Review of Grande Rio 2010 Parade

The school was one of the highlights of this year’s carnival parade with the plot theme in honor of the past 25 carnivals at Rio´s Sambadrome. The parade was very creative and was not afraid to honor other samba-school ´s successes and the tragic moments, such as a fire on a float in 1992. The parade lasted for 1 hour and 21 minutes and would later prove why it deserved the second place at the final contest standings.  actress Paola de Oliveira, Queen of Grande Rio was also one of the great successes of the parade. 

Grande Rio Samba School parade explored many distinguishing facades of the world wide famous carnival parade in Brazil: legendary characters, the public, the VIP boxes, historic samba composers and the talented carnival producers. The floats were very interesting, and one of them represented a dump with rats and sewers, a tribute to Beija-Flor Sambas School legendary parade of 1989 by Joãozinho Trinta Carnival Producer. The drum section’s costume was another tribute to famous and anonymous garbage me, who clean the avenue year after year, at each parade end. Another aspect which called the attention of the public to the school was their impressive team of celebrities.   Grande Rio is known to be the samba-school of the famous and glamorous.

The opening wing showed two of the greatest symbols of Brazilian Carnaval, the "mulatas" and the "malandros". Dancers dressed as "malandros" made a floor choreography while a team of "mulatas" came on top of a tripod. But a detail is important: only one of the "mulatas" was real, the other ones were statues. The "trick" was revealed when the real life woman came down the tripod to dance with the malandros.

The greatest tribute made by Grande Rio Samba School was to the carnival producer Joãozinho Trinta. The reverences to the artist began at the "Baiana wing”, dressed as "Ladies of the garbage". They made reference to the use the carnival producer devoted to recycled materials. They were followed by a wing which represented the hobos who the carnival producer brought to the Beija-Flor parade of 1989.

The third float placed the carnival producer on the top of a pile full of litter and garbage. At the bottom, sculptures of giant rats moved and merry makers dressed as rats crawled out of sewer tunnels, which were lightened up by red lights. On top of this pile of “dump” who Joãozinho Trinta transformed into art in many of his parades, a vulture flapped his wings on the Sambadrome. 


Below, the amazing Paola Oliveira in front of Grande Rio Drums...

The Drum Section was another highlight of the parade: they were all in bright orange, dressed up as Rio city janitors. Carnival Queen of Drums, actress Paola Oliveira made a great spectacle also leading vibrant drummers. In rhythm, the drum section made small stops, called “paradinha” in sequence while the drum queen samba danced and walked amongst them. The drum section also played a part of the samba-theme without the singing, which drew attention of the public.

The forth float took a "dream factory" to the parade, celebrating the samba city. Merry makers twirled umbrellas which resembled ferris wheel in green neon. Alongside, Christ the Redeemer statue covered up by a cloth with an inscription "even forbidden I shined" was place on the float. This was another reference to a carnival of Beija-Flor, which had in one of her parades, a “prohibited float”, due to the use of a religious image.

This beautiful parade ended with the "Carnival of the stars", a luxurious silver space ship which foresaw how the Carnaval of the year 3001 would look like in Brazil: This float was a tribute to the Carnival Producer Fernando Pinto. In 1985, he imagined how the Brazilian Carnaval parades would look like. It was a very emotional moment to many… At the centerpiece of the float stood as a high-light Renato Sorriso, a true Rio de Janeiro city janitor who gained fame while sweeping the Sambadrome avenue with samba, grace and a natural smile. Today, Renato a.k.a. “Sorriso”, ( which means smile ), is a notable celebrity in the Carnaval scenario in Rio.   The homage was more than welcomed.