Paulo Sérgio da Silva, better known as Mestre Paulão of Muzenza, was the student of his older brother, Luiz Américo da Silva, otherwise known as Mestre Mintirinha, whom he considers to be his “first and only master”. It was Mintirinha, too, who got the idea of the name for the group from a Candomblé de Angola practitioner. Muzenza is also the name of the first public dance of a newly initiated woman.
Before the creation of the group, Paulão was part of Mestre Mintirinha’s group – Obaluaiê. Paulão then felt the need to create a group of his own. Grupo Muzenza’s initial pitch was to be a capoeira school with a more traditional style. In the first years of its existence, it participated in important capoeira events in Rio, such as the 1st Individual Carioca Capoeira Championship in July 1975. In this event organized by the Brazilian Pugilist Confederation, Márcio de Freitas Matias, a member of the group, became runner-up in the average weight class of the yellow and blue belts. In addition to this event, the group also participated in the 1976 Capoeira Interclub Tournament.
Mestre Paulão taught the group until 1978, when he decided to dedicate himself entirely to his military career. At that time, Burguês, who had been his student and was already developing his own work in the group, migrated to Curitiba and continued Muzenza Group’s journey there.