Instrutor Palitão and Graduado Vinho lead Capoeira Leuven together and are responsible for the weekly classes. Together they have 40 years of experience in capoeira.
Instrutor Palitão
In the year 2000, back then only 15 years old, Palitão took his first steps in the world of capoeira below the bleachers of Stade Leuven, under the leadership of Mestre Dendê.
With a passion for sports and didactics, he graduated in Physical Education with a Bachelor’s degree in 2006 and received his Master’s in P.E. and kinesiology just three years later..
Trip to Brazil
In the summer of 2010 Palitão traveled, with Vinho and others, to Salvador da Bahia in Brazil. Salvador is the capital city of capoeira and one of the first places where capoeira came to exist. Palitão went looking for unique experiences during a month and returned to Belgium with a lot of new knowledge and insights. He trained with and participated in rodas of some of the world’s most renowned mestres, amongst which Moraes, João Pequeno, Boca Rica, Curió, Pelé da Bomba and Nenel.
Kids’ capoeira Leuven
Back in 2009 Palitão started teaching capoeira to children. Ever since then the group has experienced an exponential growth in members. Today, Kids’ Capoeira Leuven is enjoying an unseen popularity and Instrutor Palitão teaches 5 different groups of children and teens on a weekly basis, with the same energy and love for his work. You can find more information on the classes for kids and teens here.
Growth
Palitão received the grade of “graduado’ in 2012. This is the equivalent of a ‘black belt’ in the Eastern martial arts. In May 2022 he was able to close a chapter on which he had been working for 10 years, because Mestre Dendê awarded him the purple corda, along with the title of ‘instrutor’. Only a select few in our Belgian organisation had reached that level before him.
Instrutor Palitão thus begins a new chapter in his capoeira career, but still trains under Mestre Dendê and takes care of the classes in Leuven, together with Graduado Vinho. In the past years Instrutor Palitão has cooperated with a variety of schools, youth services and other organisations to offer capoeira to our new generations.
Graduado Vinho
Alvin Coessens, beter kown as “Vinho” in the capoeira world, is an active member of Grupo Internacional Mundo Capoeira. He was an assistant trainer in Leuven from 2009 until 2017 and became co-manager, together with Instrutor Palitão, of the Leuven department of the organisation in september 2017.
First steps
In the spring of 2002 Vinho first got introduced to capoeira. The then still Monitor Golfinho (nowadays Professor) taught capoeira classes in Zaventem for the group Porto de Minas.
Some years later Vinho decided to start training in Leuven as well, which shortly after became his main place to train. Vinho now trained directly under Mestre Dendê, the head of the international organisation which is called today Grupo Internacional Mundo Capoeira.
Evolution
After years of intensive training and immersing himself in the philosophy and history of capoeira, Vinho received the blue corda from Mestre Dendê in May of 2014. With that he also received the title of Graduado (the equivalent of a black belt in Eastern martial arts). That day he reached a milestone in his capoeira career which he had set over 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, Vinho was working as assistant trainer in Leuven and had the ambition to be able to run his own school somewhere in the future. For 3 years he continued training under different teachers so he could prepare himself for a position as teacher. When the new season started in September 2017, Mestre Dendê gave him the opportunity to take over the school in Leuven together with Palitão and thus becoming a head teacher.
Experience
Throughout his career Vinho has attended over 50 national and international events and seminars in 10 countries, among with Brazil, Turkey and Poland. In 2020 he started studying with some renowned capoeira mestres to be broaden his knowledge of the musical aspect of capoeira. He took courses with mestres Nenel, Negoativo, Marcelo Finco and Ferradura. Until today he remains an active memver of the capoeira community and still trains under Mestre Dendê
Engagement
Throughout the years Palitão and Vinho have undertaken several projects. In 2012 and 2017 they organized the first and second edition of Idalina Capoeira, an internationall all-female capoeira event. In 2015 and 2016 they both made part of the organisational team of the Belgian batizado of Grupo Internacional Mundo Capoeira. In 2019 they organized “10 years of Kids’ Capoeira” in Leuven, an event for over 100 children (and their parents).
Palitão and Vinho regularly support local capoeira initiatives like open rodas, specialized trainer courses, demonstrations and workshops.
Simbora Camara!
In November 2023, the trainers organized a seminar in honor of their 20th capoeira anniversary. The event was a great success, with more than 130 participants from 6 different countries and from more than 25 different capoeira groups. The two main acts were none other than Contramestre Gugu Quilombola (former world champion of the Red Bull Paranauê) and Contramestre Magrela (eight-time world champion). Simbora Camará was featured in the local media and was widely praised in the capoeira community.
