Koiyuki
I know its kinda obvious, but is Capoeira as presented in Tekken different from real life Capoeira?
Quite different. In real Capoeira (if the school you're learning from is a good school that knows what they're doing), there are no breakdancing movements like the "Flare" and the "Windmill", and use of movements tend to steer away from too many acrobatics, and steer more towards more technical and practical attacks, evasions and counter attacks. The only time acrobatics should really ever be used in Capoeira is during the Berimbau rhythm "Toque de Iuna". It is a rhythm used to indicate a "jogo" ("game") that focuses mostly or entirely on beautiful movements and combinations called "floreios" ("Floreio" means "to flourish", and in Capoeira it is used to describe movements that are "beautiful like a flower while it blossoms"). There is zero physical contact between players during this game, and the movements are pure "eye candy". But during any other Capoeira rhythm, the movements are far more technical and practical.
Eddy Gordo/Tiger and Christina Monteiro were poor examples of Capoeira, as their movements were mostly flash. Only a few (I dunno... Maybe 3 to 5) of the more technical movements were used by these characters. There is no real need for all that flashy stuff in Capoeira. If you hope to progress in Capoeira, focus more so on technical movements. "Flash is trash without the basics!"
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