Sadly as I needed to be in another city I could only witness the final night of the second tier samba schools……but what an amazing night which left me for a thirst to go back and attend the final for the first tier bands. Certainly looking at the web afterwards, it looked 100% bigger than the parade night I witnessed- which was pretty spectacular in itself.
Rio Carnaval is perhaps the biggest and well known carnival in the world and attracts over half a million foreign visitors a year. Lasting for four days it’s the final hurrah before Lent commences on Ash Wednesday and all bodily pleasures are meant to be abstained from. And man do those Brazilians go out with a big bang of body painted naked women, gyrating, dancing, drinking and generally bopping da beet. It is said that the history of Carnival goes back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, was spread across Europe, and then was brought to Brazil by the Portugese around 1850. It soon expanded to incorporate the African black slave culture (who were given days off to partake) and became a riot of fancy dress, headware and masks …before finally becoming a competition.
Carnaval in the 20th century had a European influence- with polkas and waltzes….but then morphed into an Afro Brazilian affair with sambas and music. Finally, given the size, the purpose built Sambadrome was finished in Rio in 1984 with a 700 metre “runway” past boxes holding some 90,000 spectators who watch about 8 schools parade once from 8pm until dawn.
The format is always the same- each school has 90 minutes to parade from one end of the Sambadrome to the other which, given that the web tells me that it would take a person seven and a half minutes to walk that distance is…..well…slow! But then there is on average some 5000 performers parading in each samba school.
Watching the first samba school come down was amazing. You can hear the music at the end of the Sambadrome and the whole crowd stands up and starts peering towards the end to watch the huge first float enter. Its only as it gets closer you realise that for a good 50 metres in front of it there are people dancing in formation. The crowd went wild as the first float got nearer, all singing the songs (which are released in advance of Christmas) and dancing in their seats. The costumes were mind blowing- and this was only second tier schools who have less money than top tier. The intricacy and the colours of them all, never mind the synchronised movement of the dancers as they sambaed, swirled and gyrated to the music was a moving experience.
The floats were huge- largely manually pushed down the Sambadrome, at times driven, and seemed to be higher than 10 people standing on each other’s shoulders. Enormous….and there about 8 floats in each school’s parade. On each float were the most intricate costumes of the parade (albeit I did see one float solely with body painted naked women) with dancing girls in the front, sides and back, multi-tiered, and perched at the very top one doubly spectacular costumed dancer normally with 4 foot feather headdresses, clutching two poles in front of them so as to dance safely on these mini stages on the floats which wobbled as well!
Moving that many people down a short length of strip, even despite lines of men in front of each section counting the rhythm to make them move faster or slower (points are deducted both for large gaps or over running the allotted time) was awe inspiring to see. I think the photos and the movies have to speak for themselves for this event so Ive for once gone overboard on them!!
Now- hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wished Id known more about the Rio Carnaval before I went so I knew what to look out for- given that it was all pretty overwhelming. Not to mention realising it went until dawn as I faded out at 3am which only meant half of the schools had paraded. So, if you are as lazy as me in pre-researching things you attend, let me give you the run down…..
Carnaval starts with the samba school picking a theme, writing the music for that theme, designing the costumes and floats and choreographing the music and dance for each of the sections. Each section has up to 200 people in it wearing the same costume, and up to 8 floats splitting up each section.
The most eagerly anticipated is the first section-the Flag Bearer and her Consort who carry the school’s flag and perform a solo and elaborate dance at the front. These two are, along with the owner and the choreographer, the most famous in the school.
This is followed by the Vanguards which is a group up to 15 people dancing a highly choreographed routine, who introduce the school to the crowd.
After that comes the Whirling Ladies section where older women are dressed in some rather elaborate huge skirts representative of the traditional costume of the Bahia state and reflecting the African roots. At least 80 must perform in this section and they are usually the old ladies of the community, who have already been with the same School for many years like the samba dancers. Some schools also have wings of little Baianas in this section filled with dancing teenage girls.
The next section is the Percussions who sing and dance to set the rhythm with large surdo drums.Then there are the vocal Singers.And then the Samba dancers.
Judging is taken very seriously with 4 judges in each of the 10 categories being theme for the year, samba song, harmony, overall impression, flow and spirit, flag bearer, vanguard group, percussion band, floats and props and finally costumes.
Now…to the experience. Well firstly it was pissing down with rain. I walked to my allocated seat (2 back from the ledge so prime position and thoroughly recommend paying for front row as it means you can get clearer shots with any type of camera while not having to worry about insufficient zoom for the detail let alone enthused Brazilians waving their hands about all the time or the rain with people holding umbrellas in front of your view). Thankfully someone had left a little plastic raincoat nearby which I huddled into and watched from the downpour while riskily bringing my camera out into the open.
I was only sad when I got into the prearranged transport to go home (another necessity) that I didn’t bolt out of the bus at the junction at the end of the Sambadrome where all these discarded costumes from the performers were piled up in the rain- would have won any fancy dress costume you ever went to.
Finally….Id say watch it rather than partake. You could be in a naff costume, and it must be incredible going down the Sambadrome, however you miss the entire parade let alone the parade of the School you are dancing for. While its expensive (think $400-$1200 a ticket) its definitely worth paying through the nose at this one!!
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