PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Maria José Somerlate Barbosa TI - Capoeira: A gramática do corpo e a dança das palavras AID - 10.1353/lbr.2005.0019 DP - 2005 Jun 01 TA - Luso-Brazilian Review PG - 78--98 VI - 42 IP - 1 4099 - http://lbr.uwpress.org/content/42/1/78.short 4100 - http://lbr.uwpress.org/content/42/1/78.full SO - Luso-Braz Rev2005 Jun 01; 42 AB - This study analyzes capoeira’s musical and cultural dialogue, discussing how the songs illustrate, control, and serve a mediating function during the games. The lyrics are crucial for a roda’s development since they determine the velocity of the game, dictate the mood of the players, and ease or add tension to the ring. The poetic discourse of the lyrics of capoeira songs—conveyed in part by ironies, inversions, half-hidden meanings, metaphors, poetic tension, and symbolic references—finds a counterpart in the choreographed movements of the capoeiristas’ bodies. The multiple connotations of the words and their floating meanings parallel the slippery characteristics of a “ginga” and other elliptical or inverted movements which embody the very nature of capoeira’s philosophy and history. In addition to the “language of the game,” this study examines other types of cultural and linguistic dialogues, addressing the interplay between Capoeira Angola and Regional, and analyzing capoeira’s dialogue with Brazilian culture, popular religions, and history.