Capoeira Regional

Capoeira Regional is a style of capoeira created by Bimba's reform of traditional capoeira in the 1930s. Capoeira regional is presented as a Brazilian product and as a legitimate and effective martial art.

The base of capoeira regional is the traditional capoeira Angola without many of the aspects that were impractical in a real fight. Training focuses mainly on attack, dodging and counter-attack, giving high importance to precision and discipline. Bimba also added various moves from other arts, notably the batuque, an old street fight game played by his father.

The traditions of roda and capoeira game were kept, being used to put into practice what was learned during training.

History
Capoeira Regional began to take form in the 1920s, when Mestre Bimba met his future student, José Cisnando Lima. Both believed that capoeira was losing its martial side and concluded there was a need to re-strengthen and structure it. Bimba created his sequências de ensino (teaching combinations) and created capoeira's first teaching method. Advised by Cisnando, Bimba decided to call his style Luta Regional Baiana, as capoeira was still illegal at that time.

The Luta Regional Baiana soon became popular, finally changing capoeira's bad image. Mestre Bimba made many presentations of his new style, but the best known was the one made at 1953 to Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas, where the president would say: "A Capoeira é o único esporte verdadeiramente nacional" (Capoeira is the only truly national sport).

Characteristics
Capoeira Regional showcases rapid, acrobatic kicks, often appealing to younger participants. Most regional capoeira games are brief, lasting a maximum of two minutes before participants switch out.

Ranking
Capoeira Regional also introduced the first ranking method in capoeira. Regional had three levels: calouro (freshman), formado (graduated) and formado especializado (specialist). After 1964, when a student completed a course, a special celebration ceremony occurred, ending with the teacher tying a silk scarf around the capoeirista's neck.