Saudoso Mestre Paulo dos Anjos

Mestre Paulo dos Anjos  

15th August 1936 - 26th March 1999

Mestre Paulo dos Anjos

I met Mestre Paulo dos Anjos for the first time in 1981 when he invited Mestre Virgilio to organise a joint event in Kilometro 17, Itapoa. Starting from that moment until two years before his death in 1999, I had the pleasure to meet Mestre Paulo dos Anjos weekly and even to do a few classes with him when he came to visit Mestre Virgilio's academy.

Mestre Paulo dos Anjos was the first person to call me Roxinho and I always had admiration for him, especially for his way of singing that transmitted a strong message and I found that beautiful. The meia lua de costa was one of the movements I practiced for a long time inspired by Mestre Paulo dos Anjos, because I thought he did it with a particular charm.


Mestre Paulo dos Anjos had a great influence on my formation as a capoeirista and one thing I sometimes miss in a Roda of capoeira today is meeting people like him, because he would tell a fellow capoeirista in a very straight but always respectful way if they needed to improve their behaviour and go back to learn more with their Mestre.

We always need to keep the memory of capoeirstas like Mestre Paulo dos Anjos alive and be careful with what we transmit and the way in which we develop inside Capoeira to show our respect to the elder Mestres.

"We need to do Capoeira, 
there are more educated people practicing Capoeira than soccer,
Capoeira is not like most of what you see around today
Capoeira is something good,
it's beautiful"

Mestre Paulo dos Anjos