Why am I passionate about this?

I've been studying capoeira in the UK since 2002. I've been welcomed into classes by teachers all over the UK. I have watched over 1,000. I have never practiced it myself but have worked with Neil Stephens, who learnt it seriously for seven years, and Mestre Claudio Campos who has taught capoeira here since 2003. I worked at Cardiff University from 1976 until I retired. I have also done a much smaller study of French kickboxing (Savate) for contrast. I was the first woman President of the British Educational Research Association in 1984, given the John Nisbet (Lifetime) Award of BERA in 2015 and the equivalent from the BSA (British Sociological Association) in 2013.


I wrote

Embodying Brazil: An ethnography of diasporic capoeira

By Sara Delamont, Neil Stephens, Claudio Campos

Book cover of Embodying Brazil: An ethnography of diasporic capoeira

What is my book about?

Embodying Brazil draws on a fifteen-year-long ethnographic project about how capoeira in the UK. Capoeira has become a global phenomenon…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira

Sara Delamont Why did I love this book?

Lewis was the first English speaking anthropologist to go to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil – the heartland of capoeira – and learn to play it while doing an anthropological study of its history and culture. 

He is the founder of modern scholarship on the dance-fight-game, studied before it globalised and became ‘cool’ all around the world. Lewis explains the role of deception and trickery in capoeira, relating to its roots in slavery and racial oppression. He captures its beauty, and is particularly good on the lyrics of songs. Issues of race, gender, and the teacher-student relationship are explained.

It led me to find a capoeira group to study and I have been entranced since I read it.

By J. Lowell Lewis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ring of Liberation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Based on eighteen months of intensive participant-observation, Ring of Liberation offers both an in-depth description of capoeira-a complex Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines feats of great strength and athleticism with music and poetry-and a pioneering synthetic approach to the analysis of complex cultural performance.

Capoeira originated in early slave culture and is practiced widely today by urban Brazilians and others. At once game, sport, mock combat, and ritualized performance, it involves two players who dance and "battle" within a ring of musicians and singers. Stunning physical performances combine with music and poetry in a form as expressive in movement as…


Book cover of Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

Sara Delamont Why did I love this book?

This is the go-to history book on capoeira used by scholars, and, by capoeira teachers and students. 

The author is a professor of Latin American history and an expert on slavery in Brazil. He has learnt to play capoeira himself and is friends with many of the famous mestres. Assunçâo’s love of capoeira shows through the book. He had done research in Angola seeking for the origins of capoeira there and made that trip into a prize winning documentary film. 

Because he is fluent in Portuguese he has been able to publish with Brazilian scholars, such as Mestre Luis Renato, whose research is not available in English. The book is a myth buster, and a celebration of the dance-fight-game.

By Matthias Roehrig Assuncao,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Capoeira as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Originally the preserve of Afro-Brazilian slaves, the marginalized and the underclasses in Brazilian society, capoeira is now a mainstream sport, taught in Brazilian schools and practised by a range of social classes around the world. Some advocates now seek Olympic recognition for Capoeira.
This apparent change in the meaning and purpose of Capeoira has led to conflicts between traditionalists, who view capoeira as their heritage descended from the maroons, a weapon to be used against the injustice and repression; and reformers, who wish to see Capoeira develop as an international sport.
Capoeira: The History of Afro-Brazilian Martial Art explores Capoeira…


Book cover of Essential Capoeira: The Guide to Mastering the Art

Sara Delamont Why did I love this book?

Mestre Poncianinho (B. Almeida) is the most famous capoeira mestre in the UK because he appeared in a BBC Ident between 2003-2006 playing on a rooftop in London with the dome of St Paul’s behind him, and was one of the Bulgarian wizards in the film of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This book is instructional, designed to help novices learn the moves, basic sequences, and see the instruments. It is essentially a picture book, in full colour. Mestre Poncianinho has always welcomed me to his classes and festivals. He is famous as an acrobatic and stylish player, and also a good dancer. 

I have an autographed copy which is one of my most treasured possessions and I would save it first in a fire.

