Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 42

chosen and the story is written out, often by the carnival designer
(carnavalesco), it must meet the approval of the board. It then becomes the
basic working document. The samba composers start work on a number of
sambas and then a special competition is held in the dance halls or clubs
(quadra) to choose the samba for the parade. The winning samba enredo
(samba on the theme) then goes back to the designer(s) and work begins on
the design of the costumes and floats.
Parade subjects can be just about anything-a famous person, a place, or the
history of ice cream-and some are more successful than others. Caprichosos'
theme was about Dr. Pintanguy, an internationally famous plastic surgeon. Cabaçu,
a school in group A whose designer is also a hairdresser, centered their theme on
hair-hair in history, hair in religion, and so on. Many of the schools this year developed their themes around a place in Brazil. Fernando Pamplona calls these "slot
machine" themes. The school chooses a theme based on a place which promotes
tourism in return for funds for the parade.
I spent quite a bit of time with Beija-Flor's designer, Nélson Ricardo, who
was responsible for the theme and the design of many of the floats (carro
alegóricals or allegorical cars). Beija-Flor is unique in that a team of five
carnavalescos design the parade instead of the usual one person responsible
for the whole design. This year their theme was about Araxá, a spa town in
Minas Gerais, the central state of Brazil and serves as a good example of how
the theme is carried out in the parade.
My crude translation of their samba by Wilsinho Paz and Noel Costa gives
some idea of how the parade is organized.
Araxá, Araxá (obá, obá)
Hospitable paradise
Where from the heights
We glimpse the sun's first rays,
You are the font of wisdom about science
Positive proof of the existence
Of primitive animals,
Land where the Indians and Negroes
Struggle constantly
Against brave bands of invaders.
The blood is flowing constantly.
At last, springs São Domingo do Araxá
A land free to explore
A new colonization.
With the arrival of arbitration,
Appears the liberation.
Ana Jacinta de São Jose (a kiss)
Josefa Carneiro de Mendonça (rare beauty)
Josefa Pereira, her power and faith (how charming)
The slave Filomena (is fascinating)
The air has a good scent
This spice invites us to a journey.
I wish to be reborn in your waters
To prolong life.
I'll lodge in the Grande Hotel
With its comforts to enjoy,
With its inspired architecture.
In this carnaval, Beija-Flor exuberantly bring us
This beautiful retreat of Minas Gerais.

and a half and only up to four meters tall because they
had to go below the wires of the street cars. Then they
had ten floats and then twenty floats and now they have
eight floats and they have no limit on size. They are
much bigger than they were. There was a car some years
ago for Imperatriz, when Max Lopes was there, and this
was so tall that the guy on the top had to be put there by
a crane. They now have two cranes at the concentration
point to put people on the floats.
And this change also created several new professions. I know at least some twenty very good sculptors in
the schools and hired two of them for a production of
Aida I designed in the Sambôdromo. The smallest sculpture was twelve meters. The stage was sixty meters wide.
The cyclorama was twenty-five meters tall by eighty
meters wide.
Several generations of craftspeople were trained by
the schools. In old times, theatre professionals went to
the schools. Instead, nowadays, carnival professionals
come to theatre. When I taught there [the School of Fine
Arts], I took the students out to work in the samba
schools and at the balls so that they would learn the
practice, not only the theory. When I was head of the
school of fine arts, I wrote to all the carnival designers
asking for places for the students so that they could
learn there. Joaosinho Trinta never accepted those students because he got children from the street-children
who lived in the streets-to teach them the crafts.
Joaosinho Trinta was responsible for a whole generation
of craftspeople for the schools that were very well
trained. You can always find someone in every school
trained by Joaosinho Trinta who was once a child from
the streets. Probably Joaosinho transformed some six
hundred possible future bandits into carnival workers.
Previous to 1984, the carnival parade was held in a
number of different main avenues in the downtown area.
It took three months to build the seating and another
three months to tear it down, which disrupted the already chaotic traffic even more. It was also very expensive to pay to have the seats put up and taken down so
the government decided to build a permanent place, the
Sambôdromo, to hold the parade. The buildings are
used for school during the rest of the year.
TR: How did building the Sambôdromo change
TD & T

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