Grande Mestre Edan

Grande Mestre Edan is a world famous master of Capoeira, the creator and the head of a capoeira empire in Israel, which after almost 25 years of existence has spread across the world.

His achievements in sports have always been outstanding. He started to do judo when he was at 7. At 11, he switched to karate and quickly succeeded. He received his black belt at 17 and throughout his career he gathered various awards in local championships. That is when his willingness to teach appeared.

When he was 18 he started military service, which became a turning point in his life. He was appointed as a physical education instructor. Thus he could continue practicing karate and develop as a teacher. The army had expanded his teaching skills in different spheres: krav-maga (a self defence system developed for the Israeli Defence Forces), running, swimming, and weightlifting.

His future had been predetermined already - after the army he planned to go to Japan in order to train with an old karate master. Everything turned upside down when he met Mestre Daniel, who introduced him to the art of Capoeira.

"I fell in love with it, I'm still in love! You know, when you practise different martial arts for a long time, one day you realize that you’ve already reached the top and cannot grow anymore. But capoeira has become a totally new world for me. I finally could fulfil my dream to become a dancer! I'm joking. But the connection of capoeira with dancing seemed to me very appealing. What else? I've always been training in different martial arts in order to grow muscle and win in competitions - this is the basic idea of the majority of martial arts. But none of my coaches had ever told me to be artistic, to add expression, to develop creativity, improvise, to flow like liquid and moreover - to not touch the opponent. Ask yourself all the time: 'Am I doing it well?' And the answer should always be: 'No, I can do better'."

He changed his tickets to Japan to tickets to Brazil.

"I think that teaching is an art. Martial arts are called so but one day I thought - where's the art here? I found it in capoeira not only as a student but as a teacher, too. First of all it is respect that you can never and under no circumstances hurt somebody - neither physically nor emotionally. Secondly, everybody is equal. Even the most famous masters should always feel like they are beginners."

 

Soon Israel is going to celebrate the 25th anniversary. Grande Mestre Edan never thought back when he opened the first capoeira group that his initiative would become a worldwide organization. But he has always been able to dream ahead. His main desire is that his students use his lessons in real life.

"I cultivate respect in them. Moreover, I teach them to be determined and always push forward."

 

His every hobby is his contribution to capoeira. Currently he spends a lot of time doing percussion.

He believes he has made a breakthrough in teaching methodologies and he wants to see teachers use his methods outside of Israel and not only in capoeira but in different martial arts.

Family is very important to Grande Mestre Edan. His wife Noa is a mestre too and both their children train capoeira as well.