Samba school warming up for carnival
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E-mail CNTV, January 21, 2013
Whoever visits Brazil during Carnival season might come away with the feeling that the country literally stops to party. From February 9 to 12, the whole city of Rio de Janeiro will enter its craziest spectacle of the year. All else will come to a halt for four days, with the exception of samba, women, beer, and partying all night long. The highlight of the event is a grand dance parade called "Sambadrome," presented by 12 elite samba schools.
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A worker prepares pieces to be attached to a carnival float at Grande Rio Samba School in preparation for the school's parade in Rio de Janeiro January 16, 2013. |
Anticipation is building and the excitement growing as Carnival inches closer and closer.
Brazilians usually book their vacations around this time, business meetings are adjourned, and productivity per person conspicuously declines. All for the four days of exhilarating fun.
And this year will be no exception. For that, preparations are in full swing at the Grande Rio Samba School.
It will be competing among the 12 elite schools at the Sambadrome parade, for the title of Rio's best samba school. Last year, it came in fifth place, but this time around, there is a feeling that they could go all the way.
The Brazilian government's new oil law has created resentment in the country in the past few months. Now the issue will feature at this year's Carnival.
Grande Rio's Artistic Director, Roberto Szaniecki, says the school will put on a great show, in spite of the serious topic.
Grande Rio's Art director Roberto Szaniecki said, "We have a strong theme which talks about oil and its royalties, we talk about the city of Rio de Janeiro, and we are all really enthusiastic about it, and of course we are planning a grandiose carnival celebration."
Samba schools in Rio work year-round to make sure everything is ready for the festivities. Their budget runs into the millions of dollars and they employ a workforce of thousands.
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A worker prepares pieces to be attached to a carnival float at Grande Rio Samba School in preparation for the school's parade in Rio de Janeiro January 16, 2013. |
Alan Ramos is one of those workers, he does the heavy lifting, carrying and moving materials around the warehouse where the elaborate carnival floats are put together. Despite the workload, he feels happy and satisfied.
Grande Rio's worker Alan Ramos said, "There's nothing better than to sing while working, it keeps away the evil spirits and it's the best way to get through stressful days."
In Brazilian culture, Carnival is widely known as one of the great forms of expression.
Edson Oliveira, President of the Grande Rio Samba School, believes Carnival will keep mesmerizing people not only in Brazil, but all over the world.
Edson Alexandre, president of Grande Rio Samba School, said, "Each (samba) school has 4,000 participants, that makes for a total of 50,000 people parading. In what other show in the world do you have that number of participants, with 75,000 watching, being broadcast to 150 countries? So it's a very important show, a very popular show, and put together by the people."
Rio de Janeiro's carnival runs from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12. An estimated six million people will flood the streets of Rio de Janeiro to celebrate.
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