Bimba's Rhythm is One, Two, Three: From Resistance to Transformation in Brazilian Capoeira

Liu Ph.D., Lang Maria

ISBN 10: 1999386809 / ISBN 13: 9781999386801

Published by Government of Canada (Library and Archives Canada), 2018

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781999386801

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bimba's Rhythm is One, Two, Three: From Resistance to Transformation in Brazilian Capoeira
• Publisher: Government of Canada (Library and Archives Canada)
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1999386809
• ISBN 13: 9781999386801
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Bimba’s Rhythm is One, Two, Three is Lang Maria Liu’s first book. Part ethnography, travelogue and personal odyssey, it bridges many genres in its search for truth and hope. The reader is taken deep into the Afro-Bahian world of capoeira on the northeast coast of Brazil, where slave ships once plied the shores. During three trips to Brazil undertaken for her Ph.D., the boundaries between research and personal experience blur. Recently divorced and having left behind the capoeira school she co-founded with her ex-husband in Canada, the author finds herself falling in love with a capoeira master. Will she find her place in this world, one so different from her own? And can the wounds of her past, stretching back generations, ever be healed? Here, amongst the Afro-Bahians whom she fears at first, the author learns about our common humanity, and that the act of surrender – something she has fought all her life – may be the only true path to joy.

About the Author

Lang Maria Liu Ph.D. was born in Montreal in 1971 of Chinese and French immigrant parents. She grew up in the countryside south of Ottawa before moving to Toronto for university studies. Here, she embraced the cultural diversity of the city, a rich stew of influences that made her hungry for more, and prompted her to explore the boundaries of personal identity. From the disco beats rising from the neighbours' stereo through the floor of her family's living room when she was five, to her teenage obsession with Michael Jackson's Thriller, African-based rhythms stirred a deep longing within Lang. That longing drew her slowly, but inexorably, to Brazil in 1996 and sparked a long love affair with the Afro-Bahian culture. And thus were the seeds of her involvement with capoeira sown. Lang is a Bowen Therapist, teaches capoeira in her Toronto-based school, and offers classes in primal posture based on the Gokhale Method.