Grupo Cafu Capoeira

There is no written historical evidence to support the notion that Capoeira is a battle-ready fighting form, and many other proponents see it as a folk dance form developed by slaves from traditional African dances and rituals. While there is not much historical evidence about Capoeira in general, there is other information that supports this view. In his 1835 work "Voyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil" ("Picturesque Voyage to Brazil") ethnographic artist Johann Moritz Rugendas depicted "Capoeira or the Dance of War," lending historical credence to the idea that Capoeira originated as a dance, rather than a fighting form. There are also numerous other mock-fight slave dances throughout the New World including the Caribbean and other nations in South America.

The island of Martinique is famous for Danymé (also known as Ladja). As with Capoeira, there is a ring of spectators into which each contestant enters, moving in a counter-clockwise direction and dancing toward drummers. This move, known as Kouwi Lawon (or "Circular Run" in Creole) is an exact parallel to the Capoeira interlude called dá volta ao mundo, or "take a turn around the world." In Cuba a mock-combat dance called Mani was performed to yuka drums. A dancer (manisero) would stand in the middle of a ring of spectator-participants, and moving to the sound of the songs and drums, would pick someone from the circle and attempt to knock them down. Some of the manisero's moves and kicks were comparable to those of Brazilian capoeira, including its basic leg-sweep (rasteira), which is also used in samba duro, a dance originated from El Salvador. Exactly as in Martinique, the Cuban master drummer's patterns would mirror the contestants' actions, and supply accents to accompany certain blows.

Maya Talmon-Chvaicer suggested Capoeira may have been influenced by a ritual fight-dance called N'golo (the zebra dance) from Southern Angola, which was performed during the "Efundula, a puberty rite for women of the Mucope, Muxilenge, and Muhumbe tribes of southern Angola." Since the 1960s the N'golo theory has become popular amongst some practitioners of capoeira Angola, although it is not universally accepted.