Mestre Demetrius

Demétrius Pereira Dos Santos (Mestre Demétrius) was born in Sao Gonçalo, a city in in the state of Rio de Janeiro. He had a difficult childhood and by the age of 8 months, his parents were divorced. He stayed with his father and left to live in the state of Mato Grosso.

It wasn't until 6 years later, in 1979, that he returned to Rio de Janeiro and had his first contact with Capoeira in Sao João De Meriti (RJ). By 1982, he started to practice Capoeira in a school back in Mato Grosso, but continued to have  a lot of problems because his dad was against it. His father didn't believe Capoeira could have play an important part in one's life.  He later realized his mistake.

After joining the army (servico militar) in Cuiabá, MT, Mestre Demétrius graduated to the rank of Monitor and started to work at a community center, Capoeira Nova Geracão (New Generation Capoeira). The people there, as well as his own Mestre, soon began to see that he had a gift for teaching the art of Capoeira.

Mestre Demétrius continued to travel through states of Brasil and started to gain recognition for his work in helping poor children and for his participation in national Capoeira events. He was the 2 time champion for the Brazilian Confideration of Capoeira (Confederacao Brasileira de Capoeira).

In 1994, Mestre Demétrius participated in an event in Minas Gerais where he had the opportunity to meet Mestre Loka, the president of CapuraGinga and it was there that Mestre Loka invited him to join CapuraGinga. From Mestre Loka, Mestre Demétrius learned to enrich his professionlism in what he likes doing most, teaching capoeira. While in CapuraGinga, Mestre Demétrius helped to create the guidelines that the group follows when assessing a student's graduation. All this and more was was very new to him. Not long after, he received an invitation to do workshops in Israel, Amsterdam, Holland; Frankford, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland, and then the United States.

On February 25th, 2007, Mestre Demétrius created his own group, Centro Cultural Aruandê Capoeira. With students in six different countries, his teachings continue to be passed on to new students everyday. Today, he lives in Houston, Texas where he continues working with Capoeira, passing on discipline, culture, bodily expression, poetry, music and a philosophy of life.

Mestre Demétrius thanks all the various cities, in the USA, Brazil and across the world that asked to have a workshop with him.