Last night Eliseu and I went with four Brazilians and a Brit from his hostel to an "ensaio" for Mangueira, the oldest samba school in Rio and the world! An ensaio means a rehearsal for Carnaval, where the singers, musicians and some of the dancers practice for the big day in February when dozens of samba schools compete for the title of champion of Rio's carnaval, based on music, costumes, floats, dancing, and lots of other criteria.
I forgot my camera (Dldkajfd;lj) but I promise to go back and bring it, though in reality it's hard to capture the beauty of the ensaio with pictures; you have to take video or actually BE there, so you'll have to bear with my description.
A samba school itself is a group of residents, usually from a favela, who come together and spend the entire year planning their theme, writing and practicing music, making costumes, constructing floats and rehearsing to compete in the Carnaval parade. This started in the 1920s and has gotten progressively bigger and more extravagant each year.
We went to see Mangueira, located in a favela close to Centro. The outside of the place is very much a favela, with lots of food stands and outdoor clubs and some sketchiness. But inside the building is another story.
The building itself where they have the rehearsals is called the Mangueira Cultural Center, a large convention-hall like structure that is not very exotic from the outside. Inside, the middle of the building is open, like a stadium, and also like a stadium is surrounded by boxes, occupied primarily by rich Cariocas, famous people, tourists, and dancers for the samba school. There are about six or eight pillars on the sides that are gold and look like fake pillars from an Egyptian temple with hieroglyphics. There is alcohol abound and a few places to get food, though it is limited to barbecued meat and horribly salty french fries. The actual ensaio starts at about midnight but the hall fills up before there. We didn't see any big stars last night but there was a very attractive male soap opera star standing near us and the female OJ Simpson of Brazil, who was accused of killing her plastic surgeon husband who had reconstructed his wife's body from head to toe before he died. Creepy. The crowd consisted of the following approximations: 10% from the favela, 15% working class, 20% foreign tourists, 35% middle class and 20% upper class. There were 2 camera crews from TV or a documentary or something, and only a handful of little favela kids who snuck in to beg.
The other interesting thing about the crowd, other than somewhat social diversity is that there are couples, young people, old people, middle-aged people, straight people, extremely ripped large gay men, transvestites, and some flamboyant gay men, including a guy wearing a pink hat and bedazzled jeans, all along the front and sides and with little beaded chains hanging from the butt, like a woman's samba costume.
Anyway, there were volunteers giving out the lyrics to the song for this year's Carnaval (the one that will be sung as the school passes by the judges). This year the song is called: "100 Years of Frevo (improvised samba dances), Losing your Shoes, Recife (the city) told me to Call You." Long title, I know. Also, Mangueira's colors are electric lime green and pink, which is particularly Carnivalesque on men and women alike.
So when the actual ensaio began, there was a singer and a guy on a little guitar, playing a slower rhythm. Some of the dancers came filing in with the aid of old guys with whistles hustling people to make way. The ladies practicing though, were mostly women 55+, and there were a few ladies who were so puckered and frail that I was amazed they could move. And these women could move! They even did a few dance moves besides marching in. So the music continued slow and rhythmic, and then all of the sudden, the percussion came in, composed of maybe about 40+ musicians playing drums and various percussion instruments on the main stage. I can't describe what it's like when the drums come in, and all the sudden the hundreds of people around you start dancing and the school dancers start dancing and the energy of the room electrifies. It is something indescribable and something that every person should experience.
Mangueira dancer
So they did a lot of their older songs that everyone rocked out to, and then they practiced their song for this year, which consists of a small page of lyrics but they repeated tons of times and sang for maybe an hour, but people kept up the energy the whole time. There was also an odd moment when they played "We Will Rock You" (in English) and a samba version of the Brazilian national anthem.
There were some male Mangueira dancers, a few older guys and one younger guy, wearing white leather shoes, white pants, and white button down Mangueira shirts. And I have no other way to describe how they dance samba other than they tear it up.
At one point, the bedazzled gay guy came over and danced with me and then the younger white-clad Mangueira dancer, probably the best of all the dancers, danced with me for a little and it was awesome! Later, he and some of the other white-clad guys danced with one of the favela boys who had snuck in, a little black kid around 7 or 8, who was the cutest thing ever dancing samba with them.
So we danced and danced and watched the crazy people dancing around us and drank and danced some more and we lost steam at about 230 (though the party goes til 6am), so we went and got a quick cab home.
It was AMAZING. Everyone should go to an ensaio, because it's like a microcosm of Carnaval, and is an awesome experience.
Mangueira in the Carnaval Parade
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