The spectacular Niemeyer Sambadrome has capacity for 60,000 people
Sunday February 20 Today begins in the city of Rio de Janeiro the highlight of the Carnival celebrations, the competition between the thirteen Samba Schools of the Special Group (something like the queen category of samba). The parade of the same in the Sambadrome is for many the most anticipated event of the year , a true display of creativity, an explosion of rhythm, something to be experienced once in a lifetime, they say.
Hours before the parade begins, the activity of the Samba Schools is frenetic. "You will go in the Roman section," the wardrobe manager tells me. I confess, I feel somewhat disappointed. Ever since I found out that she would parade in a samba school, she had dreamed of something more sophisticated, a crown of feathers, a sequined bodice... I don't know. But suddenly I see someone in the group dressed as a shepherd with a sheep included and I immediately think that, after all, going as Romano isn't so bad either.
Only dressing up as a soldier when the thermometer reads almost 30 degrees is not very easy, I assure you. And I keep wondering what it's like to dance samba dressed like this, especially since fantasy weighs a ton and the helmet with gigantic feathers doesn't allow me to move easily. But hey, I'll think about that. At the moment, I am on a bus together with other members of 'my school', Porto da Pedra, about to reach the mythical Samba Temple. You can already hear the hubbub.
Indians, Romans... Rio de Janeiro's carnival is a celebration of different cultures
The sambodrome designed by Niemeyer and located in the place where they say samba was born has just been reopened just a week ago. The reforms have made it possible to expand the capacity of the stadium to a capacity of 90,000 people. Today, according to what we are told, there are 73,000 attendees following the competition, a record in the history of the carnival.
The most absolute chaos reigns in what they call concentração (concentration), a moment in which all the components that will parade in the Samba School meet, about two hours before the start of the parade. Thousands of people are literally crowded into the access area to the Sambadrome, in the middle of the street. Water and beer vendors endlessly offer their wares and tourists watch us with real delight as, camera in hand, they photograph us over and over again (truly, I've never felt so famous).
Less than two hours before the parade starts and no instructions have been given to us. I'm beginning to doubt that this can work out. "Don't worry," Francisco tells me, a friendly and affable carioca who has been parading in Samba Schools for 30 years, “He ends up leaving. In the end, thousands of people parade totally coordinated, nobody explains it very well..., but it comes out”.
“Is this your first time?” he asks me. “Isn't it obvious?” I think to myself. “You will see, it will be the best experience of your life. when you enter the stadium, you will feel a special energy, let yourself go, dance, sing, look at the people, feel the ecstasy of samba”, he prophesies.
Once inside the Sambadrome, the dances and acrobatics take over the show
Finally, they call us to put us by 'wings'. These are the different blocks in which the Samba School is divided to parade. Each of these wings is made up of between 20 and 100 people. All of them carry the same fantasy illustrating a specific aspect of the parade's theme, the so-called 'enredo'. Our school, Porto da Pedra will parade with nothing more and nothing less than 32 wings. 3,800 participants in total!
We are already in the Curral (corral), the true prelude to the Sambadrome, finally isolated by a fence from the throng of tourists and vendors. A certain chaos and confusion still reigns among us Romans, but the harmony and order that Francis had so vehemently assured me is already beginning to be guessed. The person in charge of the 'wing' gives us the final instructions: “in each line there are 10 people, you have to stay in line and always follow the pace of the one in front. When it stops, we have to stop, when it advances we all advance. Never get out of line." As for the choreography, our wing does not have any in particular, just dance samba to the rhythm of the music (ugh! how do you do that?).
The wait is endless. Someone comments that the percussion band has already entered the stadium preceded by the Queen of Drums , the model and actress Ellen Roche, whose role is to inspire the hundreds of musicians who make up the so-called battery with her dance and movement (and according to its curves I am more than sure that the motivation will be maximum). The band is made up of 250 to 300 percussionists and marks the beginning of the parade for each Samba School. The protocol defines that the Battery must make a complete turn in the sambodromo playing the theme chosen that year by the School. At the end it stands in the middle of the stadium to accompany the passage of the different wings and sections.
Between 20 and 100 people parade in each of the 'wings'
It's 3:30 in the morning. And just at that moment, the most absolute frenzy awakens. Fireworks light up the Rio de Janeiro night to mark the true beginning of the parade. A shout of joy runs through the section, we finally get going, advancing with energy and determination towards the gate of the sambodromo. Other sections parade before us, the true professional samba dancers with studied choreographies interpreting the different allegories of Enredo (the theme) that this year is dedicated to the history of yogurt.
Impossible to describe in words what it feels like to enter the sambodromo. I remember Francisco's words and I just let myself go. I don't think anymore, I just dance and sing, it doesn't matter if my movements are rhythmic or not, or if the helmet weighs a quintal, I'm just in ecstasy. The colors, the lights, the music, I tried not to miss any detail, I don't want the 700 meters to the end to ever end. Those present celebrate our passage with shouts and flashes, with greetings and smiles.
I would like to shout, wave to the camera, blow my daughter a kiss. The climax is when we pass in front of the drums and the sound gets inside us, we are like in a trance. I have never danced samba but right now I am doing it , I didn't get to learn the song (I confess) but I'm singing it with more energy and strength than anyone, I don't even know what I'm saying, but I swear I'm singing.
See the rhythm of the Tigre de São Gonçalo
Alimenta seu povo apaixonado
Each portion traces a special care
For the delight and emotion in the carnival
The spectacular costumes leave no one indifferent
The 700 meters of frenzy end in the so-called Place de la Apoteose (Apotheosis), I don't know who the author of the name was, but nothing more adjusted to reality, the euphoria is overflowing, we are bathed in sweat but we laugh and clap, we shout and jump . “How short it has been”, say some. "What a pity, we will have to wait until next year," others say. !Next year!
Believe it or not, as soon as the carnival ends, the Samba Schools begin to prepare for the following year, hundreds of people, set designers, composers, choreographers, singers and dancers get going, a job of many months to make possible the magic of the 'greatest show on earth'.
Do you also want to participate in it, just watch it, or are you one of those who thinks that you only live once and dare to parade dressed as a gladiator, princess or whatever? We explain how to do it. Just a little patience, I take off my Romano costume and we'll tell you about it shortly.
If there is something that is clear to us, it is that an experience at the Sambadrome is difficult to forget