TDSounds

Not just a big show

Its easy to believe that the Rio de Janeiro samba schools are opulent wealthy organisations concerned with putting on a big show for the television cameras. But only a small proportion of Rio's samba schools are in the Special Group. There are six groups altogether, and the three lowest groups parade way out of town, in conditions very different from those you see on television.

 This is a real street parade, with simple costumes made with love and very little money. There's a family atmosphere. The samba schools are much smaller, they have fewer, smaller floats, everything is much more basic. Few schools can afford feathers. This year some of the parades were filmed by a fixed camera for community television, but usually they pass by unrecorded.

Unlike the Sambodrome with its central location between two metro stations, these schools parade in an inaccessible part of town, and it's hard for participants and fans to get there. Schools have been known not to parade at all because the motor coaches didn't turn up to take the participants to the parade. A whole years work down the drain because of a dodgy coach booking!

I heard of a school that had to parade one year with no bateria at all - I think the president marched down the parade ground banging a surdo to keep his revellers in time.

Grupo Especial samba schools parade with baterias of 280 - 300 drummers. Bottom group schools have to have a minimum of 80 players, and its a struggle to find them. It's not that players don't want to come, but people trying for Grupo Especial baterias have to turn up to 3 rehearsals a week - miss one and you're out. So there is no time to rehearse with your little local school. Players who arent committed wander off to blocos. You'll often see baterias with no tamborins, or no cuicas.

I think the work of the schools in the lower leagues has much more relevance to the kind of parades that we non Brazilians aspire to. To see what I mean, have alook at this 2010 parade: this samba school ended up placed about half way up the bottom group of Rio de Janeiro samba schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7s8Qn5o3I