Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39727 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Digital Sound, Director's Cut, Dolby, DVD, Full length, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, German, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Customer Reviews

Capoeira e jogo, dança, malicia, alegria, briga, sentimento...
This Dvd is a documentary of the Capoeira's development in Switzerland. The main actor of the "Capoeira Gerais" group are introduced and tried to explain their passion and the Capoeira's meaning for them...

It's a share of experience and Roda's demonstration that is actually display in this DVD.
No, Capoeira is not a Dance just an "ignorant" would say such a comment, no Capoeira is not just for man, it's for everybody no matter the origine, sex or age.

Actually Chinese is the most spoken language in the world and no it's not translated to Chinese... Nothing is perfect

Axe

Great Brazilian Dance, Poor Swiss Broadcast
A Swiss station recorded Brazilian capoeira dancers who brought their art to Europe.
Unlike "Paris Is Burning" that focused on interviews and was scant on coverage of the actual dance, this documentary would interview people for one minute and then show about 5 minutes of uninterrupted dancing. Furthermore, the interviewed discussions were simplistic. One person said, "The music cannot be separated from the dance." Okay, why is that? Another says, "The berimbau is important." Is that the basic beat or one of the African instruments shown? The documentary says there are about 3 capoeira styles but then never differentiates one from another. Various moves are never explained or given names.
As beautiful as the dancing is, most people could not do it. This is not something easy like the Macarena. Dancers were consistently young, athletic, and thin. Most people could not do the cartwheels and headspins performed here. There is no discussion that capoeira will mostly be a spectator's activity.
In the United States, there is a problematic history of appropriation in which white artists become famous imitating or redoing art that black people created and for which they receive inadequate credit. It was wonderful to see white Swiss and black Brazilians performing and having fun together. Still, I hear that things go out of fashion quickly in Europe. What happens to black capoeiristas in Europe once whites have moved on to the next fad?
Gender is totally left off the picture, even though its absence will stand out greatly to critical viewers. The grand majority of the dancers were male. There are some white female dancers seen. There are black or biracial female Brazilians in thongs, shaking their bodies, but not performing capoeira. Are women forbidden from doing the dance in Brazil? It's associated with fighting and would a female capoeirista seem unladylike? The dance involves so many flips that women dancers are at great risk of exposing their upper-body private parts. In some African-derived traditions, women are not allowed to perform certain things, the drums for example. Is this the rule in Brazilian capoeira? As the Brazilian men travelled to Europe, did they let women in because they knew any exclusion would be seen as discriminatory? Do Swiss women really want to perform a dance that excludes native Brazilian counterparts?
The title of this work is never translated. Who knows what "Na Veia" means? Also, this has many subtitles, but excludes Spanish subtitles. Thus, this disc must have been designed for Europeans. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States and this oversight would usually be deemed a problem here.