during an attack, a young boy named "Maculelê" picked up a pair of sticks and fought off the other tribe. The other tribe never attacked again. His home tribe then made a mock combat dance using sticks and named the dance "Maculelê" in his honor and memory. An interior West African village was embroiled in a regional conflict. All of the warriors of the village were called to the front lines to defend their people from invaders. All of the able bodied men gathered their arms and went to join the battle. The next day, the villagers were awakened to find their small village, supposedly far from the battle, was being attacked by part of the invading army. With no warriors left to defend the village, an unlikely hero emerged. A young boy took up two simple sticks and inspired the remaining villagers to mount a fearless defense. His heroic efforts became legend are represented in the Maculelê. Maculelê is sometimes practiced by itself, but is quite often practiced alongside capoeira, and is featured in many capoeira performances. Maculelê and Capoeira are fairly similar in style and reason. In popular culture Maculelê was performed as a group dance in the Canadian version of So You Think You Can Dance. See also Weapon Dance Morris Dance Colombian grima, martial art sport using the related sticks and weapons References External links Maculele interview with mestre popo Lyrics and videos of Maculele songs and music Article on Maculelê from Instituto Palmeiras Capoeira Brazilian dances Circle dances