About

Grupo Capoeira Brasil - Madison

Madison Capoeira Group 501(c)3 is dedicated to sharing capoeira as a way to connect in community and empower adults, children, and adolescents through classes, workshops, collaborations, and performances, while improving fitness, musicality, agility, and mobility and promoting healthy habits.

Our Madison group formed in 1986 under the supervision and guidance of Mestre Preguiça, founder of Omulu Capoeira. Mestre Preguiça trained under the legendary Mestre Bimba and was one of the co-founders of Grupo Senzala. He started Omulu Capoeira when he moved to California in 1984. We continued as a branch of Omulu Capoeira Group until Mestre Preguiça retired in 2024. In September, 2025 the Madison Capoeira group officially became part of Grupo Capoeira Brasil under the supervision of Mestre Mindinho.

Madison Capoeira group continues to keep our roots at the center of our training, while continuing to grow in the wider capoeira community. The Madison Capoeira group remains active and always welcomes new students and opportunities to train or perform in the Midwest.

Professora Guerreira

Kelly first experienced Capoeira while living in Brazil in 1994 and the combination of fluidity of movement, acrobatics, and music captured her interest. As a result she began playing with the UW Madison Capoeira Group in 1996.

She has taught classes through the UW Madison Recreational Sports Program, Horizon Health & Fitness, the YMCA, and currently holds classes at the Madison Youth Arts building.

In addition to Capoeira, Kelly has choreographed Samba, Maculelê, and Frevo performances and taught Samba classes in the Madison area, providing access to sister arts which complement Capoeira beautifully. She is also tri-lingual, speaking English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Professora
Bruxa

The music and movement of Capoeira first captured Bruxa’s attention in 2005 while living in Ecuador. The group in Madison became her capoeira family in 2006 and has been a constant source of support and growth since then. She became a graduated student of Mestre Preguiça through the Omulu Capoeira Group in 2014. Bruxa is a teacher by profession and is passionate about practicing and teaching Capoeira, Maculelê, Samba, and any other sister arts to Capoeira. She has led classes in various locations and currently teaches youth and adult classes at MY Arts.

For Bruxa, Capoeira has been an opportunity to challenge herself physically, express herself creatively, and connect with communities and friends locally and throughout the world. She loves to share her passion for movement, language (English/Spanish/some Portuguese) and music with anyone interested in singing, dancing, playing, and learning with her.

Instrutor Tall Dude

Tall Dude with Glasses (TDWG) has been training and traveling with Madison Capoeira since 2008. The movement of capoeira got him started in the art, but he has stayed with it because of the strong community he found and the richness of other related capoeira and capoeira-adjacent arts like maculelê, samba, forro, etc... that Madison Capoeira embraces.

. TDWG is a bilingual elementary cross-categorical teacher by profession, and brings that expertise to the introductory kids classes that he leads through MSCR.

Mestre Mindinho

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