ABOUT
  - GRUPO GINGA

Ginga Assosiacao de Capoeira Regional was founded on November 13, 1972 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil by Mestre Itapoan, Raimundo Cesar Alves de Almeida, who trained directly under the revered Mestre Bimba.

The birth of Grupo Ginga began not out of want but out of necessity.

Under Mestre Itapoan's continued guidance, Ginga Assosiacao de Capoeira Regional has preserved and followed Mestre Bimba's teachings for over thirty years. It is committed to following and passing on the strategies, sequences and philosophy that define true Capoeira Regional.

  - MESTRE ITAPOAN

Mestre Itapoan, the founder and president of Grupo GInga Associação de Capoeira Regional and the ABPC (Assosiação Brasileiras dos Professores da Capoeira), has been a Capoeiraista and teacher for over 40 years.

Mestre Itapoan, (Raimundo Cesar Alves de Almeida) began his life in Capoeira on September 22, 1964, when he was 7 years old. He studied directly under Mestre Bimba until Mestre Bimba moved to Goianha in 1972.

Mestre Itapoan has won several of the original Capoeira Championships organized by Mestre Bimba. In 1970 and 1971, he won the Bahian Championship Capoeira Games. As coach of the Ginga contingent, he won the Mestre Bimba Capoeira cup in 1974,1976, 1977 and 1978.

In 1990 Mestre Itapoan received the MEC an honorary medal for Natioanl Sport.

He is considered to be a living library of Capoeira. As a historian, he has authored several books on the practice and philosophy of Capoeira:

"Bimba, o Perfil do Meu Mestre", "Atenilo O Relampago da Capoeira Regional", "Bibliografia Critica da Capoeira", "Revista de Nageça", "Capoeira: Retalhos da Roda", and "A Saga do Mestre Bimba", which will be released in english in the latter part of 2006 in New York City .