Márcia Falcão's Capoeira em Paleta Alta [Capoeira in High Palette] series (2024–present) takes movement as its subject, celebrating the Afro-Brazilian martial art and dance form capoeira. Developed by enslaved Africans in sixteenth-century Brazil as a veiled form of self-defense, capoeira was criminalized for over 200 years, shedding its illegality in the twentieth century, and ultimately becoming a protected form of Brazilian cultural heritage in 2008. Falcão pays homage to this tradition through playful yet powerful representations of the Black female body. Individual works reference specific movements, including Ginga, the fundamental, continuous footwork that underpins capoeira. Limbs fan across the canvas, translating rhythmic movement into paint. If figures in Falcão's earlier series often appear constrained or under pressure, here they embody freedom, self-possession, and vitality. This exuberant energy is reinforced by an expanded palette that incorporates rich jewel tones of ruby, amethyst, and turquoise alongside the artist's expansive repertoire of flesh tones. In representing dance, Falcão also asserts her place within the male-dominated art historical pantheon of paintings on the subject, from Degas’s ballerinas to Toulouse-Lautrec’s showgirls to Matisse’s graceful nudes.