EXBERLINER Issue 170, April 2018

CAPOEIRA
Berlin’s Angola godfather
Master Rosalvo Dos Santos has made it his mission to
train an army of German capoeristas. By Aqueena Crisp
With its combination of dance,
acrobatics, martial arts and
live music, it’s not hard to see
capoeira’s appeal. There are at
least 15 studios dedicated to the Brazilian sport
in Berlin, and countless more gyms and yoga
studios offering classes (see sidebar). But when
capoeira mestre (master) Rosalvo Dos Santos
came here in 1989, it was a different story.
“There were a few Brazilians teaching
capoeira here, but I realised right away that
none of them knew how to execute and teach
it correctly,” says the 50-year-old Brazilian native.
“There are two types of capoeira, Angola
and Regional, but they never explained the
difference. They were just combining random
movements from both without understanding
the meaning behind what they were doing.”
Dos Sontos, on the other hand, was a pure
Angoleiro. Less aggressive and more expressive
than the Regional style, Angola hews
closest to capoeira’s beginnings as a martial
art among fugitive Angolan slaves in 16thcentury
Brazil. It’s that style that Dos Sontos
fell in love with as a 16-year-old growing up
in Salvador, a coastal city reputed for the
vibrancy of its Afro-Brazilian cultural blend.
“A friend of mine from school was in a small
capoeira group, and he convinced me to come
watch them practice. After watching for
long enough, I asked if I could join.”
By 19, after some time
spent studying under
legendary mestre Cobra
Mansa, he was
already teaching
capoeira to a theatre group in his home town.
“I didn’t advertise my work – I didn’t even
charge anyone for attending my classes in the
beginning. I just thought that I would do it as
a hobby. But people kept on coming to me.”
Abandoning his original plans to become a
mechanic in his stepfather’s auto workshop,
Dos Salvos co-founded the group Filhos de
Angola (“sons of Angola”) in 1984.
Persuaded to move to Berlin by his now
ex-wife, he made it his sole mission to make
sure Germans knew what Capoeira Angola
truly was. He found a kindred spirit in Susy
Oesterreicher, a German capoerista who’d
begun practicing the sport in 1989 and was
also frustrated with the quality of the classes
in Berlin. In 1997, the pair set up Academie
Jangada, the first-ever Capoeira Angola school
in all of Europe.
Now operating out of Prenzlauer Berg’s
Kulturbrauerei, Jangada covers everything
from aerial yoga to breakdancing, but it’s
Rosalvo and Oesterreicher’s capoeira classes
that remain the most in-demand. When he’s
not teaching there, Dos Santos is spreading
the gospel at international Capoeira Angola
meetings and workshops. Ironically, with a
German teaching partner and a mix of German
and international students, he spends
little time among fellow Brazilians. “I used to
be involved in the ‘scene’, but not anymore.
After a while, you keep seeing the same faces,
it gets less exciting... and being an instructor
just takes so much out of you, you don’t have
the energy to do anything else.”
Dos Santos’ ultimate dream is to bring a
German all the way up to the mestre level,
capoeira’s highest honour. “It isn’t as simple
as it sounds. People start training, and then
something comes up and they just drop
everything and don’t return. But I still believe
that one day, one of my students will become
a capoeira master.” n
German Palomeque
GLOSSARY
JOGO: “Game,” the term for a typical capoeira session. RODA: The “wheel” where the game is played. Participants form a
circle and sing, clap and play instruments as two capoeiristas enter and show off their skills. BERIMBAU: Capoeira’s signature
instrument, a one-stringed bow that dictates the rhythm of the game. Often played together with one or more Pandeiros (a
tambourine-like frame drum) and Atabaques (a large wooden hand drum). MESTRE: Capoeira’s highest ranking, represented by
a white belt and awarded only to those who make a lifetime commitment to learning and instructing the sport.
12 EXBERLINER 170