Renato Tavares

Renato Tavares de Moraes started jiu-jitsu in Rio de Janeiro at the age of six and never really stopped. Born in 1968, he came up through Carlson Gracie's gym and received his black belt from Carlson himself in 1995 — placing him in a small generation of black belts whose certificate carries the master's own signature. A close friend of Eduardo 'Teta' Rios, Tavares followed him to Norway and spent years teaching at Frontline Academy Oslo, as well as running classes at police facilities and other institutions across the country. In January 2024 he opened his own school, KDT Jiu-Jitsu in Sandvika, on the western edge of greater Oslo. With nearly thirty years of teaching behind him, Tavares represents a particular Carlson Gracie sensibility — old-school, technical, demanding — and is one of the few instructors in Norway who can hand down that line in person.