Aluno Caroço

On the evening of 31. Dec. 1999, while visiting Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, I became aware of Capoeira when seeing a performance on TV by a group in New Zealand. Until that point I had only known of its existence as "the thing that Eddie Gordo does in Tekken 3".

Shortly after, in early 2000, I started training with Mestre Paulo Siqueira in Hildesheim, Germany, where I remained for another 4 years. Mestre Paulo Siqueira gave me my 'apelido' in 2001/2002 during a workshop and batizado with invited guests, one of them being Mestre Marrom (Rio de Janeiro). When Mestre Paulo Siqueira came up with my name, he looked at the other mestres present for approval and they all nodded, so I consider myself as having been baptized by multiple mestres.

With Mestre Paulo Siqueira's help I spent 7 months in Rio de Janeiro in 2005 training at the academia of Mestre Marrom, my most transformative time in Capoeira, meeting and training with the most dedicated people like Mestre Ferradura, Contra-Mestra Tatiana, and many others. Here, I also met Mestre Forró whom I consider a dear friend.

After returning to Germany, I spent 3 years (2006-2009) in Frankfurt a.M. (Germany) training with ACAP of Mestre Rogério. Unfortunately, the demands of a job and "adult life" started to interfere with my active participation in the group and regular classes.

In 2009 I moved to New York City for work. Here I participated on and off in classes at Mestre João Grande's Academia (on 14th street). But ultimately, around 2011, I stopped active participation in classes and workshops due lack of time and an injury.

It was in 2017 (after moving outside of NYC) that I discovered a small Contemporanêa group called "Cai Na Capoeira" who took me in and allowed me to get back into regular practice.

In 2025 I spent one year in Berlin, Germany, where I thankfully discovered an old friend (Mestre Forró) which allowed me to (re-) join the Ngoma family.