be practiced seperately before putting it together.

Remember, this movement is only from what I have experienced and learnt through my journey of capoeira, you should always listen to your instructor first and follow their instruction. Many styles have many in-depth reasons for doing things a particular way, so it is always my recommendation with everything you do, to follow your instructor.

I have written down a few notes on the observations that I have found over the years of practicing them.

1. Observe how far I throw my arms back and also the amount I bend in the knees. The knees do not need to bend that much at the start of the jump, as I want to pop it up instead of push it up. The arms go back far to help build the momentum as I swing them hard and up.

6. Backsaults are scary, and dangerous without the proper training and teacher. So pick both wisely before thinking about attempting one.

Stumble It!