Mestre Bola (Marinaldo da Silva) was born in Olinda, Pernambuco, a prosperous center of Afro-Brazilian culture with a long tradition of Capoeira. He began training with a Capoeira master in 1988. Initially, Bola moved to Vancouver in 1995, where he taught Capoeira for some time, but then moved to Toronto in 2000 to open an academy. In 2005 he founded Capoeira Camará, which now includes academies worldwide in places like Brazil, Canada, Bermuda, Ireland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Dominican Republic, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine, among others.