João Grande

Mestre João Grande was born in the village of Itagi in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia.

[1] The Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria had a major cultural influence in Salvador, which was considered the Black Rome of Brazil.

João didn't learn the correct name of the movement until many years later, but it changed his life forever.

In 1966 João Grande travelled to Senegal with Mestre Pastinha to demonstrate capoeira at the first World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar.

He subsequently toured Europe and the Middle East with Viva Bahia, a pioneering group that performed Afro-Brazilian folk arts such as capoeira, samba, maculelê, candomblé and puxada da rede.

Pastinha died broke and bitter about his treatment, but never regretted living the life of a capoeirista.

[3] He has also recorded an audio CD and several DVDs featuring himself and his students, as well as other illustrious figures of capoeira Angola.