No one’s yawning now, eh ? xD

No one in my university knows capoeira (not exactly popular in Egypt) so unless they played Tekken…i have no way of explaining to them what it is

One time I posted a status update on Facebook and got a ton of comments simply saying “WTH are you saying dude ?!” mostly from girls
I just posted some Youtube videos and said: See that ?, that’s what i play lol

@faisca: i love the “Fight for dancers…” line too; i can almost see myself in Hollywood cinematics and gladiator soundtrack playing

I hear the “murder on the knees” part too, haha. I always joke about how I’ll be a cripple by the time I’m 40. It’s never fun to hear “click click click” when you’re bending the knees. But oh well, all for the good of the game.

Rapadura, I agree with you about the “too poetic” thing, but it is a great explanation. Though, you could probably shorten it to one part, like, “It is a fight for dancers and a dance for gladiators.” I like that line.

Capoeira might be beautiful now, but it has origins bloodier than a shark attack. To explain the philosophies, histories, theories, applications and insights of Capoeira to someone lacking a rudimentary understanding is like swimming up a freaking waterfall.

One time, though, I suceeded. It was with this dude in the Martial Arts section of a Barnes and Noble in New York City. I like to strike up conversations with other people in that section. Some people just ignore me, but every now and then I get someone who wants to talk as much as I do.

This was a cool guy. Warehouse worker who painted in his spare time, and did Baguazheng to help his knee problems. I was in the city in the first place to go to a class at Capoeira Angola and had it on the brain. I explained how it was used on plantations, the quilombos, the Maltas, Bimba and Pastinha, the origins (my personal theory is that someone out there knows the origins of Capoeira. They just don’t say because that would kill some of the mystique. Like actually finding where the Giant Squids are). And he asked me questions (mostly about the berimbau).

So, my personal theory is that it’s not a hard task with someone who has free time, an interest in the martial arts, dance or something else relevant, and absolutely no silly preconceptions.

As for being relevant to the question, my standard explanation is “Capoeira is a martial art, a dance, a game and a hundred other things that are hard to explain in English. It’s also murder on my knees and so fun that I do it anyway.”

But as for explaining it to some people… bleh, Youtube.