Mestre Tucano Preto

Because Mestre Tucano Preto is a special guest teacher at the 11th Batizado and Troca de Cordas of Aldeia Capoeira
on 11,12 and 13 November 2011, I've put up a small biography about him.



Mestre Tucano Preto was born as Ricardo Laercio de Oliveira in São Paulo, the 19th of August 1972.
His first experience with capoeira and Afro-Brazilian culture was through his uncle Simonal Silva.
He started training capoeira in an academy in 1980 with Mestre Pato who was from the south of Bahia.

In São Paulo he distinguished himself at a young age by winning the championship of the São Paulo Capoeira Federation (Federação Paulista de Capoeira) in both 1989 and 1990.

In 1990 Mestre Pato gave him the title of Professor and in the same year Mestre Pato stopped giving regular lessons in his academy.
Traveling throughout Brasil, Mestre Tucano Preto met Mestre Camisa and enterred Abadá Capoeira in 1993.



While a participant of A.B.A.D.Á Capoeira due to talent and hard training he rapidly grew towards the highest ranks of the group.
In 1997 he became world champion at the first world games of Abadá, who are held each odd year and in 1999 he received the title for a second time.
Eventhough at this event only people of Abadá Capoeira could participate, Abadá was the capoeira group with the biggest number of members in the world with more than 20.000 member at the time.

Below is some footage of the first and second world games

Finals 1997 Part 1	Finals Part 2
Finals 1999 Part 1	Finals 1999 Part 2

During this time he travelled to various countries to give workshops and shows including: England, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Poland, Switserland, Austria, Israel, South Africa, Angola, Corea and Holland, where I've got to know him in 1998.



In 2003 he became a mestrando, the second highest rank within his former group.

Playing on Benguela	Playing on São Bento Grande
Playing on São Bento Grande	Playing on Angola

In 2006 he created his own group: Abassá Dendê Maruô: Centro Intergrado de Capoeira.

Nowadays called Centro Brasileiro de Capoeira

Except for his level of game within the roda, he is also known for creating several songs, which are sung by various capoeira groups in the world.
He participated in the recording of different CDs and also published his own CDs lateron.
Below are some of his songs.

Põe no chão	A Benguela chamou pra Jogar
é na Aruanda ê	Dendê Maruô

Mestre Tucano Preto will be teaching several lessons for different levels during the event.



(Fotos: arquive of Mestre Tucano Preto)