Master Joãozinho da Figueira was born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1959. At the age of 12, he moved to São Paulo and started practising capoeira in 1978 at the age of 19. In 1983, he founded his first school, Grupo de Capoeira MarAzul, which he began at the Catholic University of São Paulo PUC/SP. At PUC, the MarAzul group established many important partnerships with different artistic segments such as music, dance, theater and other artforms that took place at the university and in the city of São Paulo as a whole. In 1985, Mestre Joãozinho went in search of new experiences, moving to Manaus-Amazonas where the MarAzul Group became one of the largest groups of afro-brazilian culture, representing the art of capoeira in various festivals and events in the Amazon and other latin american countries. In 2003, Mestre Joãozinho da Figueira moved to Mozambique, to get even closer to african ancestral culture. There, he experienced one of the greatest opportunities to understand this connection of body and soul through african rituals and expressions of the past and present. Now living in England for around 20 years, he has become an important ambassador of afro-brazilian culture in Europe and around the world.