More than a festival, the Carnival season is a celebration of joy. And the city of Rio de Janeiro is its privileged setting. In order to make the most of this intense experience, it's important to be well informed.
There are nearly 100 Samba Schools in Rio. They all compete during the Carnival but only a few ones parade in the Sambadrome.
Schools are ranked hierarchically into 6 levels or groups: SPECIAL, A, B, C, D and E. Each group contains between 8 and 15 Schools which compete among themselves to be the group-champion of the year. There is also the JUNIOR Schools group, which is currently composed by 18 Schools.
The top groups to parade in the Sambadrome are the SPECIAL one plus A and B groups.
Every year the champion Schools of each group are promoted to the immediately superior groups and the Schools to score the least points are downgraded to the immediately inferior group.
Therefore all Schools strive to improve their positions within the general contest and to become group champions. The champion of the Carnival is the champion of the SPECIAL GROUP.
It may take years for a School to reach the top groups since all Samba Schools begin in the lower ranks. School members are passionately committed to their Schools. They take it as a serious responsibility to make their School sparkle in the parades and rise in rank.
It is a life philosophy.
Each Samba School represents a different neighborhood or a social club. The grand Carnival parade is not a simple parade, but a competition among the schools in which the music, lyrics, themes, choreography and costumes are at stake. Schools present themselves along the Sambadrome with thousands of participants split into sections of dancers, musicians and floats.
The preparation starts as early as March or April of the previous year. Each Samba School mobilizes thousands of supporters to create the various aspects of the School's show. A theme is chosen, the music is written, costumes are created, floats are built, while the "carnavalesco" (the carnival designer) sets the choreography. By December, rehearsals begin and by Christmas, the sambas are recorded and released to record shops.
When the parading day at the Sambadrome finally comes, Schools must present their long awaited show within a strict span of time: between 65 to 85 minutes. They will be judged by more than 40 judges spread along the avenue who allocate points according to specific criteria.
When a Samba School's parade has just finished at Sambadrome, concerns about the next carnival have already started. TheLIESA (Liga Independente das Escolas de Samba, responsible for the Samba Parade's organization) and members of Samba Schools guild have the main purpose of making better parades year after year. The next year's parade has to be better than the last one. It is a very hard work which requires much planning of professionals and artists who are wholeheartedly committed to this project.
It is important to emphasize that Carnival reveals itself as a very rich cultural manifestation in Brazil. The Samba Schools' parade, for example, brings up, with their plots, themes deeply related to Brazilian history or geography; social and political criticism and so on. It brings all marvelously together: poetry, dancing, theatre, music, fine arts. In addition, there's something very interesting about Carnival: the massive participation of people who make part of the communities represented by the Schools. These communities are very poor and they are not printed on the postal cards of Rio de Janeiro city.
The great event counts on many Samba Schools' participation, being distributed among the groups: Special, A, B, C, D and E. The first three ones present themselves at Sambadrome; on Carnival Saturday group A, on Carnival Sunday and Monday Special group, on Carnival Tuesday group B. The demands for the Special Group exhibition days are the highest since the most traditional schools of Rio's Carnival belong to this group; they always provide such a fantastic show!
By this time of the year, ten of the thirteen Samba Schools from the Special group have already chosen their plots and they start to define all the costumes and allegories which will be composing the Carnival 2011.
It would be also useful to remember that the carnival date is flexible because it depends on the Christian calendar to be determined, more precisely on the Easter Sunday. Does it sound difficult? Just a little! Forty-six days before the Easter Sunday we find the last carnival's day on Wednesday; here in brazil we call it "Quarta-feira de Cinzas"(Ash Wednesday). Thus, the carnival will start a Saturday before, that is, four days before this Wednesday. Well, the really important thing to know is: the 2011 Carnival will be from the 4th to the 8th of February and the Special Group's parade will be on February 6th (Sunday) and 7th (Monday).
Be aware of the chosen plot themes as well as dates and time when each School from the Special Group will present itself. Start to think right now which schools you want to watch or parade in. It will be the best Carnival that ever happened!
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