•  «Capoeira show shows in DF the champion of Dakar» 
    24th March, 1969
    O Globo

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    O Globo


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      Capoeira show shows in DF* the champion of Dakar

      BRASÍLIA (O GLOBO) – With exhibitions in University of Brasília and in the National theatre, and led by Mestre Gato, presents itself in Brasília the folkloric group "Bahia de Todos os Santos", which in 1966 represented Brazil in the Black Arts Festival in Dakar, winning the first position.

      Holder of a police card with recommendation that they shouldn't arrest him, a scar from the left ear to the chin, dark complexion, well burnt by the sun, curly hair, Mestre Gato is a dangerous man, coupled with a muscular body with marks of knife, straight-razor and razor blade.

      José Gabriel Góis, Mestre Gato, doesn't look like his fourty years that's on his indentity card. He says pausingly:

      „I hitchhiked to Salvador. My first houses in the capital were the palm trees of Itagó(?), Itapoã and Amaralina. Later I went to the slum and supported myself as a shoe shiner at the shopping centre, but it was too far away, I resolved to quit.

      And introduces:

      „Every head is a world, and mine is to play capoeira. Lets go, come see the only thing that I can do well. Enter the roda „camará“. This is his invitation. The spectacle starts. Mestre Gato give the conventional signal - he lifts a jacaranda-tree walking stick and the two dancers - one of them his 12-year old son [José Souza Góes, born 1956, his third son - velhosmestres.com] - who were squatting, give the start to the first fight.

      * Distrito Federal - Federal District of Brasília


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