What are samba schools?
Not, as you might think, places where badly co-ordinated young men learn to shake a leg (that’s the British definition of ‘samba school’), but the highly-trained, often 5,000-strong groups of dancers whose determination to be the best is the beating heart of Carnaval. There are 14 main samba schools in Rio, each representative of a different area of the city. They compete to be crowned Carnaval champions over the Samba Parade’s two nights of stylish rump-shaking (Beija-Flor, who hail from the poverty-stricken Nilopolis neighbourhood on the outskirts of Rio, have dominated of late, taking the title three times in the last four years – although they lost out to Vila Isabel in 2006). Each participant wears a suitably glitter-drenched costume that, according to the rules of the contest, must be made from scratch every year. Each samba school gets 60-75 minutes on the runway, and performs a routine based around an annual allotted theme (2004’s theme was about the need to preserve the enviro
