Mestre Gato, (Fernando Albuquerque) began studying Capoeira in 1964, at the age of 16 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He began training with the Flores brothers at the Laranjeiras.

During the late 1960’s in Brazil there were a number of competitions open to Capoeiristas, the premier of these being the “Berimbau de Ouro” and on the very first attempt, the team of Gato and Preguica won the competition and did so again the following year.

On the third attempt the Capoeira Association prevented Gato and Preguica from entering, claiming that only students were allowed to participate…not masters!

Gato and Preguica protested that they were not masters, only students! The Capoeira Association responded saying that due to their record over the past two years they were being recognised as Mestres.

In the early 1990’s Mestre Gato began studying in Newcastle at the University. As a student, he discovered “the English have rhythm and like to fight”; he organized various capoeira rodas on the University. It was such a success that Master Gato ended up creating Senzala Group of Great Britain, a branch of the original.

Mestre Gato is one of the founder members and one of the leading teachers of Group Senzala and is also the head of Group Senzala: Great Britain. Mestre Gato travels to the UK at least twice a year to teach workshops and to take part in batizado’s (baptism ceremony) with all the Senzala groups.

Instructor Medusa (Rod Penn) has known Mestre Gato personally and trained under his guidance for six years. Mestre Gato supported Grupo Senzala Norwich from it’s very early stages and continues to run workshops and conduct batizados with the group there. Medusa has lived and trained with Mestre Gato in Rio De Janeiro and in 2005,  presented Medusa with his blue cord. Mestre Gato continues to support Medusa with his work in Bali and if all goes to plan, he will attend and host the first batizado of Senzala Bali in December 2007.

 Contra Mestre Pedro has been doing Capoeira for over twenty years with Mestre Gato one of the founding members of Group Senzala in 1963. Since his arrival in Scotland in 2000, Pedro’s been working with the main dance and arts schools in Scotland such as:

Northern College in Dundee, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Scottish Youth Dance in Glasgow and Dance Base in Edinburgh.

He got his purple belt (Professor) in November 2000 and has been teaching regularly classes since 1995 for his Mestre and in some gyms in Rio de Janeiro. He has also been involved in a few charitable projects in poor communities such as Canta-Galo and Fallet in Rio de Janeiro in 1996.

He regularly teaches in the other centres of the group in Cambridge, Norwich, Leicester, Harlow and London. He has taken part in many Capoeira meetings in Europe such as the summer meeting in Hamburg, Easter Meeting in Amsterdam, Capoeira Festival in Montpellier, Lyon and Copenhagen. He has been invited to take workshops in Serbia and more recently in Indonesia.

Mestres and Teachers
Mestres Gato, Peixinho, Sorriso, Toni, Ramos, Zé Antonio, Espirro Mirim, Samara, Sarará, Poncianinho, Pastel, Gimba, Marcio, Maxwell. And other Contra Mestres and Teachers Torneiro, Rui, Azul, Papaleguas, Casquinha, Pedigree, Dino, Jilo, Buzina, Cristina, Boneco, Claudio, Steen, Banana, Xuxa, Mark York, Parente, Julio, Ursula, Vladimir, Bia, Rodrigo and others.