Capoeira Angola Quintal – Daily Classes

Capoeira Angola Quintal and The San Francisco Capoeira Center offer Level 1 classes M-F at The Center SF. Sign up to get a week of unlimited classes for $20!

For more information please visit our website: www.caqsf.com  & Facebook!

Mission

Our mission is to inspire equilibrium, beauty, creativity, and grace in all facets of life through capoeira, an expressive and playful Brazilian self-defense and dance.

What is Capoeira Angola? 

“Capoeira Angola is the traditional form of capoeira that emphasizes wisdom over force, strategy over speed. It is said that capoeiristas are like chameleons, blending and adapting to their environment. The best capoeiristas appear calm when they play. Their game flows without resistance and defies gravity — and at the right moment, they strike.” - Mestre Ombrinho

About our teachers:

Bill Stark, known in the capoeira world as Monitor Tucano, is the founder and lead instructor at Capoeira Angola Quintal San Francisco. He discovered capoeira at the age of 11. The moment his eyes met the art, the movements and music resonated deeply in his spirit. In 2006, Tucano began an intensive capoeira study with his first teacher, Contra-Mestre Carcara, at The University of Rochester. When he moved to New York City in 2007, he was formally initiated into the world of capoeira by a new teacher, Mestre Ombrinho. In the summer of 2009, Tucano made an expedition to Bahia, Brazil where he lived and trained with his Grand Master, Mestre Nô. Under the guidance of his Mestres, Tucano has been teaching ever since.

Four elements characterize and inspire Tucano’s pratice: equilibrium, beauty, creativity and grace. He believes that each individual student is a whole entity, self-created, and complete. Based on this philosophy, he delivers to each and every student individualized instruction that serves a variety of learning styles and practice levels. In Tucano’s classroom, there are no rights and wrongs; there only exists power: power in practice, technique, and theory. It is this inherent and innate personal power that Tucano cultivates in all of his students to help them align with their world in body, mind, and spirit.

In Tucano’s eyes, the beauty of the art continues to flourish, and when you visit his classroom, you will see it too.

See you in class!

About our Mestre:

The head instructor and founder of Capoeira Angola Quintal is Michael Goldstein, known in the capoeira world as Mestre Ombrinho. He began studying capoeira in 1981 with Mestre Acordeon and Mestre Jelon, the two world-renown masters who brought capoeira to the United States. He made his first trip to Brazil in 1985 where he trained with many legendary masters, young and old. Having trained Regional, Angola, and many styles in between, Mestre Ombrinho was drawn to the more grounded, traditional style of Capoeira Angola.

In 1987, he became a disciple of Grand Master Nô of Bahia and joined Capoeira Angola Palmares. Known as a master-of-masters, Mestre Nô has produced the greatest quality and quantity of Capoeira Angola masters in Brazil. In 1996, Mestre Ombrinho became a master of capoeira under Mestre Nô.

In New York, Mestre Ombrinho has been teaching capoeira since 1988. In 2002, he formed his own group, Capoeira Angola Quintal and he has organized international Capoeira encounters in New York and Bahia, Brazil. He has graduated many fine practitioners and instructors, both men and women. He speaks fluent Portuguese and leads tours of Capoeira centers in Brazil.

Mestre Ombrinho is well-known for making the art of capoeira accessible to people of all ages and abilities. He has taught Capoeira throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe, and Israel and has lead workshops at colleges and universities including Sarah Lawrence, Harvard, Columbia, Swarthmore, Yale, John Hopkins, Drew, Rutgers, The New School among others.