When you see two people playing capoeira you may think to yourself, " It's called a martial art, but are they really fighting or are they dancing?" The answer is both! When you mix combative movements from the regions of Angola, Congo and Mozambique with cultural dance and self expression then you have Capoeira. Enslaved people taken from Africa to Brazil were able to preserve their spiritual practices and their culture. Slavery doesn't allow you to express yourself or contain a part of your inner being so many of their practices had to be hidden or done in secret. With Capoeira the dance disguises the combative movements and is done in a way where it looks like a type of dance or game between two people. During the slave trade up to the 1700s any combative practice was forbidden and illegal which sometimes resulted in some brutal and violent consequences. So many, wanting to keep their culture, resisted through using song and dance as a cover to continue to practice their culture. Today in Brazil Capoeira is an international sport. You can find it all over the world for it's something that can be practiced no matter how old or how young you are.