A samba school () is a dancing, marching, and drumming (Samba Enredo) club. They practice and often perform in a huge square-compounds ("quadras de samba") and are devoted to practicing and exhibiting samba, an Afro-Brazilian dance and drumming style. Although the word "school" is in the name, samba schools do not offer instruction in a formal setting.Renata de Sá Gonçalves, "The traditional samba school dance as a performative experience", accessed 12 March 2014 Samba schools have a strong community basis and are traditionally associated with a particular neighborhood. They are often seen to affirm the cultural validity of the Afro-Brazilian heritage in contrast to the mainstream education system,Dils A., Albright A., (eds.) "Moving History / Dancing Cultures - A Dance History Reader", Wesleyan University Press 2001:169. and have evolved often in contrast to authoritarian development.Guillermoprieto, A., "Samba", Jonathan Cape 1990:23-25. The phrase "escola de samba" is popularly held to derive from the schoolyard location of the first group's early rehearsals. In Rio de Janeiro especially, they are mostly associated with poor neighborhoods ("favelas"). Samba and the samba school can be deeply interwoven with the daily lives of the shanty-town dwellers.Samba, a documentary directed by Ella Jessouroun, 2001. Throughout the year the samba schools have various happenings and events, most important of which are rehearsals for the main event which is the yearly carnival parade. Each of the main schools spend many months each year designing the theme, holding a competition for their song, building the floats and rehearsing. It is overseen by a carnavalesco or carnival director. From 2005, some fourteen of the top samba schools in Rio have used a specially designed warehouse complex, the size of ten football pitches, called Samba City (Cidade do Samba) to build and house the elaborate floats. Each school's parade may consist of about 3,000 performers or more, and the preparations, especially producing the many different costumes, provide work for thousands of the poorest in Brazilian society."Imperatriz do Carnival" a documentary directed by Fernando Schultz, 2004. The resulting competition is a major economic and media event, with tens of thousands in the live audience and screened live to millions across South America.
Carnival parade
The formal parades ("desfiles") during carnival, are a showcase of each main schools, enhanced by the participation of celebrities, fans and guests who often pay large sums of money for their elaborate costumes. In Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre, the formal parades are held in specially constructed arenas called Sambadromes (Sambódromo da Marquês de Sapucaí in Rio, the Anhembi Sambadrome in São Paulo) designed by influential architect, Oscar Niemeyer, the Sambadromo Complexo Cultural Porto Seco in Porto Alegre and the Sambadromo de Uruguaiana in Uruguaiana where "escolas de samba" from Brazil and their counterparts in Uruguay and Argentina (known as escuelas de samba) participate. Sambadromes are designed to accommodate all social classes, with VIP lounges, tourist sections, and various types of seating right down to cheapest seats for poorest sections of the community. Those who choose to only watch the parade may also be charged for the best seats.
Each school displays glamour with colorful costumes and floats with special effects and is organized into different segments or "alas" (sections). The "alas" represent different components of the school's theme, or "enredo", as they act out an homage to a myth, historic event or figure, or express their view on a social, environmental, or international issue. The "alas" display distinct costumes ("fantasias") and also reflect traditional samba school roles developed years ago. Thus, each samba school parade has the "comissão de frente" (first artistic ensemble), individuals who open the parade by walking in social attires, saluting the crowds; the "ala das Baianas", or the traditional segment of Bahian African-Brazilian ladies with impressive round dresses spinning through the avenue; the "interpretes" (formerly "puxadores") (lead singers) singing the "samba-enredo" or theme-song while they play the "cavaquinho" or other string instruments; the "velha guarda", veterans of the school; the "bateria", or samba band with drums, "cuicas" and other instruments, preceded by the "madrinha da bateria", band godmother who is often a sexy female celebrity. The "porta-bandeira" (female flag bearer), and the "mestre-sala" (male dancing partner) display and honor the school's flag, as they dance and strive to show harmony and samba expertise, while their performance is carefully observed and scored by the judges.
Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo "Cariocas", the Rio natives, and "Paulistanos", São Paulo natives, are overtaken with emotion while performing or watching their favorite school, as these are places where carnival samba school culture has been developed since the 1930s and samba rehearsals, costume making, and planning is a year-round event. It is often said that a samba school slum dweller may not have a job or food on the table the whole year, but they will make sure they have the money for their costume to show their "samba no pé" or dancing skills expertise.
