International Capoeira Angola Meeting (Escola Matumbé Rome)

An international meeting in the heart of Rome

Every winter, the Ardeatino district in Rome becomes a gathering point for the international Capoeira Angola community. The International Capoeira Angola Meeting — also known as Encontro Internacional de Capoeira Angola — is a weekend of training and celebration organized by Escola Matumbé Capoeira Angola Rome at its Ilê Odara center on Viale di Porta Ardeatina. For two days, angoleiros from various cities in Brazil and Europe meet to train together, play music, and sing, closing each day with the roda, the circle where capoeira comes to life through ginga, music, and mutual respect.

Escola Matumbé and Mestre Capacete

The school is directed by Mestre Angelo Capacete (Angelo dos Anjos Oliveira), originally from Manaus in the Amazon, who trained under the Grupo Matumbé line of Mestre KK Bonates. After founding the first European branch of Escola Matumbé in Barcelona in 2010, Capacete settled in Rome, where he carries out socio-cultural work centered on traditional capoeira and, in 2020, opened the Brazilian cultural center Ilê Odara. The Roman meeting was born from this community and, under the motto «do Amazonas para o mundo», is designed as a moment of exchange, sharing, and friendship among friends from all over the world.

What is Capoeira Angola

Capoeira Angola is the oldest and most traditional form of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian art that weaves together dance, combat, play, and music. Born from the culture of Africans deported to Brazil, it is practiced to the rhythm of the berimbau, atabaque, and pandeiro: two capoeiristas move within the roda with low-to-the-ground movements, cunning, and mutual listening, in a bodily dialogue closer to play than to combat. In Rome, this tradition is preserved and passed on in its most faithful form, following the teachings of the old masters from Bahia.

The meeting days

The program takes place over a weekend and alternates between moments of study and celebration:

• Aulões (collective lessons) dedicated to the movements and foundations of Capoeira Angola;
• Musicality: practice of berimbau toques, songs, and instruments that accompany every roda;
• Roda: the final circle, the heart of the event, where participants play together under the watchful eyes of the guest masters;
• International exchange: the presence of masters and students from Brazil, France, Spain, and Italy makes every edition a moment of comparison between different schools and generations.

Ardeatino, Ilê Odara, and the Capital

The event is held in the City of Rome, in the Lazio region, inside the Ilê Odara center in the Ardeatino district, a few steps from the Aurelian Walls and not far from the Baths of Caracalla. More than just a gym, Ilê Odara is a space for Brazilian culture open all year round, with capoeira classes for children, teenagers, and adults. The International Meeting represents its most anticipated event, capable of transforming a corner of the Capital into a crossroads of European Capoeira Angola for a weekend.