Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 44

beloved schools and considered to typically have the best samba, chose for their
theme O Século do Samba (the century of samba). Their Comissão de Frente consisted of a group of actors in costume and latex masks made up to resemble the historical figures of samba. Each person carried a prop that was a symbol for the
person they represented-a saxophone, a cane, a top hat, one in a wheelchair.
Mocidade's Comissão de Frente was special in a completely different way.
Their theme was Villa-Lobos, Brazil's most famous classical composer, whose
works include the Amazon Suite. Their Comissão de Frente included stilt walkers
dressed as trees and a group of gymnasts in frog costumes. Beija-Flor's Comissão
de Frente included couples in late eighteenth century costumes dancing a minuet.
These three schools received scores of ten from all three judges.
After the Comissão de Frente comes the abre-ala or opening section followed
by the rest of the sections unfolding the theme. Each float, much like a moving stage
set, includes dancers in dazzling costumes, lighting and often animated sections.
The rules for this year required six to eight floats in the Special Group, each float
relating to a part of the samba enredo. Beija-Flor's opening section depicted the
fossils of the primitive animals with a large sun at the back since Araxá means "high
place from where you see the sun" in the Tupi Indian language. The next float represented African and Indian themes. A float with a waterfall drawn by beautifully
sculpted oxen referred to the story of the bandierante, the colonizers who noticed
that the skin of the oxen was quite smooth and soft which, in turn, led to the discovery of the springs. A float of rich homes and dancing couples dressed in the eighteenth century clothes celebrated the height of Araxá's popularity as a spa.
Carriages with people representing the legendary women of Araxá led this float. Different spas throughout the world and a large cook figure surrounded by the fruits
and spices common to the area were depicted on the next two floats. Lastly, a representation of the Grande Hotel and its casino closed the parade.
Opposite Top: Bateria of
Grande Rio (photo by José
Henrique Moreira)
Opposite Left: Pieces for BeijaFlor's African float.
Opposite Right: Mocidade's
Comissão de Frente.
Top: Beija-Flor's Comissão de
Frente. (photo by José
Henrique Moreira)
Right: Beija-Flor's casino float.
Below: Monkey headresses in
Imperatriz's costumed section.

kept national subjects for their themes-these are all
national heroes or battles against Paraguay-there were
no Negroes as a theme even though in that period eighty
percent of the participants were black people. So in
1960 in Salgueiro, we made a theme about Zumbi, one
of the Quilombo leaders. Quilombo is the place the
black people went when escaping from slavery. [Zé later
explained this to me. "Quilombo" is a generic name for
any place where escaped slaves lived.] We made a theme
about Zumbi-this was the first theme about a black
hero in Brazil. But one year earlier in 1959, Néri, a Brazilian carnival designer married to a Swiss woman made
a theme about DeBret, the French engraver who made
prints about the black slaves in the Empire, instead of
talking about the glory of the military. He worked for
Salgueiro and that is why I became a Salgueiro fan because it was about an artist who showed the black
people instead of showing the military. From 1960 on
the themes changed. They started to tell the story of
great women; Dona Beija, Chica da Silva, the slave,
Carmen Miranda. Then the theme became the search for
liberty and the places of Brazil; Rio, Lapa, the place
where the aqueduct is, the Amazon, Xingu. The designer,
with more freedom, started to create his own themes,
some of them even abstract themes-not with a special
story line but just an association of ideas.
When it is an historical theme, you have to tell it in
chronological order like in theatre-first act, second
act. But to make it easier, the designer started to say
about the theme, "Not a plot, but an idea." So it's an
idea, a subject-Bahia, the wheel, there was one about
the wheel-there was no special order-no chronological order to the parade. It is easier to build a
school's parade if you don't have an order to follow.
TR: A number of the schools we saw this year are
getting money from a city-Araxá is giving
R$400,000 to Beija-Flor.
FP: It is a casa nickel-slot machine theme. When Rosa
[Rosa Margalhães, designer at Imperatriz] made a
theme about the camels brought by Peter II to replace
the donkeys, she found out she could get some money
from the state of Ceara. She got money from the government of Austria to sponsor a theme about the Queen
Leopoldina, the wife of Peter I. The Austrian government
TD & T

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001