Levi Tavares de Souza was born in 1952, in Campos dos Goytacazes, and at the age of nine went to live with his family in Macaé. There he started capoeira in 1968 with Mestre José da Silva. When he moved to Rio, he briefly became a student of Mestre Josias, from Caxias, and then of Mestre Corvo. He took part in capoeira competitions organised by the Brazilian Confederation of Pugilism with Mestre Corvo’s Cruzeiro do Sul group. After Corvo’s death in 1986, he founded his own group Casa do Engenho, also in Caxias. From an early age he became interested in the history of capoeira in Rio de Janeiro and today, as well as teaching capoeira, he gives lectures on its history.