Performed by many Capoeira groups, samba de roda is a traditional Afro-Brazilian dance & musical form that has been associated with Capoeira for many decades.

He has a passion for Capoeira and displayed his talent in the movie Ocean's Twelve.

He has also trained as a student of Capoeira under Mestre Jelon Vieira and in a number of other disciplines including kung fu at the USA Shaolin Temple and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

He has recently hit the Mestre level in Capoeira.

Mestre João Pequeno dedicated his life to teaching Pastinha's style of Capoeira Angola ever since and has graduated students who today are well-known Mestres in their own right.

Into his 90's, Joao Pequeno continued to teach and practice capoeira at his academy in Forte de Santo Antônio Além do Carmo which has, through the work of Mestre João and GCAP, come to be called the Forte da Capoeira which is off to the north side of the historical center of Salvador, Bahia which is also called Pelourinho.

For over a quarter century, as the founder and artistic director of The Capoeira Foundation, Vieira has guided the dance company, DanceBrazil through critically acclaimed engagements across the United States, including performances at Spoleto Festival USA, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center.

He has taught Capoeira to legendary footballer Pelé and American movie stars Wesley Snipes and Eddie Murphy.

Gianetti has won prizes as a Capoeira fighter.

Capoeira songs may be improvised on the spot, or they may be popular songs written by older, and ancient mestres ( teachers ), and often include accounts of the history of capoeira, or the doings of great mestres.

Existing in many parts of Brazil since colonial times, most notably in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife, it's impossible to tell where and when Capoeira Angola began taking its present form.

Capoeira songs can talk about virtually anything, being it about a historical fact, a famous capoeirista, trivial life facts, hidden messages for players, anything.

Nenel is still responsible for the remarkable cultural and historical legacy his father left him and is president of Filhos de Bimba School of Capoeira.

Present in many countries in every continent, every year Capoeira attracts to Brazil thousands of foreign students and, often, foreign capoeiristas work hard to learn the official Brazilian language, Portuguese, in an effort to better understand and become part of the art.

Symbol of the Brazilian culture, symbol of the ethnic amalgam that characterizes Brazil, symbol of resistance to the oppression, Capoeira definitely changed its image and became a source of pride to Brazilian people.

In some places of Brazil people would call capoeira as playing Angola and, according to Mestre Noronha, the Capoeira school Centro de Capoeira Angola Conceição da Praia, created in Bahia, already used the name Capoeira Angola illegally in the beginning of the 1920 decade.

Capoeira and Candomblé: Conformity and Resistance in Brazil.

Jiu-Jitsu gained fame quickly in Brazil because of the popular fights with Capoeira fighters.

Vicente Joaquim Ferreira Pastinha ( commonly called Mestre Pastinha ) ( April 5, 1889, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil – November 13, 1981 ) was a mestre ( a master practitioner ) of the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira.

His father was also a Capoeirista, or practitioner of Capoeira Angola, the traditional style of Capoeira in Bahia, Brazil.

Upon returning to Brazil, in his home community of Boca do Rio, a bairro of the nation's third-largest city, Salvador, Vieira continues to teach children and young adults the art of Capoeira to build self-esteem, instill self-discipline and raise social consciousness while at the same time becoming a vital part of their own community.

Alejandro Tómas Valdés was a Cellist who joined the band in the 1960s and was also a great Dancer of his own right with him creating the onda-cha as a dance which included Brazil ’ s Capoeira, when the music that he also created was to feature heavy Afro Percussion with the traditional sounds of Cha-cha-cha.

Bimba, analyzing the way many capoeiristas were using their abilities only to impress tourists, believed that Capoeira was losing its efficiency as a martial art.

As the word Capoeira was still forbidden by Brazilian law, Bimba called his new style Luta Regional Baiana ( meaning regional fight from Bahia ).

His work was very well accepted in Salvador and Bimba got the unique opportunity to teach Capoeira to the cultural elite of the city.

The term wasn't new, as during the 19th century Capoeira was in some places referred to as brincar de angola ( meaning playing Angola ) and many other masters, which did not use Pastinha's techniques, adopted it.

In Mestre Bimba's Capoeira Regional, batizado was the first time a new student would play capoeira following the sound of the berimbau.

This tradition was created back when Capoeira practice was considered a crime.

Historically, when Capoeira was still prohibited this toque was used to alert capoeiristas that the police was coming, so they could escape before the practice being discovered.

Pastinha preferred the ludic aspects of the game rather than the martial side, and was much respected by recognized Capoeira masters.

Both believed that Capoeira was losing its martial side and concluded there was a need to restructure it.

Advised by Cisnando, Bimba decided to call his style Luta Regional Baiana, as Capoeira was still illegal at that time.

The traditions of roda and Capoeira game were kept, being used to put into use what was learned during training.

Mestre Bimba made a lot of presentations of his new style, but the most well known was the one made at 1953 to Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas, where the president would say: " A Capoeira é o único esporte verdadeiramente nacional " ( Capoeira is the only truly national sport ).

Richard Meyer was the first fighting game character to use Capoeira.

The Vale Tudo subculture was mainly based in Rio de Janeiro, but many fights also took place in the northern region, as well as the southern region and the Bahia state, where Capoeira is prevalent.

His breakout role was in the 1993 film Only the Strong, in which he played Louis, a Capoeira master who takes a high school's potential failures and turns their lives around by teaching them the Brazilian martial art based on the West African martial art brought by slaves.

Santana was a champion in Gracie Jiujitsu and Capoeira.

Although bossa nova was the prevailing sound of the times, the partnership Baden-Vinicius wanted to transcend the then-fashionable sound by syncretizing Afro-Brazilian forms such as Candomblé, Umbanda and Capoeira with Rio de Janeiro's Samba forms.

The first capoeira academy in Newark, New Jersey Capoeira Arts Center, was founded by Mestre Cigano of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira in 1996.

During the game most Capoeira moves are used, but capoeiristas usually avoid using punches or elbow strikes unless it's a very aggressive game.

Nowadays, even though apelidos are not necessary anymore, the tradition is still very alive not only in Capoeira but in many aspects of Brazilian culture.