By Mestre Poncianinho,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Essential Capoeira as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fun, different, and above all effective, capoeira is a unique dance-fight-fitness program enhancing strength, stamina, and flexibility training for the entire body. While there are many books on the subject, this one differs in being a succinct yet thorough discussion of the basics to engage even the nervous novice. In clear, accessible language, author Mestre Ponchianinho explains the aims and benefits of the discipline, along with its history, origins, and philosophy. He continues by introducing the two main styles along with the techniques of the most famous mestres. Easy-to-follow warm-ups, basic moves, defense and escape moves, kicks, training combinations, strengthening…


Book cover of In Search of Legitimacy: How Outsiders Become Part of the Afro-Brazilian Capoeira Tradition

Sara Delamont Why did I love this book?

Griffith’s book is a study of capoeira teachers and students in the USA, how American capoeira students experience trips to Brazil to take classes in its homeland, and how their ‘pilgrimages’ are experienced.

Understanding capoeira outside Brazil is important for making sense of capoeira in Brazil and all over the world today. Griffith’s book, focused not in the global cities of San Francisco or New York where it was first established, but in an all-American city with few cosmopolitan characteristics, and few Brazilian residents, captures the world of the ‘typical’ capoeira teacher in exile and his or her students.

By Lauren Miller Griffith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Search of Legitimacy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Every year, countless young adults from affluent, Western nations travel to Brazil to train in capoeira, the dance/martial art form that is one of the most visible strands of the Afro-Brazilian cultural tradition. In Search of Legitimacy explores why "first world" men and women leave behind their jobs, families, and friends to pursue a strenuous training regimen in a historically disparaged and marginalized practice. Using the concept of apprenticeship pilgrimage-studying with a local master at a historical point of origin-the author examines how non-Brazilian capoeiristas learn their art and claim legitimacy while navigating the complexities of wealth disparity, racial discrimination,…


Book cover of Samba: Resistance in Motion

Sara Delamont Why did I love this book?

Barbara Browning is a professor of dance, and a capoeirista. She learnt capoeira in New York and took classes with two of the first Brazilians to teach there in the 1970s. 

This is a book about Samba (the Brazilian national dance) with one long chapter about capoeira. As a female dancer Browning came to capoeira, when women learners were rare in Brazil and in the USA, with a relevant skill.

Many women capoeira learners came from dance backgrounds whereas most male learners in the UK and USA find the dance side harder than the more martial element. Browning sets capoeira into its original Brazilian embodiment and against a North American embodiment.

By Barbara Browning,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Samba as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Browning's ability to write ethnography, to locate the subject in terms of, and against, such African-Diaspora questions as 'continuities' and 'acculturation', and to fashion a personal and lyrical narrative, opens up many possibilities." - David H. Brown. Barbara Browning combines a lyrical, personal narrative with incisive and theoretically sophisticated accounts of a number of Brazilian dance cultures, suggesting that often the dancing body articulates a political resistance that cannot be voiced in words. She presents a social history of the development of samba, the 'Brazilian national dance'; candombl , a syncretic, danced religion; capoeira, an acrobatic martial art; and a…


Explore my book 😀

Embodying Brazil: An ethnography of diasporic capoeira

By Sara Delamont, Neil Stephens, Claudio Campos

Book cover of Embodying Brazil: An ethnography of diasporic capoeira

What is my book about?

Embodying Brazil draws on a fifteen-year-long ethnographic project about how capoeira in the UK. Capoeira has become a global phenomenon since 1980 and classes can be found all over the world and online. The authors are (a sociologist) who has observed over a thousand capoeira classes, (Delamont), Neil Stephens, a sociologist, and Claudio Campos, a Brazilian capoeira master who has taught the dance-fight-game in the UK for twenty years. No prior knowledge of capoeira is needed to enjoy it. The research methods are reflexively described. There is a glossary and a useful list of films. The text is grounded in sociology and anthropology, but can be read by capoeira enthusiasts with no social science background.

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Book cover of Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

Lyle Greenfield Author Of Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward. 

Lyle's book list on restoring your belief in human possibility

What is my book about?

We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike. 

My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…

Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

By Lyle Greenfield,

What is this book about?

Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.

First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…


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Interested in Brazil, martial arts, and dancing?

Brazil 76 books
Martial Arts 29 books
Dancing 33 books