Dear Friends,

This year marks the 10th “Nosso Encontro” (Our Encounter) and to celebrate this achievement we will once again have three more days of Capoeiragem ruled by the same environment of camaraderie and knowledge exchange that became the quality mark for these last ten years.

Set for the 11th, 12th and 13th of September, this year we will be honored in welcoming Mestre Plinio of Sao Paulo, who will be sharing his knowledge of Capoeira Angola and also be speaking about the historical development of Capoeira Angola, as it pertains to the state of Sao Paulo, while making references along the way to the different lines of Capoeira Angola and its rituals.

We will also have our usual Capoeira workshops with the attending mestres, c.mestres and professors, and our speech with the honoured guest mestre. Question and answer sessions will follow, the roda in the town centre “Praca do Giraldo” along with a party to mingle and meet everyone. In addition, we will also have Afro-Brazilian dance classes with our friend, Murah; African dance classes with the always present Petchu, along with the efforts of an entire team that once again will support us, such that our encounter will happen for the tenth time. The continued success of this event each year is due to the contributions of all its participants. Thank you very much and we’ll see you there.

Mestres, C. Mestres and Professors (Nosso Encontro - Évora)

Little history about “Nosso Encontro” (Our Encounter):

“Nosso Encontro” or “Encontro de Evora” focused primarily on the interaction of the different capoeira groups spread throughout Portugal, without considering their philosophic characteristics, uniform or capoeira style.

In 2000, representatives of the different groups in Portugal accepted the challenge of spending three days together, camping and sharing knowledge. The encounter was open to everyone and we had the participation of groups from different countries with their respective, Mestres and students. The idea proved worthwhile seeing that after a reevaluation of the event we realized that we were able to reach our objective; as such we decided to organize the second, third and now tenth event.

Great Mestres from Portugal, Europa and Brasil have awarded us with both their theoretical knowledge as well as practical in our encounter, they are: Beija-flor (França), Gegê (Espanha), Pantera (Espanha), Saulo (Alemanha), Pe de chumbo (Suécia), Maya (Brasil), Pequeno (Brasil), Zulu (Brasil), Grilo (Brasil – mestre artesão), Cotta (Portugal), Alexandre Batata (Portugal), Nilson (Portugal), Barão (Portugal), Magôo (Portugal), Nininho (Portugal), Pitu (Portugal), Canhoto (Portugal), Bailarino (Alemanha), Birrila (Portugal), Pixote (Inglaterra), Bené (Brasil), Xexéu (Cabo Verde), Tucas (Portugal), Ulisses (Portugal), Maclau (Noruega), Berimbau (Brasil), Bilu (Brasil), Samara ( Holanda), Sargento (Portugal), Sanhaço (Brasil), Jerusa (Portugal), Chapão (Portugal), Cabeça (Brasil), Leonã (Portugal), along with a significant number of C. Mestres and Professors of various groups of great weight in capoeira and an amazing number of students to whom we credit the success of our encounter.

The “Nosso Encontro”, in the words of our good friend Mestre Alexandre Batata, became a place where capoeiristas meet each other once more. The gathering provides the opportunity for people to get to know the person behind the “capoeirista”. The camping model is very effective, as the hierarchies are not taken into account but rather everyone is treated as equals; be it a student or a mestre, there is no center of attention and not one person or group is in the spotlight. The “Nosso Encontro” (Our Encounter) really is “OUR” and not “MINE”.

Having an average of 40 professional capoeiristas in each encounter, the organization tries to distribute the classes’ throughout the day, such that the greatest number of professionals can expose their work to the students who are separated in 4 distinct levels: Beginner, Intermediate I, Intermediate II and Advanced.

Priority is given to the Mestres in the distribution of classes, followed by the C. Mestres and professors, respectively. Other capoeiristas, with the status of: monitor, instrutor, estagiário, formado, graduado, treinel, formando, should register along with all the other participants that have no status.

And today after ten years, we once again extend an open invitation to participate in our annual tradition “Nosso Encontro” of 2009 (11, 12 and 13 of September) to every practitioner and professional of capoeira who wants to be part of this event that doesn’t promote any group in particular, no mestre, but promotes capoeira as an art, who is above vanity, egocentrics, and without the necessity of stamps or logos to be lived by those who love it and feel that capoeira is a home to a great family.

Umoi Souza