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INTERVIEW WITH MESTRE SUASSUNA Q1. How did you discover capoeira? It was capoeira that discovered me. I started to practice for health reasons. I had a problem, my legs were very weak, and the doctor advised me to practice capoeira that at the time was the only sport available in my region, the interior of the state of Bahia. I started capoeira in the streets of Itabuna, there I learned a lot from street capoeiristas: angoleiros, regional, students of Mestre Bimba. At the beginning I didn't like capoeira, I hated it and I was doing it only for health reasons. My mother was dragging me to do it in the street. Later in 1960 they opened a gym and I started to participate as well. I started to enjoy it only after 2 years, thanks to the support of other capoeiristas that gave me strength to continue and improve. Then they started to discover me, I took part in shows and it gave me a lot of confidence as a teen-ager. Q2. Who was your first Mestre? My first teachers were those capoeiristas in the Reconcavo da Bahia, later I went to Salvador were I studied with Mestre Canjiquinha and I also got in contact with the capoeira of Mestre Bimba, Caiçara, Joao Pequeno, Mestre Pastinha. I didn't get involved with only one system of capoeira, I like capoeira in general, all kinds: Angola, regional, traditional, contemporary. Q3. For how many years have you been teaching capoeira? I started teaching in 1962, 44 years ago. Q4. What was the most significant moment of your career as capoeirista? Each year, each period has its special moment. I can only say that if I had to start my capoeira career all over again, I would do it. Q5. What is capoeira? It is a fight, it is folklore, it is a divine practice. Its practice has so many benefits that we cannot distinguish them and define exactly what is capoeira. There are so many beautiful things: the music, the friendship, the health, the fight, the folklore. Capoeira is immense and we cannot explain it all. Some people think of capoeira only as fight, or as confrontation without perceiving that it has so much more to offer beside the quarrels for the name of the group or the title of mestre. I think of it more in the general sense of human participation: in the music, in the folklore, in the joy. I was to a school recently and there were people from different groups all playing together in the roda. That's capoeira for me "alegria" and to be happy to do what you are doing. Q6. What is your goal in teaching capoeira? My goal is to offer everybody the same opportunity that I had to travel the world, meet different people and make friends. My objective is to see capoeira grow in general, independently from my group "Cordao de Ouro". I am the godfather of many other groups and I would like capoeira to develop and transform into a very high level of friendship and harmony. Q7. What are the main characteristics of a good capoeirista? Several, and some of them have been forgotten. One characteristic of my age was the humility, the politeness, the simplicity; vanity was the last thing. A good capoeirista of course likes everything of capoeira: the beats, the berimbau, the game; everything else is secondary. Today a lot of capoeiristas are very arrogant, vain and these are negative aspects. A good capoeirista is humble, polite and he knows that all the other capoeiristas are brothers and human beings. Q8. What is your advice to improve capoeira training? Capoeira training doesn't need to be improved. What need to be improved are the minds of the people. Today the minds are very confused, some think that capoeira is their own, or is their group's. All training is correct what needs to be improved are the minds. We need to improve the people. Some capoeiristas are dragging capoeira in the wrong direction, creating a dangerous environment and a turbulent climate. People that don't even know each other are already enemies. This needs to be improved. However, I believe that capoeira goes on independently, it doesn't need capoeiristas, it carries them not viceversa. Capoeira is laughing at all these vanities, at these capoeiristas that think they own the world of capoeira. We need to improve this vision of capoeira. Q9. What is your favorite capoeira song? At the moment I like this song from Mestre Acordeon's latest CD, in which he proposes a new style of capoeira music. Q10. What is the future of capoeira? Currently, I don't see much advancement in capoeira, as I see more of a regression because the capoeiristas are not helping. It is losing certain cultural characteristics. Many capoeiristas are talking about the Olympics, but they need to take more into consideration the cultural aspects of capoeira: the music, the culture… Some groups are doing absurd things: like only acrobatics or they introduce different elements alien to capoeira. This is my worry at the moment, but I'm sure that the only one that is going to win will be capoeira itself, not one group. Today capoeira is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Only here in my school this year I have already graduated 20 capoeiristas that are teaching outside Brazil. Other groups are also growing around the world, capoeiristas travel with their berimbaus, their poems, and capoeira shows them the way. Capoeira brings them places, it gives them confidence. Capoeiristas don't make capoeira, quite opposite: it is capoeira that makes capoeiristas.And if you make mistakes, sooner or later capoeira will make you pay for them.
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