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We were one of 5000 costumed dancers in the Mangueira school. They
spent $2 million on the production of costumes and floats. The audience
at Rio's "Sambodrome" is close to 100 thousand screaming people - which
are sharing the greatest show on earth with an international TV audience
of over a 100 million people. WOW!
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| But first, we had to get there with those big costumes. So we HIJACKED a public bus. Well, almost. The group was desperate. We saw a public transportation bus standing there so we asked, "hey, buddy...ah ah, your off duty, what about a ride in your bus to the Sambadrome... we'll make it worth your while". He said - how much?.... Needless to say - we got there. Tiff has some great video of Hans swinging on the bars in the bus. How often do you get to do that? |  |
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Sergio with buddy Hans singing "Oh ya ya, Vem pra'avenida ver meu Guri desfilar, oh ya ya". It was just one of many song lines we had to crash learn to really participate in the parade. Tiff never quite could pronounce the words since they are so tricky and sung very fast. But she did a good job lip synching in the parade. |
| Friends of Sergios were sitting on the sidelines and snapped this photos of his wife Alexandra as we danced by the stands. You can see the costumes are quite enormous. |  |
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Tiffany (far left) was barely alive during most of the prep time and
almost did not make it because she was so sick. Though, as the massive
fireworks went off signalling that it was our turn to samba out in front
of 100,000 people, the energy of Carnaval started pumping through her lifeblood,
and she went from a withering pink-n-green weed to a blooming dancing-machine.
Ahhh the power of Carnaval. She pulled through just long enough to make
a memorable moment.
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| Sergio Volta the dancing samba machine in the middle of the Mangeira
save. Thanks to him we were able to be on the inside of this major
event and party at the world's greatest show on earth. THANKS SERGIO!
Note: Lot's of even better "in-the-action" pictures are still to come once we capture shots from the video that's in SF. However, it falls far short of the live event. Nothing could replicate the deafing drumming sounds and the energy that emminated from 75,000 samba dancers and a crowd of 100,000 people singing along the words to each of the Samba School songs. |
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