Mestre Paulinho Sabiá
Mestre Paulinho Sabiá started capoeira at the age of ten, in the streets of Niterói, in 1969.
He is a composed, calm and slender man who plays a silent, airborne capoeira, full of finesse and lightness. It was in the street that, as a child, he watched people play and began to learn. In 1972 he joined the Rio Antigo group. At the time, capoeira was a discriminated practice, reserved for outcasts and the poor (which, in a country where social appearance matters a great deal, made it hard to claim openly). It was known as “suburban capoeira”. Some had had contact with Mestre Bimba. They imitated what they had seen without belonging to any particular style.
Today, Paulinho Sabiá is a mestre of the Capoeira Brasil group, which he founded on 14 January 1989 with Mestre Paulão do Ceará and Mestre Boneco. All three came from the Senzala group, which they left in 1986. By working together, the three athletes created a new teaching method, developing creativity and jumps in the game. It was Mestre Paulão who came up with the idea while watching the young children who worked as street vendors. To dodge attacks, he created new, rather acrobatic techniques. Before that, the player would come to the foot of the berimbau, jump, and the game would begin.
The group practises the Regional style but also includes Angola classes, which are essential for improving one’s game. The group aims to teach the game the way Mestre Bimba learned it, not the way he taught it.
For 18 years, Mestre Paulinho Sabiá has been running a project close to his heart: helping and training severely underprivileged children. The work involves registering the children, giving them a shower before and after class, offering them a snack and, once a month, cutting their hair. Mestre Sabiá tells us it is a personal project he carries out without any financial support. However, he is developing a new project based on the first one, this time with help from the local authorities, which includes Portuguese and literacy classes as well as the involvement of psychologists and social workers to ensure better continuity after classes. The project is called “Criança Cidadã”, and there are others of the same kind within the Capoeira Brasil group in other cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza. Mestre Sabiá explains that through these projects many children find a brighter future than the one that awaited them; some even end up in Europe or the United States teaching in turn. Others, however, can slip into delinquency, like one particular boy who became a notorious good-for-nothing.
Mestre Paulinho Sabiá welcomes the idea of seeing mestres emerge from other countries. He has no preconceptions and even names “work companions” who train students and teachers abroad. It is bound to happen one day, he tells us, without any bitterness. On the subject of women in the world of capoeira, he tells us that their presence is fairly recent: women have only been practising for about thirty years, compared with four centuries for men. In Mestre Bimba’s time, the only woman was Maria Homem (“Maria the Tomboy”), who practised until the 1950s. After the capoeira boom, women became players in their own right, to the point of making it fashionable for women.
Regarding the history of capoeira, Mestre Paulinho Sabiá does not endorse any theory. He says there is no proof that it was born in Africa and even believes it was born in Brazil out of African customs (indeed, the circle – the roda – is an African custom, unlike the line, which is Indigenous). The slaves needed to free and defend themselves. Capoeira is a blend of mixed traditions, such as the zebra dance or the ladja (found in the French Caribbean), which came from slaves of various cultural origins. African ethnic groups were deliberately mixed to prevent revolts. The three hubs of capoeira were Rio de Janeiro, Salvador da Bahia and Recife. Mestre Sabiá cites the oldest document on capoeira, dating from 1738, which concerns the construction of a prison for prostitutes, thieves and capoeira players. This proved that capoeiristas were a class apart, distinct from thieves and other criminals. They worked at political meetings or processions to provide security.
Back then, the “roda” was led by one berimbau and two pandeiros. The atabaque, the reco-reco and the agogô came later. A guitarist accompanied the demonstrations with songs and sung musical improvisations. Mestre Sabiá misses the days when everyone had their own style. Today, he says, everyone moves the same way, without much originality.
Mestre Paulinho Sabiá looks to the future with confidence. He is in favour of competition in capoeira: it is a language of today, though he distinguishes it from an overly sporty capoeira that kills creativity. The competition is called a “capoeira festival” and includes singing, playing the instruments and even making them. There are six performances, solo and in pairs, and eight judges score the style of play, speed and the game, rather like a samba school. Mestre Sabiá supports preserving a certain tradition, which must evolve without altering the essence of capoeira. In the old days there were three berimbaus; today there is only one. What was true in 1910 is no longer in fashion, but the essence remains the same. Mestre Sabiá’s dojo is covered with photos and articles about him, about capoeira, his group, his friends and his students.
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MANTRAS
Leading is not imposing. It is inspiring.
