DOI: 10.4025/jphyseduc.v29i1.2948 J. Phys. Educ. v. 29, e2948, 2018. Original Article APPROACHES BETWEEN THE RODA DE CAPOEIRA AND THE DITHYRAMBIC CHORUS IN THE DIONYSIAN RITUALS OF ANCIENT GREECE APROXIMAÇÕES ENTRE A RODA DE CAPOEIRA E O CORO DITIRÂMBICO NOS RITUAIS DIONISÍACOS DA GRÉCIA ANTIGA Renan Almeida Barjud 1 , Fidel Machado de Castro Silva 1 ,Odilon José Roble 1 1 University of Campinas, Campinas-SP, Brazil. RESUMO Um dos fenômenos brasileiros que reserva mais possibilidades de interpretação é, sem dúvida, a arte performática da capoeira. Isso por ela adquirir um caráter polissêmico que possui características da dança, da luta, do jogo, do ritual e do espetáculo. Nossa pesquisa, fundamentada no método estético filosófico, buscou identificar sentidos semelhantes entre os coros ditirâmbicos do culto a Dioniso e o fenômeno da roda de capoeira. Buscamos referência, em especial, na análise de Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), que nos mostra como os rituais dionisíacos representavam, para o povo grego, mais do que mera distração ou dogma religioso, configurando- se como um elemento central na relação entre o homem e a natureza, o homem e o divino, o homem e seu semelhante. Nossas interpretações nos levaram a identificar principalmente três congruências, a saber: uma orientação estética circular, um sentido do ecstasis da cena e, como ponto chave, a quebra do princípio de individuação. Por essas possibilidades de interpretações cruzadas, identificamos que, por mais que a capoeira tenha sofrido transformações acerca do seu potencial estético, ela ainda mantém elementos que apresentam características próximas à potência dionisíaca. Palavras-chave: Roda de capoeira. Coro Ditirâmbico. Nietzsche. Introduction One of the Brazilian corporal phenomena that presents the most possibilities of interpretation is, undoubtedly, the roda de capoeira (as a close translation, the capoeira circle). And that is because it is marked by a history based on game, ritual, dance, and fight. Such polymorphic features allow it to adapt to different contexts. However, as much as such changes might entail transformations of some attributes, the roda de capoeira is able, as a cultural manifestation, to establish resistance movements amid demands for “spectacularisation”. In this text, we will use the image of diaspora, a concept that leads us to an idea of dispersion and is used most often to describe the separation of a people. In this dispersion, not only community cohesion is lost, but values, senses, representations and meanings are also dissolved. However, we will take the intellectual liberty of focusing on the idea of dispersion, which will be examined here not through consequences of ethnic mobility, but from the loss of original meanings. More specifically, we intend to reflect upon the reduction of the ABSTRACT One of the Brazilian phenomena that presents the most possibilities of interpretation is, without a doubt, the performance art of capoeira. This is because it has a polysemic character that carries marks of dance, of fight, of game, of ritual and spectacle. Our research, based on the philosophical aesthetics perspective, sought to identify similar meanings between the dithyrambic chorus of the Dionysian cults and the practice of the roda de capoeira. We focus our analysis on the relationship between the meanings that may be manifest in the phenomenon of the roda de capoeira and how they resemble certain Dionysian cults. We seek to refer in particular to Nietzsche's analysis, which shows us how the Dionysian rituals represented, for the Greek people, more than mere distraction or religious dogma, becoming a central element in the relationship between man and nature, man and the divine, man and his fellow men. Our interpretations led us to identify mainly three congruences, namely: the breaking of the principle of individuation, a circular aesthetic orientation and a sense of ecstasy. From these possibilities of cross-interpretation we have identified that, although capoeira has suffered consequences on its aesthetic potential, it still maintains elements of its genesis, which presents a Dionysian power. Keywords: Roda de capoeira; Dithyrambic Chorus; Nietzsche.