Capoeira and Kalaripayattu

Someday, I want to learn how to do this.

Capoeira was a martial art developed by African slaves in Brazil. Its practice was outlawed by the colonials, and so to disguise the martial aspect, they made the actions look more dance-like. That seemed to have fooled the villainous colonizers!

The sport is non contact and sparring is done surrounded by a circle of the other artists who clap, sing and play drums! They seem to be very good at doing the spinning kicks I have trouble with. In fact most of the kicks seem to involve spinning. A person I know taking a class said that the first thing you practice is cartwheels.

While I'm on the subject of other martial arts, here is a video of the Indian martial art Kalaripayattu. Its a fairly ancient art.

It seems to be practiced almost exclusively in the southern part of India, and is even popular there. But growing up in northern India, I had no exposure to it at all. (Taekwondo and Karate are the most widely learnt martial arts in India) Here is an interesting article on the state of traditional martial arts in India. I had no idea for example that the Kalari martial art was intricately related to the traditional system of medicine, Ayurveda, Indian classical dance forms and Yoga. By way of that article, I found this nicely written and detailed article on the practice of Kalari.