Mascote

Contramestre Mascote

SAMUEL LEES-MANNING / “CONTRAMESTRE MASCOTE” / CAPOEIRA ARTIST

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel”
Samuel "Mascote" is a Capoeira teacher and performer.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian community-orientated martial art, performed to live music and song. It involves many physical, musical and philosophical elements of improvised and semi-structured performance of movement, music & martial art.

Mascote has had over 15 years practising the art, since 2001, and over 10 years of professional experience teaching and performing Capoeira, since 2006. Mascote has directed, conducted workshops, and performed in numerous international festivals and arts events worldwide, to great acclaim, and is internationally recognised, having taught and performed all over Europe, and as far away as Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and, of course, Brazil.

Mascote started his career as a young professional actor from 1996 – 2004, performing in various theatre and television productions, as part of “Stagecoach” in the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, and the “Central Junior Television workshops” in Carlton TV studios in Nottingham (famous for the successes of Samantha Morton, Shane Meadows & Toby Kebbell).

Then, after 3 years of intensive Capoeira training, and his first trip to Brazil in 2003, Mascote fell in love with this fine Brazilian art form and decided to study it further. From 2004 – 2005, he spent 12 months training and travelling full time in Brazil, under the famous “Cordao de Ouro” Capoeira School, with the Great Mestre Suassuna.

When he returned from Brazil, Mascote started his undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of Nottingham, writing his final dissertation thesis on the Sociology of Capoeira. This has really allowed him to put his multi-cultural experience into a wider perspective, and all his work has a highly sociological background.

In 2008, after several other projects, Mascote moved to Birmingham and founded his own branch of the Cordao de Ouro Capoeira School, which he called CDOB.

Mascote has taught and performed in various institutions over the years, including resident teaching and performing work at The Dancexchange (2009-2014), including teaching for their Centre for Advanced Training; various activities at the University of Birmingham, including ‘Brazilian Folk’, a piece of musical and physical theatre, which Mascote directed and choreographed; the Drum arts centre in both performance and event management; the Midland Arts Centre, as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014; and the University of Nottingham Mental Health Institute, hosting a research project into Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery in 2015.

Mascote founded the first International Capoeira Festival Birmingham, in 2010, which aims annually to engage public participation of up to 150 Capoeiristas from across the globe, & has hosted world-famous guest master artists such as Mestre Jogo de Dentro, Mestre Acordeon & Grande Mestre Suassuna.

In 2014/5, Mascote opened the first “Cordao De Ouro” Capoeira studio/academy in Birmingham, the first of its kind in England, which is dedicated solely to the promotion, distribution, education and performance of Capoeira, the Brazilian music, movement, martial art.

In 2017, Mascote was invited by the Playbox Theatre in Warwick to become an associate artist - a means of recognising his work as being important, and highly valued as a mentor to the young people in the company.

Most recently Mascote was graded as a Contramestre, by Mestre Suassuna in his Cordao De Ouro 50 year celebration, which celebrated our groups work throughout the world promoting Capoeira since 1967.