Contra-Mestre Rouxinol

 

 

Starting Capoeira

ContraMestre Rouxinol (Jeroen Verheul) saw capoeira live when he was 14 years old in the summer of 1997 during a performance near the street where he lived. He asked contact information after the show and took time to convince his parents. Eventually in January 1998 he started training with his teacher Mestre Araminho who was an instructor of A.B.A.D.A. Capoeira at the time. The first capoeira years of his life he was part of the group A.B.A.D.A. Capoeira and got to know several people from the group including its founder Mestre Camisa, who visited Rotterdam in 1999.
 

 

Further Development

Rouxinol bought his first berimbau 6 months after starting capoeira, started singing in the roda after 7 months and wrote his first capoeira song after 10 months of capoeira. Due to his interest in the musical aspects of capoeira he received the apelido (nickname) rouxinol meaning nightingale.

From early on Rouxinol had interest in the capoeira history and capoeira world.
He started collecting material related to capoeira after half a year of training and started interviewing capoeira masters when he was 16 years old. 
He started giving lessons in 2002 when his teacher left Holland for over a year.
Since 2004 he has been giving capoeira workshops to children and adults.
In 2005 he started giving lessons at the sports building of the Erasmus University

Since 2007 he has been giving lessons in several places in Rotterdam.
Currently ContraMestre Rouxinol teaches capoeira in the West of Rotterdam and barendrecht and combines his background in Educational Psychology with his lessons for children and adults.

Teacher Graduations of Contra-Mestre Rouxinol:

- 2001 - Azul (Graduado)
- 2003 - Azul-Verde (Graduado)
- 2006 - Verde (Instrutor)
- 2009 - Verde-Roxa (Instrutor)
- 2012 - Roxa (Professor) 

- 2015 - Roxa-Marrom (Professor)
- 2016 - Marrom (ContraMestre)

Contra-Mestre Rouxinol wrote 5 books about capoeira:
Cadernos de Musicalidade 1. - O Berimbau
Cadernos de Musicalidade 2. - O Canto e Cantigas
Cadernos de Musicalidade 3. - Ladainhas e outras Cantigas
Metodologia de Capoeira de Professor Rouxinol
Catalogo de Discos relatados a Capoeira e o Berimbau

Rouxinol wrote over 300 songs and several articles about capoeira, three of which were published in the magazine about Brazilian Culture: Agogô

ContraMestre Rouxinol has been to Brazil in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012  2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, usually staying in between 1,5 and 3 months each time. There he was able to visit several masters, some of which he was able to interview. Gathering material and knowledge, he currently has build an archive containing thousands of items related to capoeira and Afro-Brazilian Culture, which can be consulted by others who are interested.