Claudio Luiz Costa Fernandes Couto was born in 1962 in Rio de Janeiro, where he started capoeira at the age of 15, when he entered in Mestre Neco’s Capoeira Angola Group, which operated in Copaleme. Later, Mestre Brinco took part in the development of the Grupo de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, the GCAP.
He was an active participant in the development of GSOA (Grupo Só Angola), founder of the ACIMBA movement (Associação Cultural ILê Mestre Benedito de Angola) and an elected councillor of the Brazilian National Heritage Institute (IPHAN) for the safeguarding of capoeira in Rio de Janeiro.
Currently, M. Brinco leads the MALTA School of Capoeira Angola (Mandinga em Ânsia de Liberdade Tradição Ancestral) in Praça da Harmonia, Rio de Janeiro’s harbour area, which defines itself as an ‘Angoleiro group representing the Pastinha school’.
