Malicia - it place in movement

[benjie]

Ido,
I believe within the maze of capoeira lore and tradition certain hints to facilitate progress can be found. Their is the famouse Term Malicia which is often used and dissected most often in terms of philosophy. I sense that malicia is a term that also impacts movement quality.
I would be really interested to hear what you think or feel about this term in relation to Movement and training.

Sincerely
Benjie

[portaldo]

Malicia is evil. That is the simple and direct translation of the word.
One can manifest evil in many ways but because capoeira is a physical manifestation, it is very common to see malicia manifested in a capoeirista's movements and choice of movements.
The movement quality is not directly related to this. It can be there or be absent. Do not mix 'style' with quality.

An example of manifestation of malicia in one's movements will be the choice of the placement of your elbow for example. Placing it in a position that can cause harm to your partner in the game is a very common martial choice that hides as an artistic choice... (It is considered nowdays to 'look cool' but the origin of this choice of posture is functional and not artistic)

I think you may have misplaced mandinga instead of malicia. Two terms that are often confused one with the other, even by some famous capoeira authors. But this is a whole different discussion, volumes have been written on the subject..
Ido.

[benjie]

Ido,
This is why I love this forum its one of the few places where we can discuss openly things capoeira .

I come from the Caribbean ( Trinidad & Tobago ) with many traditional martial arts similar in structure to capoeira ( kalinda ( stick Fighting) , Jab-jab (whip fighting ), acrobatic dances Bongo ( similar to Fervo) . I am also from one of the islands with a strong Shango ( similar to candomble )tradition. This background flavours the way I view capoeira.

There is a story told of capoeira birth - basically Isu ( the trickster )sat at a cross road playing a Berimbau that King Solomon wanted to cross on his journey to Heaven. In crossing this junction he was confronted by a Imp and forced to dance his way across.This battle /dance was the first Roda.

Isu place is often misunderstood they think he is a trickster ( they often try to make parallel to the Evilone ) but in our tradition this is a false position.

One view of is the "Tricksters" job is to focus the wayward children of man through struggle. This is how I see malicia not as evil but the introduction of intent , context to games......reminders of function . I envisioned Malicia influence as a introduction to stress designed to test , then strengthen flow ...bringing a flavour of potency to our movement .........

I enjoyed your view point it has given me a lot to think about .

Thanks
Bem Te Vi

( Benjie )

[benjie]

Hi,
I thought I would find the story I mentioned and share it for those who never seen it. Though I think its fairly well known.Its a nice story and colors our perception wither we believe its true or not ......

Excerpt from Heritage_Bimba
BY A. A. DECÂNIO FILHO
TRANSLATED BY SHAYNA MCHUGH

THE LEGEND OF CAPOEIRA
One day, Cisnando told me the legend of capoeira’s origin
according to Bimba’s words during Cisnando’s first times in the
“roda”1 of Curuzú.*

Cisnando “painted his skin black”2 (as Paulinho Camafeu would
say!) and spoke with the sinuous style unique to capoeiristas.
Even today I don’t know how to distinguish with clarity, in the toand-
fro embellishments of his prose, that which belongs to
Bimba, the verbal arabesque of the narrator, and the
mythological nucleus of African tradition, “from what came from
inside my imagination or from my heart!”

“It was me
It was my mestre
It was my mestre and me
We exchanged ideas
And I no longer know who my mestre is
Nor who I am!”

In things of the orixás, accuracy matters little; history itself is
made sinuous and enigmatic like the serpentine movement of the
capoeirista in the “jogo de dentro”3
“To please everyone”?! or “to deceive everyone” ?!


It is thus that in a beautiful twilight Solomon, the wisest of kings,
went tranquilly along the path of life “without thinking… without
1 Popular gathering around an open circular space, where the players
practice capoeira in a festive manner, under the command of a mestre
and to the rhythm of the orchestra

* Curuzú is a region of the predominantly black neighborhood of
Liberdade in Salvador
2 Assumed the African cultural habits
3 Inside game, capoeira game at a short distance, simulating a fight with
a cold steel weapon

imagining” dangers?! The hour of Exú?!!!?* – when he was
surprised by nightfall and questioned by a crossroads that sang
from the bulge of a cabaça, the rhythm marked by the caxixis,
intermingled with the jingle of the “dobrao,”4 under the baton of
an arco5 commanded by an “arami.”6
“My berimbau is an instrument of just one cord!” And a sad,
clever voice continued through the middle of the night,
enchanting the traveler, singing him to sleep, an invitation to
dream! – beginning a game, a fight between Consciousness and
Dream! Between Magic and the Self! Even today I continue
dreaming a marvelous ballet! “The black Saci,** grappling with
the target São Salomão, like cobras on the ground, to see who
was stronger! Iê-ê-ê-ê! The capoeira ballet of Bahia!

* Exú is another orixá, the messenger between gods and men, and has
the reputation for being clever/mischievous/evil
4 Old copper coin used by berimbau players to modulate the sound
5 Curved branch that stretches the steel wire of the berimbau
6 Arame, steel wire, stretched as the string of the musical instrument

** Saci is a figure of Brazilian mythology typically represented as a onelegged
black man with a pipe and red cap. He is a solitary, lives in the
woods, and