Invited by Govanhill Baths, Ponta-Cabeça hosted a street roda de capoeira with Mestre Carlão, Ngoma (Glasgow & Edinburgh) and Senzala, celebrating the multiplicity of voices needed to make a roda. As Mestre Russo de Caxias reminds us, a roda is shaped by what time determines; and this time, it determined that a little of Rio’s street mandinga would be shared in a roda held, embraced, and enchanted by the local community.

A roda de capoeira is much more than a popular cultural expression—though that alone would already justify its existence. It is a convergence of knowledges, where challenge and play meet: a space to invite one another to a friendly game while savouring the joy of gathering in movement, music, and improvisation.

In street rodas, the rules exist to bring to the surface a truth of the world: that resistance never tires in the face of difficulty, and that ancestry never demands submission, but rather invites us to go together. Long live the Brazilian culture of resistance.