Elcio Barbosa, known in capoeira circles as Mestre (Master) Djop Barbosa, was born on the 19th of June1963 in the city of Piracicaba, Sao Paulo. He began the practice of capoeira in Piracicaba on 17 October 1979 with Mestre Cosmo Claudival da Costa (28/07/1955 - 04/2004). Mestre Cosmo, was part of the first formed mestres of the Grupo Cativiero Capoeira Group in 1978 in the city of Ribeirão Preto-SP. 

 

Djop trained under Mestre Cosmo for four years, continuing his training with Mestre Miguel, who was Mestre Cosmo’s mestre, under whom he would receive the title of Mestre. Throughout his life as a capoeirista, Mestre Djop has had a lot of contact with various renowned capoeira mestres, but two in particular had a special importance in his development. The first was Mestre Ananias, whose active participation in the activities organised by the Grupo Cativeiro in the and 80 and 90s. 

His first contact with Capoeira Angola would take place in 1981 at the Academy of Mestre Miguel in the Avenue of Consolation in São Paulo. There, during a workshop, he met Mestre Gato Preto and what would become the foundation of a long relationship. When Mestre Gato Preto moved to São Paulo in the 90s, the meetings were almost daily with long conversations followed between one coffee and another… Among others, these are the masters who have shaped Mestre Djop and his journey through the capoeira universe.

 

Mestre Djop has also spent time living in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Goiania, Tocantins and others cities in Brazil, learning and teaching capoeira. He moved to Belgium 1998. Mestre Djop was a part of Grupo Cativiero Capoeira for 32 years until 2012 when he created his own group, Escola de CApoeira in Belgium.
 

 

Mestre Djop now lives and teaches in Belgium travelling frequently to Brazil and Africa.