Finding a brand new old capoeira documentary (...) on youtube made me return to my article on baloes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4oqbC1Jxrs
Not only it has Mestre Bimba in color; it demonstrates that while baloes might be not a part of 'contemporary capoeira', they are certainly a vital part of Regional!
But there is another very interesting video from the same author and from the same period that tells another part of the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW9CkW2LHEg
This is the early Grupo Senzala, the group that is both directly and indirectly responsible for contemporary capoeira. You can see them doing baloes; you can also see them clowning around, playing far from each other, doing macacos, jumping, not having rasteiras... little peeves that somehow predict the form of today's capoeira.
Yet what hit the spot for me was that at the end, the moleques started to play the toque Iuna....to accompany a game of two little black kids. Now really; this little detail made me think that maybe Senzala had not learned capoeira from Bimba; but that the had stolen it from him.
It is only natural precursor to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yyotgtPfw
Where Camisa, of Senzala/Abada fame, plays Iuna in 1979 - without baloes. I said somewhere that to play Iuna without baloes is like to show Hamlet without Hamlet; and indeed, it is so. But the point is, modern capoeira (Senzala) have not learned the game of Iuna from Bimba; they only have stolen the toque, and used it for their own purposes. As the moleques in the video above, they waste it on playing kids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKytcOizCUs
Simply put, there is no Iuna in modern capoeira.
However, the story has a happy ending. Watch this marvelous video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsxgRiEk8W4
It is not Iuna; but it is Filhos de Bimba throwing baloes like there is no tommorow. Beautiful!
It almost resembles the "capoeira with baloes baked in" I mention somewhere in my article on baloes. It is pure Regional power!
So, I have to thank Filhos de Bimba very much for keeping the baloes alive - for keeping the Iuna alive - for keeping Regional alive!
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