As samba schools originated in Rio de Janeiro, they are today the most famous ones and produce the spectacular parades often called "the greatest show on Earth". The city of São Paulo has a number of traditional samba schools such as Vai-Vai, Camisa Verde e Branco, Nenê de Vila Matilde, Unidos do Peruche and Mocidade Alegre, among others, often linked to a mixture of African-Brazilian display of pride and immigrant/working class activism. Since the early 1990s São Paulo carnival has seen the rise of schools such as Gaviões da Fiel, Mancha Verde and Dragões da Real, which are connected to "ultras" rooting groups of local football teams. Nearly all Brazilian states have samba schools, but states such as Bahia and Pernambuco tend to have floats that lead a crowd composed of general people, without the need for membership, rehearsals, or even a special attire. Some groups do charge a certain amount of money for the "abadás", or colorful T-shirts that display affiliation to a specific group, or "bloco".
Organization of samba schools A significant majority of the samba schools, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, have in their name the words Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba (Recreative Guild Samba School), represented by the acronym GRES, before the name itself. In São Paulo there is a common variation Grêmio Recreativo Cultural e Escola de Samba (Recreative Cultural Guild and Samba School). There are exceptions, such as the Sociedade Rosas de Ouro (Golden Rose Society) and the traditional Agremiação Recreativa Cultural e Escola de Samba Vizinha Faladeira (grêmio and agremiação in Portuguese are synonyms). The standardization of the classifications of entities emerged in 1935 when the Rio carnival associations were required to take a charter to the Delegacia de Costumes e Diversões (Delegation of Customs and Entertainment) to be able to parade. In an effort to show a modicum of decency and organization, the delegate owner, Dulcídio Gonçalves, refused to grant the permit to associations with "inappropriate" names, which is why the GRES Portela had to change to the current name, instead of the previous Vai Como Pode (Come as You Will).Nelson p.94 (p.112 of e-book)
The samba school system seems to be unique to Brazil.Carnaval da Diamond Unlike parades such as the Rose Parade in California, for instance, the samba schools' organizations consist almost entirely of community volunteer work. More than just musical groups, the schools are the neighborhood associations that cover a variety of community needs, such as educational resources and medical care. There are often political and commercial interests involved as well, even from abroad, especially when the samba school honors the literature, music and dance, or a myth, historic figure or event from another country. Drug lords who control trafficking in the Rio favelas as well as illicit gambling (Jogo do Bicho) are also said to contribute financially to schools, as many of them are guardians and controllers of shanty town life.
History The origins of samba schools are linked to the history of carnival in Rio itself, as well as the creation of the modern samba. The first parades, or "cortumes", as Luso-Brazilians called them, were more exclusive events and used to have white revelers, rather than mostly African-Brazilians like nowadays. The rhythms were often the "marchinhas", with a more Portuguese or European flair. Samba players from a group called Estácio were the pioneers of present-day samba schools, with the founding of "Deixa Falar", or Let Me Speak in 1928. Ismael Silva seems to have been the first to have come up with idea of creating "blocos de Carnaval" in which groups could dance and move to the samba rhythms and sounds.Nelson p.47
The first samba school contests began in 1928 and were held at the home of Zé Espinguela, where his Conjunto Oswaldo Cruz won and Mangueira and Deixa Falar also competed for the title. Some consider this as the starting point leading to the development of present-day samba schools.Academia do Samba - Capítulo 1
However, between 1930 and 1932, these were only considered a variation of the blocos, local street parade celebration, and in 1932 the owner of Mundo Sportivo, Mário Filho, decided to sponsor the first Parade of Samba Schools in Praça Onze. Composers such as Antônio Nassar, Armando Reis and Orestes Barbosa) had the idea of organizing a Carnival parade which was supported by local newspapers. Newspaper owners and journalists such as Mário Filho and his brother Nélson Rodrigues, who did not have much to write about after the end of the soccer season, joined journalist Carlos Pimentel, who was connected to samba personalities in holding a parade at Praca XI square.Nelson p.77
At the invitation of "Sports World", 19 schools attended. The newspaper established the criteria for judging the participating schools and nowadays news networks still have some say on the parades as they strive for fairness and high quality, especially because so much money is invested on TV networks that have broadcasting rights for the parades. Newspapers and magazines also make huge profits.Composer Orestes Barbosa, actors Eugênia Brandão and Álvaro Moreyra and repórter Fernando Costa were jury members in 1932. The traditional "ala das Baianas" was a prerequisite to compete, and the schools, all with more than one hundred members, should present sambas unpublished and not use pipe instruments, among other requirements.Nelson p.79
The winning school was Mangueira, while the second group had the Conjunto Osvaldo Cruz, or Portela. The officials assured the success of the contest remained up in Praca XI Square in 1941."Nosso Tempo", Turner Publishing, Inc. e Century Books, Inc. Nosso Tempo, Volume I; pg. 239. Editora Klick. 1995 Over time, the samba schools took many elements brought by ranches, such as the plot, the pair of mestre-sala cortsy and flag holder and the opening committee, elements with which Ismael Silva disagreed.