In 1997, Professor Rui (now Mestre Rui) started the Capoeira Group Senzala at Amager in Copenhagen. The group started out in premises in Klub 47, and the trainings took place alternately with the local Muy Thai Boxing Club. In a mix of berimbau rhythms and incense, roda and boxing rings started the first students of capoeira taught on a mix of Brazilian and Danish. Contra Mestre Dourado, Cegonha and Vida trained everyone back then.
The group grew steadily and in 1999 Professor Rui held his first graduation and Contra-Mestre Beto from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil came to Denmark to baptize and graduate students together with Masters and advanced graduates from Europe. In 2000, Beto was graduated Master and graduated at the same time Rui for Contra champions. In 2001, the municipality closed down the group's training facilities and the Association "Capoeira Senzala Amager" was founded. Held the same year Contra-mestre Rui his 2nd batizado and several of the oldest students started capoeira training up in other cities. Students started, stopped and came back.
Workshops were held in schools, institutions and educational institutions. Capoeira became more and more famous. In 2004 and held Contra-mestre Rui batizado, and again in 2005 both in Denmark and in Ukraine. Capoeira Senzala Amager has spread across Zealand and Bornholm and to 5 different cities in Ukraine. The group gets more and more graduate students... and the students themselves get more and more students. Today, the group is one of the largest in Denmark and Rui is Denmark's first and most skilled capoeira master.
