[N.B]

I think that theory; 'Capoeira was a martial art disguised as a dance' has really fallen out of favour.
Increasingly I'm hearing (from books and from different teachers) that this theory is now outdated and out of fashion due to evidence which suggests that African slaves in Brazil had many forms of their culture oppressed, including dancing. Therefore, disguising their martial art as a dance would seem to make little sense. Why disguise something outlawed as something else which was also outlawed?

The current belief is that Capoeira was an amalgamation of many forms of African culture, specifically African slave culture. As all forms of cultural expression were oppressed (martial arts, music, dance, acting) slaves would come together in secret underground meetings and practice all the aspects of their culture which were suppressed. Eventually, different elements of these individual things came together (whether this happened naturally or perhaps because the slaves had limited time to gather together is not yet known) to create an early ancestor of the Capoeira Angola we see today.

There you go, that's pretty much I know (for now) on that matter, I can only rely on what I've read, since this research was done by people which much more historical experience and time than me.


So now you know, next time someone says to you "Capoeira was a martial art disguised as a dance" get a wet fish, slap them round the face* and tell them, "well that theory is probably not true because..." etc

*wet fish slapping optional