As the story goes, the martial art capoeira was created by slaves banned from fighting. They hid combat practice within dance to keep their skills honed. For teacher Alex Filadelfo, learning the artform was a life-saver.
ABU DHABI // Alex Caxias Filadelfo credits his love of the Brazilian martial art capoeira with more than just keeping him fit, it saved his life.
“If I wasn’t a capoeira teacher, I would be dead by now,” said the 49-year-old from Sao Goncalo, who runs the first and only capoeira school in the capital.
If not for the mix of singing, dancing, acrobatics and instruments, Mr Filadelfo said he would have met the same fate as many of his childhood friends.
“A lot of my friends died at 18, 19, from gunshots and stabbings – I was lucky to get out,” said the capoeira mestre (master).
Born and raised in the second most populous city in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Mr Filadelfo shared a one-bedroom home with his parents and five siblings.
“I had a lot of anger from my situation and from not having anything, from being hungry,” he said. “I didn’t care about life, if I was going to get killed I saw it as one less problem for my family.”
After a few near misses on the streets, including when a gun aimed at him misfired, Mr Filadelfo said he first saw capoeira as a chance to become a better fighter in the slums.
“I saw kids in a football field doing kicks and backflips and thought, ‘this can help me in the streets’.
“I was practising four or five times a week and [my teacher] told me ‘you play a rough game here, there is no need for you to fight in the streets any more’.”
Although teaching and performing capoeira took Mr Filadelfo across Brazil, it provided him with little income.
“I didn’t even have enough money to get a passport,” he said. “When a company said they needed capoeiristas in Puerto Rico and would take care of travel expenses I jumped at the opportunity.”
Mr Filadelfo used his brief stint in Puerto Rico in 1989 as a springboard to get to New York where he had been told teachers could earn a living.
Arriving at Long Island without money or basic English, Mr Filadelfo said he had to start from scratch.
“New York was my biggest capoeira stepping stone,” he said.
“There were only five teachers in New York at the time.
“At the start it was difficult to get students because it wasn’t well known. Then the few teachers had a lot of students, I had 60 or 70 student classes at one point.”
In the early 2000s competition got harder with more schools opening and Mr Filadelfo saw his classes shrink significantly.
He decided to up sticks again and moved to Abu Dhabi with his family in 2011.
“I saw the potential for capoeira here but it is still a struggle because of the image,” he said.
“Many guys want to fight and don’t like the idea of dancing.”
With other martial arts such as jiu jitsu and judo appearing more macho and being supported by the Government, capoeira faces stiff competition to attract new fans in the capital.
“But when kids, teenagers and adults try it and see the uniqueness of capoeira and how it combines gymnastics and music as well as self-defence, they love it,” Mr Filadelfo said.
tsubaihi@thenational.ae