Escola de Capoeira Angola do Laborarte

The Escola de Capoeira Angola do Laborarte is a Capoeira Angola school founded in 1985 by Mestre Patinho (Antônio José da Conceição Ramos) in São Luís, Maranhão. It was the first capoeira school in the state. Since its founding it has operated within the space of Laborarte (Laboratório de Expressões Artísticas do Maranhão), an independent artistic collective established in 1972 in a colonial mansion in downtown São Luís. The school trained mestras and mestres who went on to found groups in São Luís, Brasília, and Porto Alegre.

In 1985 Mestre Patinho founded the Escola de Capoeira Angola do Laborarte within the Laborarte (Laboratório de Expressões Artísticas do Maranhão) space — an independent artistic collective founded in October 1972 and housed in a colonial mansion in downtown São Luís. The initiative was pioneering: no formally organised capoeira school had previously existed in Maranhão. In founding the school, Mestre Patinho challenged the stigma associating capoeira with violence, placing musicality and culture at the heart of teaching.

In the late 1980s he created an open roda welcoming capoeiristas from other groups, which persists to this day. In 1990 Mestre Canjiquinha publicly recognised Patinho as a master from his lineage — placing the school within the Aberrê → Canjiquinha → Sapo → Patinho chain. In 1992 the Festival de Cânticos da Capoeira was launched and ran for five consecutive editions, placing musicality at the centre of transmission. The Iê Camará — Encontro de Capoeira Angola, hosted at Laborarte, became Maranhão's annual Capoeira Angola reference event, drawing masters including Paulo dos Anjos, Leopodina, Moraes, Nô, Augusto, Lua Rasta, Cobra Mansa, Jurandir, Nestor Capoeira, and historian Frede Abreu.

In November 2008 the school released 'Capoeira do Maranhão – Mestre Patinho', the first capoeira CD recorded in Maranhão, bringing together the founding school and affiliated groups: Mandingueiros do Amanhã, Centro Matroá, Projeto Criação, Mestre Assuélio's group, and Mulheres Capoeiras. The school also distinguished itself internationally by participating in the FITEI (Festival Internacional de Teatro em Ibero-América) in Portugal — the first Maranhão capoeira group to take Capoeira Angola abroad. In 2000 Mestre Patinho founded the Centro Cultural Mestre Patinho as an institutional extension of the school's broader cultural activities.

Mestre Patinho died on 11 June 2017. A September 2025 article confirms that 'his family and students continue the work of spreading knowledge and the legacy left by the mestre, maintaining the cultural centre in full activity.' In 2024 Mestre Nelsinho Brito, from Laborarte in São Luís, taught a workshop at a Capoeira Angola event in Barra do Corda, MA, indicating ongoing activity.