Mestre Bimba

Quick Facts

Date of Birth1899

Date of Death2/5/1974

Country of OriginBrazil

Also known asManoel dos Reis Machado, Três Pancadas

Biography

Mestre Bimba, born Manoel dos Reis Machado, is the founder of the Capoeira Regional style. He was born on November 23 in Engenho Velho in Salvador, Bahia; sources disagree on the year of his birth – Assunção gives 1900, Almeida 1899. He died on February 5, 1974, in Goiânia from the effects of a stroke. He received the nickname Três Pancadas (Three Blows) because he reportedly defeated opponents with no more than three strikes.

He began learning capoeira at the age of 12 from an African ship captain named Bentinho, while batuque was taught to him by his father, Luis Cândido Machado.

He initially called the style Luta Regional de Bahia. In a 1936 statement he said he had removed two kicks from traditional capoeira and added fifteen; he later expanded the system to 52 techniques. As characteristic elements he introduced the martelo and queixada kicks and created the training sequences known as Sequências de Mestre Bimba. In 1932 he founded the Academia-escola de Cultura Regional school in Engenho de Brotas, which received state certification and official registration on June 9, 1937; in 1942 he opened a second school at Terreiro de Jesus. His students included Cisnando Lima and Jaime Tavares. On July 23, 1953, he demonstrated capoeira to President Getúlio Vargas, who called it the only genuinely Brazilian sport.

According to one account, in August 1936 he single-handedly overpowered police chief Lúcio "Barra Preta" and six armed police officers; Bimba himself described the circumstances differently, as action against drunk policemen. In 1973 he moved to Goiânia at the invitation of a former student. The Federal University of Bahia posthumously awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Associated Martial Arts

Kata and forms

Organisations

• ACADAcademia-escola de Cultura RegionalFounder · 1932