Capoeira The Jogo de Angola from Luanda to Cyberspace, Volume Two

The second volume of a comprehensive history of the art and sport of capoeira, this book picks up the story where volume I finished: in the first decades of the 20th century. It describes the capoeira "Bamba," mestre Bimba, who became renowned as a fighting champion in Bahia and opened the first legal academy during the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas. The reader follows the development of the schism between the Regional and the older, original style, known as Capoeira Angola, whose most high profile teacher was Mestre Pastinha. The book provides fascinating insights into the rapid explosion of capoeira internationally, and is packed with interviews with Capoeira Mestres working in Brazil, Europe, and the USA. This informative work covers the extraordinarily diverse contemporary capoeira scene, with information on the contemporary debates within the capoeira community. This book addresses such questions as its influence, if any, on Japanese fighting arts; capoeira's urban mythologized influence on "break dancing," and its new popularity among the Hollywood glitterati. This book is filled with useful information for those faced with the often-confusing array of images and ideas circulating in the virtual world of capoeira in cyberspace. This volume ends with the wisdom of a number of mestres speaking about their experiences teaching capoeira professionally all over the world.

Gerard Taylor has been practicing capoeira since the 1980s. In 1996 he received the “formado” grade and co-founded the Oslo Capoeira Klubb the same year. The author of three previous books on the subject, he lives in Norway.