♪ singing in Portuguese accompanied by light percussion ♪ [Malandro] I always wanted to train martial arts, but I feel like capoeira found me.

It's just tribal.

♪ singing and percussive music continues ♪ [Chinwe] It's like reconnecting with a way of life that I'd become lost from.

There's a deep-rooted sense of belonging, a sense of self, when I practice capoeira.

♪ singing and percussive music continues ♪ [Malandro] Salve ("Hello" in Portuguese) What is up, everyone?

I'm Ricky Lawson, also known as Malandro, and we are here in the mecca of capoeira, Salvador de Bahia, at the Praia de Ribeira.

And this is "If Cities Can Dance."

♪ singing and percussive music continues ♪ [Chinwe] I've trained with Professor Malandro in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly three years.

And I had a chance to travel with him to Brazil to connect with the source of this art form and see how it's evolved.

♪ rhythmic handclaps and berimbau ♪ ♪ traditional Afro-Brazilian music with guitar and percussion ensemble ♪ [Malandro] The energy, the Black energy, is so strong that anything that arrives in Bahia becomes more Black.

♪ Afro-Brazilian track continues with singing in Portuguese ♪ [Chinwe] Salvador is Bahia's capital city, located off the eastern coast of Brazil and known for being the most African city outside of the continent.

♪ Afro-Brazilian track continues ♪ ♪ Pull, shove the sailor ♪ [Group singing] ♪ Pull, shove ♪ ♪ Watch the wind as it carries us ♪ ♪ Toward the sandbank... ♪ [Malandro] Capoeira is the Bahian culture.

[Group singing] ♪ To play capoeira by the sea ♪ ♪ Malandro sent for me ♪ ♪ To play capoeira by the sea ♪ ♪ Malandro sent for me... ♪ [Malandro] Spirituality is deeply embedded, and it's something that you feel in the rhythms.

♪ plucking of the berimbau ♪ Capoeira is a child that was conceived in Africa, but born and raised in Brazil.

♪ plucking of the berimbau and male choir singing in Portugese ♪ [Chinwe] Enslaved Africans raised up this art form, and it's evolved and survived through the generations.

Today, one of the main lineages practiced is called Capoeira Regional, created by Manuel dos Reis Machado, or better known as Mestre Bimba, featured in this rare footage of him teaching a class.

♪ plucking of the berimbau ♪ [Malandro] Mestre Bimba began to develop a methodology and also rescuing movements that had been lost.

And he couldn't legally at the time call his art form "capoeira."

He had to call it Luta Regional Bahiana, "The Regional Fight of the Bay."

[Chinwe] Capoeira was outlawed in 1890, just after the abolition of slavery, to stop potential uprisings against authorities.

♪ berimbau song ends ♪ ♪ samba/batucada in the style of the 1950s and 1960s ♪ But when Mestre Bimba developed Regional in the late 1920s, his mission was to create a new methodology and philosophy for capoeira to improve its image and for capoeiristas to reclaim their dignity.

♪ samba/batucada in the style of the 1950s and 1960s ♪ It was decriminalized in the 1930s, and by the 1950s, the president of Brazil recognized capoeira as its only true national sport.

♪ singing in Portuguese accompanied by the plucking of the berimbau ♪ [Malandro] Mestre Nenel, who is my teacher, inherited the legacy of Mestre Bimba.

[Mestre Nenel] My father never dissociated his capoeira teachings outside the home with his children.

There was no separation between mestre and father.

And although he's physically absent, he still is my mestre, and all I do in my life is affected and guided by him.

[Malandro] When I met Mestre Nenel and trained at his academy, the Fundação Mestre Bimba, I felt that his school was a perfect fit for me and my capoeira career and my capoeira path.

♪ singing in Portuguese ♪ The energy, the music, the people that were connected to the rhythm-- I had not experienced that in my ten years of capoeira.

[Chinwe] Malandro has been to Brazil a bunch of times, and already in search of his own ancestry, he learned that his ancestors were from the Hausa tribe of Nigeria.

He spent a year in Brazil researching capoeira's African roots.

In meeting and training with Mestre Nenel in Bahia, he realized there was a connection that ran deeper than martial arts.

♪ group singing in Portuguese accompanied by light percussion ♪ [Malandro] Coming back to Bahia felt like I was reuniting with distant relatives.

It gave me more of a desire to have a better understanding of where I was going by knowing where I came from.

And you see that the people who are more connected-- they move different.

[Chinwe] That's Mestra Preguiça playing with Malandro in this roda.

She is the only woman in Capoeira Regional to receive the lenço branco, the white scarf, the highest level for a capoeirista in Capoeira Regional.

♪ Mestre Acordeon singing in Portuguese ♪ [Mestra Preguiça] We go through many milestones.

It's the community of your students that graduates you as a mestra.

Mestre Bimba has left this legacy, which his son is especially protective of.

And we are here to help him with protecting this legacy.

♪ singing in Portuguese and percussion continues ♪ [Chinwe] It's one thing to hear about capoeira, and it's another to experience it from people who have dedicated their lives to this-- maintaining the rituals and philosophies that returned honor to this art form, an art form that not only celebrates the triumph of its early creators and stewards, but echoes loud truths about our place in this world.

From Africa to Brazil, from Brazil to the world, this is our cultural heritage.

And it's deep from this well that Malandro is renewed to continue in this every day.

♪ singing in Portuguese and percussion continues ♪ [Malandro] I've taught hundreds in various schools in the Bay Area to show them that you can dedicate yourself to something and be persistent, and you will see the fruits of your labor.

[Chinwe] Recently, my capoeira community recognized Malandro as our mestre.

Now, Mestre Malandro is branching out from the Bay to Atlanta to extend capoeira's reach.

♪ sounds of the ocean waves and the berimbau ♪ However, no matter where he goes, he stays connected to the source.

♪ sounds of the ocean waves and the berimbau ♪ [Malandro] I wanted to recreate this energy, this axé, that was present there in Bahia, Brazil.

♪ singers sing soft, quiet song in Portuguese ♪ There are days when my body is tired, but not my spirit for capoeira.

[Chinwe] Thanks for coming on this journey with us.

Check out our other video about how the San Francisco Bay Area became a West Coast hub for capoeira and why I think more Black Americans should try this art form.

♪ Mestre Acordeon singing with a choir and playing the berimbau ♪ Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

♪ KQED sonic ID ♪