Contra-Mestre Parente moved to Belo Horizonte for a year and trained with Mestre Zé Paulo in Santa Lucia favela. He lived in the academy and gave classes to the children there. In 1999-2000 he moved to São Paulo to train with Mestre Sarara, a student of Mestre Suassuna.
Contra Mestre Parente (Alexandre Ferreira) was born in Minas Gerais in Brazil and initially started playing Capoeira at the age of 9 years old. He joined with Cordão De Ouro in Pathos at the age of 17 where he trained under Contra Mestre Chicote and his good friends Contra Mestre Papa Leguas and Professor Piolho, who now teach Capoeira in Europe.
Parente came to the UK in November 2002 and in doing so started the groups in Manchester and Liverpool in the North West. In the October of 2003 Cordão De Ouro Manchester and Liverpool held their first Batizado attracting many guests from all over the world including Brazil and the USA! Parente is well known and respected worldwide for his Capoeira, hard work, energy and fantastic personality and has travelled to many different countries to teach in Capoeira workshops including most of Western Europe as well as Israel, Siberia and Indonesia.
Parente's talent and dedication to teaching and playing Capoeira was awarded in 2007 at Manchester and Liverpool Groups 5th Batizado, when he was awarded the Contra Mestre belt by Mestre Suassuna, the founder of Cordão De Ouro!
Since Parente arrived in the UK the Manchester and Liverpool Cordão De Ouro Group has grown from strength to strength whilst retaining its social, friendly, inviting and encouraging roots. Parente is involved in Capoeira outside of the regular Manchester and Liverpool classes including teaching at Edge Hill University as part of the dance degree syllabus and working with schools and dance colleges in the North West of England.
Contra Mestre Parente has also appeared on TV and been involved in many high profile shows and performances including The "All Star Talent Show" on Channel Five, Troca Brahma events with Famous Brazilian actor and musician Seu Jorge, Selfridges, KPMG , Liverpool Carnival, Zeitgeist Capoeira Documentary, Bem Brazil, Hilton Hotels, Hi-Life and for charities including Oxfam and MAG International. Parente has also performed in many shows with his close friends Mestre Poncianinho and Contra Mestre Casquinha of Cordão De Ouro London and Contra Mestre Papa Leguas who now teaches in Crete.
Parente and the Cordão De Ouro group of Manchester and Liverpool are available for shows and workshops and should use the contact us form to enquire further.
Our Group "Cordão de Ouro" was founded in 1967 by Mestre Suassuna and Mestre Brasilia. Reinaldo Ramos Suassuna known as Mestre Suassuna, was born in Bahia, Brazil in 1938 in Ilhéus and raised in Itabuna, started to practice Capoeira in the beginning of the 1950s, against his will. Due to a handicap in his legs, the doctor recommended that he get involved in a sport that was not football.
Mestre Suassuna states that he did not like Capoeira at at the start because he had difficulty learning the ginga and lacking the rhythm to sing. With time he started to enjoy Capoeira so much that he began to take his training seriously, at which point his mother thought he was sick or ill.
When Mestre Suassuna started Capoeira he did not fix himself to a group, but rather learned to love Capoeira as a whole, irrespective of whether it was Angola or Regional. Meeting people from the Academies of Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha. He took part in presentations in Salvador, Brazil with Mestre Canjiquinha, Mestre Gato, Mestre Caiçara all of which served as an excellent base for developing his work and arriving to where he is today: international recognition.
At the beginning of the 1960s, Mestre Suassuna shone in Bahia with his Capoeira shows and received many invitations from other states and abroad. In 1965 he left Bahia for São Paulo - the land of rain, with the intention of opening an academy and succeeding in a life of Capoeira.
The mission was to develop Capoeira as folklore and a sport. At the beginning this would prove very hard; he was far from his friends, working various jobs and had financial difficulties. After a lot of struggle, he met some people from Itabuna that took him to Ze Freita's Academy, in São Paulo, Brazil. This is where he met Brasilia. In 1967, together with Brasilia, he founded the group "Capoeira Cordão de Ouro".
Today, Mestre Suassuna is dearly liked and respected. He is proud to see that his group's work is well structured and full of creativity, with members and groups all over the world, including the cities Manchester and Liverpool in the UK. His many achievements include various presentations, the recording of four compact discs, the directing of the Show Group of Cordão de Ouro, the creation and development of the "Miudinho Game" and the conducting of workshops and seminars in several states in Brazil and around the world.
Capoeira is an Afro Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music, and dance. It was created in Brazil by slaves brought from Africa, especially from present day Angola some time after the 16th century. It was developed in the region of Quilombo dos Palmares, located in the Brazilian state of Alagoas and has great influence on the Afro-Brazilian generations, with strong presence in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro. Capoeira's exact origins are a matter of debate, with theories ranging from views of Capoeira as a uniquely Brazilian folk dance with improvised fighting movements to claims that it is a battle-ready fighting form directly descended from ancient African techniques. The main theories behind capoeira's origins is that it is a fighting style designed by the slaves for rebellion, but disguised from the slave masters by a façade of dance.
For some time, Capoeira was criminalised and prohibited in Brazil with data from police records dating back to the 1800s. In spite of the ban Mestre Bimba, (Manuel dos Reis Machado) created a new style, the "Capoeira Regional". Mestre Bimba was finally successful in convincing the authorities of the cultural value of capoeira, thus ending the official ban in the 1930s founding the first capoeira school in 1932, the Academia "Escola de Capoeira Regional" at the Engenho de Brotas in Salvador-Bahia. For this reason he is considered "The Father of Modern Capoeira".
During the 1930's the traditional Bahian capoeira became increasingly identified as "Capoeira de Angola", in opposition to the "Capoeira Regional" developed by Bimba. There were several prominent Angola mestres at this time in Salvador and they held regular Rodas there.
There were twenty-two mestres in all including Mestre Amorzinho, who commanded the rodas and together they founded a centre for Capoeira Angola. When Amorzinho died in 1941-1942 Vicente Ferreira Pastinha, best known as "Mestre Pastinha", took over the centre, called the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola. Mestre Pastinha worked almost up to his death in 1981 to codify the more traditional Angola style of capoeira and he wrote endlessly on the sport. As Mestre Pastinha preserved much of the traditional style of capoeira, in his practice, teachings, and writings, he too is important to modern capoeira.
Capoeira is played in a Roda (pronounced "Hoh-Dah"), or circle, in a game that is marked by fluid martial arts attacks including kicks and sweeps as well as dance and acrobatic movements. When participants, known as Capoeiristas, aren't playing in the Roda they take turns playing musical instruments (such as the Berimbau), singing and clapping in encouragement of the ones playing.
Capoeira is uniquely social when compared to other martial arts. Networking with other groups and students from other teachers is usually encouraged and can teach a capoeirista more about the art and improve their skills.
