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“By the 1970s, there was a growing interest in authentic arts that could be traced back to Africa. Dennis Newsome, one of the first Americans to become a teacher of capoeira and the man who would go on to study other African-influenced martial arts like kalenda stick fighting, said he’s always preferred to concentrate on these arts because of the cultural aspects.
Newsome, who became aware of capoeira after seeing it portrayed in the movie Black Orpheus, said: ‘Watching it, I knew from the way guys moved their bodies it was some kind of Black martial art. Wherever we go, you’re going to find a similar type of movement — in the Caribbean, Brazil, here. It just looks a certain way. It appeals to the artist in me. And I didn’t want to spend my life perfecting someone else’s culture. There are plenty of Chinese, over a billion of them, to keep their thing rolling. I don’t worry about them. I want to know what my ancestors did.’ “
