The texts

• CAPOEIRA IS A FIGHT THAT LOOKS LIKE A DANCE

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  MANCHETE at the Folklore Congress, Bahia
  Photography by Jader Neves
  31st August 1957

  Photo 1: The "benção" is one of the most dangerous kicks: the foot in the face of the adversary, for years prohibited by the police, capoeira, very prestigious in Bahia, is today folklore.

  At the Conceição da Praia party, capoeira has its great day in Bahia: on the Market Ramp the sounds of the berimbaus fill the night and the capoeiristas party until the Sun rises. But on all the Sundays, party or no party, there's "vadiação" at the Valdemar, Vicente Pastinha or any other famous mestre's shrines. It's the Sunday preparation for the great annual exhibition on the 8th December.

  They fight in white, in a ritual without blood, to the berimbau.

  Photo 2: The capoeirista is before anything agile. He need to learn to jump and fall.

  Capoeira is a fight. But it's also a dance: a coreographic spectacle where the fighters-dancers execute violent steps of the modern ballet. Music comes from the songs and from berimbaus accompanied by handclaps, pandeiros and reco-recos. The capoeiristas, when they are good, use white clothes that come out clean from the fight: a good fighter wriggles on the ground like a worm, but doesn't dirty himself. Brought from Angola by the black slaves capoeira was an efficient weapon against forest captains. Today, the folk ritual is almost only for fun.

  Photo 3: While the capoeiristas show off, the onlookers sing: "Eh, eh, camarada / ferro de engomar, camarada / água de beber, camarada / face de cortar, camarada". In their songs, the capoeiristas never sing bravados

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  III Brazilian Folklore Congress

  1st July 1957

  Última Hora, RJ

  Under the presidency of President Juscelino Kubitschek, tomorrow starts in Salvador the III Brazilian Folklore Congress, summoned by the IBECC and organized by the National Commission and the Bahian Folklore Commission.

  The themes include the following subjects: Protection for the handycraft and the folk based home industry. Bahian and sea and river folklore of Brazil. There will be Round-tables debating following subjects: Folklore and Social Sciences, Romance of Brazil, Protection to the folk events and folk languages.

  Besides the official and private entities there have been representatives designated already, almong them the University of Paraná and of Rio Grande do Sul, the National School of Music of the University of Brazil, to the Municipal Museum of Folklore, the Brazilian Press Association, the Faculty of Philosphy of the University of Minas Gerais, the Brazilian Conservatory of Music, the Music Academy of Lorenzo Fernandes, the Metropolitan Students Union and many other. Will take part dr. Alvaro de Oliveira e Souza, representing the Town Hall, dr. Djalma Maranhão, mayor of Natal and prof. Lula Heitor, the head of the Music Departement, of UNESCO.

  During the Congress, there will be a Folklore Festival, with shows from various bahian folk artists and there will be the Museum of Folk Art open in the Bahian Feminine Institute.

  The mayor of Salvador will offer the congess-goers lunch in the restaurant of the Abaeté lake, with a dance show and folk songs. There will be exhibitions of movies and records.

  The Honorary Presidents of the Congress and the president of the Republic, Cardeal Primas, the ministers of Exterior Relations and of the Education and Culture, the mayor of Salvador and the president of IBECC.

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  The Music at the III Brazilian Folklore Congress

  20th June 1957
  Diário de Notícias, RJ

  There will be, from 2nd to 7th July in the coming month, in Salvador, the III Brazilian Folklore Congress, promoted by the IBECC. On its program there are various shows of folk songs and dances, such as Capoeira, Afoché, Samba and Maculelê, besides an original and interesting show, of great importance to the study of the afro-brazilian rhythm, that will consist of a beat to all the orixas, that exist in the Bahian cult, by atabaques.

  In the Bahian Music School, there will be an audition of folk records of Bahia, recorded by the SecretariateNa Escola de Música da Bahia, haverá uam audição de discos foclóricos da Bahia, gravados pela State Secretariat of Education and Culture, under the orientation of prof. Paulo Jatobá.

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  Expositions and shows at the III Brazilian Folklore Congress

  14th July 1957
  Diário de Notícias

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  Maculelê

  In the courtyard of the Feminine Institute there was a Maculelê show, a popular dance existing in Santo Amaro in this State. It's a dance of the african origin, that, according to the tradition, celebrates the freeing of slaves.

  The group is made of 15 showmen, being accompanied by an orchestra of 3 drums, 1 caxixi and 1 agogô. The verses are sung to the melody that reminds of the music of candomblé de caboclo.

  The Maculelê, headed by Paulo Andrade (Popó), was warmly welcomed.

  After the Maculelê, the Institute management offered the guests regional food, which constitued of typical Bahian dishes.