The Capoeira Angola Centre of The Netherlands (CAC-NL) was officially founded in 2003 and has now settled in the City of Amsterdam.
Our Capoeira Angola family tree is the following:
Mestre Benedito known as O Africano was an Angolan in Bahia, Brazil. Around late 1890's Benedito approached young Mestre Pastinha after seeing him being bullied and proposed young Pastinha to meet up with him so he could be taught N’golo.
 Mestre Pastinha (1889-1982) opened the first Capoeira Angola School in 1941 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. A student of Benedito, he taught this art as a path of self knowledge and mastery. Mestre Pastinha was the first master to write a book on capoeira history, philosophy and practice: Capoeira Angola (3rd edition 1988). One of his dearest dreams was to visit Africa. In 1966, he represented Brazil at the FESTAC (Festival of African Arts and Culture).
Mestre João Grande, with more than 50 years of experience, has been described as the most agile of all capoeiristas in Bahia. Now living in New York, USA, he teaches Capoeira Angola in the traditional African way, as a way of life, just as his teacher Mestre Pastinha did before him. The Capoeira Angola Centre, NL is enjoying its place in the history of Capoeira as the first group of Capoeira Angola in the Netherlands. |
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The group |
