Full apotheosis at the 2011 Rio carnival
Everything is ready in Rio de Janeiro for the start of the most Brazilian party of all. Some 500,000 visitors from all corners of the planet will dance and sing to the rhythm of samba in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Among them, less than 30% will be able to attend one of the parades of the Samba Schools in the mythical Sambadrome. And of that percentage, very few will have the unique privilege of parading along with one of the Schools as one more member, sharing a uniform, songs and rhythm (the latter, of course, is a saying).
We have good news, because we will be among those few to tell you first hand what it is like to dress in feathers and sequins , how to parade to the beat of the drums and how to parade in a tremendous clamor before the attentive gaze of thousands of people. And if you have a little patience, we will tell you how you can also 'sneak in'. Of course, you will have to wait until next year.
They say that all Cariocas are followers of a soccer team and a samba school and that they cultivate the same passion and enthusiasm for both. It is therefore not surprising that there are a total of 70 samba schools, representing a neighborhood or part of the population. These 70 schools follow a rigid hierarchy dividing them into 6 categories:
-The Special Group, the queen category, made up of the 12 best and most spectacular samba schools.
-Group A or also called the Access group from which the 'first division' can be reached.
-Groups B, C, D and E.
All of them will parade during the four days of Carnival but only the Special Group will have the privilege of doing it in the temple par excellence of Samba, the Sambadrome , inaugurated in 1984 and designed by the famous oscar niemeyer . This true samba stadium with capacity for 90,000 people houses what is, without a doubt, the most important event of the entire Carnival, the competition between the Samba Schools. The winner will get absolute glory, the worst ranked will be penalized by relegation to the 'second division', Group A.
Our Samba School: 'Porto da Pedra' Among the Samba Schools, some stand out as old as Portela and Mangueira, founded in 1923 and 1928 respectively, or Salgueiro, where actresses and singers usually parade. We will 'wear the shirt' of the 'Porto da Pedra', a school created in 1978 and known for its spectacular choreography.
But there is no turning back, I just sent my foot measurements and my size for the uniform. I have officially 'signed' for 'Porto da Pedra'. Immediately after I receive the song that will be sung during the parade and a video with the choreography to practice (At the moment I feel a mixture of stage terror combined with a feeling of: but who told me to get involved in this?) .
Our school will parade from 1:20 to 2:30 in the morning on Sunday 19th February. The place of concentration, the Windsor hotel in Copacabana, around 10:30 p.m. where we will get dressed and finalize details. Only then will I find out what the uniform looks like.
At the moment I concentrate on the spectacular view of the plane landing in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with the immense Christ the Redeemer welcoming us. The sun, the rhythm and the music are about to begin.