It’s fighting, dancing, exercise. Learn about capoeira at this Tacoma studio
In a sunny, wood-floored studio space above the shops in Tacoma’s antique row lie the practitioners of a centuries-old cultural art form.
At once a style of martial arts, a spiritual practice and a form of self defense, it came together from an amalgamation of dances, fighting techniques and rituals from people across Africa who were enslaved and brought to colonial Brazil. Called capoeira, it has continued to foster a sense of community and belonging for participants in Tacoma since 2011.
The organizers behind the Tacoma Capoeira Center hope a new studio space at 755 Broadway in downtown that opened last month will draw more participants who will maintain the art form’s traditions – all free of charge.
Thanks to a sponsorship from Tacoma Creates, True “De Verdade” Emeka teaches Capoeira Angola – a more traditional style of capoeira – to the center’s wide variety of participants. Emeka said some are drawn to capoeira because of its similarity to other forms of martial arts and the spirit of resistance it’s steeped in.
Its origins in various aspects of West African culture meant that the art form was outlawed for a time in colonial Brazil to discourage enslaved people from continuing to preserve their culture. But capoeira has endured, and that same mission is what drives its practitioners today.
“The ways in which those aspects of culture, elements of resistance, survive despite oppression just is really salient to today’s life here in America – a strong need for liberation as art, and resistance as art,” Emeka told The News Tribune during a recent interview. “That’s what gets me into it. That’s what keeps my heart.”
Syed Taqi, or Mestre Syed as he is known to his students, first discovered capoeira as a teenager in Seattle and came to the art form after leaving a harsh childhood in Chicago. The center’s work to keep capoeira classes in Tacoma free, he said, is part of his effort to give back to people who come from poor and working-class backgrounds as he did, so they might also benefit as he did.
“It was just so different from what I was used to, and just learning about the history, what it was about, profoundly changed my outlook and life,” he said.
Taqi, who founded the Tacoma Capoeira Center, said a typical class includes both movement and music, where students practice particular moves or techniques and also learn to sing in Brazilian Portuguese or play the berimbau, a single-stringed traditional Angolan musical instrument.
“Without music, there is no capoeira, and it would end up becoming more of like a fight,” Taqi told The News Tribune. “The music helps create the environment of a game, and we listen to the music and to the pace music, so we play to the pace of the music.”
Others are drawn to it for the coordination, movement and exercise it promotes. Israel Alvarez, a regular student at the Tacoma Capoeira Center, said he began learning capoeira when he was serving in the military in South Korea and practicing other forms of martial arts in his spare time. When he was later stationed in Washington, Alvarez switched to the Tacoma Capoeira Center, and has been there ever since.
Not only has he enjoyed the community, it has served as a form of calisthenic exercise for him.
“It supplements my regular training, because it keeps me very agile, keeps me thinking in an unconventional way,” Alvarez said.
The Tacoma Capoeira Center offers classes two to three days a week for kids, teens and adults. Visit tacomacapoeiracenter.com to learn more and sign up for a class.
