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Samba Show


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We shall be visiting Rio de Janeiro for the first time on Feb 24, and would love to see a Samba show. Does anyone has any recommendations? I noted that Thursday nights seem to be good for doing such visits since some Samba Parade "schools" are opened on Thursday nights (?), and we indeed shall be there on a Thursday night. Any recommendation highly appreciated!!

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Things cool down quickly after carnival ends so your party options may be quite limited. If it is still functioning , the Cidade do Samba (in Gamboa) may be a fun evening. It is where the the samba schools build their floats and in the lead up to carnival they put on shows during some days of the week. Here is a link and you can also google and search here for Cidade do Samba.

 

https://translate.google.com.ar/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://www.rio-carnival.net/carnaval/cidade-do-samba-rio-de-janeiro.php&prev=search

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I'd also contact Vida na Prais suggestion of Rafa Torres he will be a source of wonderful information even if you don't book him. We have him booked for a group in Rio at Carnevale time next year and his information and tour ideas are fabulous.

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We shall be visiting Rio de Janeiro for the first time on Feb 24, and would love to see a Samba show. Does anyone has any recommendations? I noted that Thursday nights seem to be good for doing such visits since some Samba Parade "schools" are opened on Thursday nights (?), and we indeed shall be there on a Thursday night. Any recommendation highly appreciated!!

 

What exactly are you envisioning when you say "samba show"?

 

You seem to have gotten the two recommendations on TA for Ginga Tropical and Platforma, both pretty tacky floor shows aimed at the most naive and unadventurous of tourists IMO.

 

As mentioned, most samba schools that compete in Carnaval, and who open their practice grounds to the public for un costumed rehearsals and feijoada lunches during the season, take a break right after Carnaval before starting the planning for the next year, including building/costume activities anywhere in town. That is the time period in which your visit falls. This type of samba is called samba enredo.

 

Another way to see 'real' samba is to go to a club where people dance samba gafiera, a partnered dance style. There are many popular clubs around town with live bands/singers, including Carioca da Gema in Lapa.

Edited by VidaNaPraia
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Thank you, all, for the replies. It does appear that we are not arriving Rio at the most appropriate time. Having missed the Parade, we were thinking of trying to get something similar to compensate. It now looks Platforma is the Show which comes close to what we wanted to see, but there are quite a few who commented that it is too touristic and some people also said they got bitten by mosquitos....:(. Probably need to ponder more. Thanks nonetheless for all the inputs!!

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Thank you, all, for the replies. It does appear that we are not arriving Rio at the most appropriate time. Having missed the Parade, we were thinking of trying to get something similar to compensate. It now looks Platforma is the Show which comes close to what we wanted to see, but there are quite a few who commented that it is too touristic and some people also said they got bitten by mosquitos....:(. Probably need to ponder more. Thanks nonetheless for all the inputs!!

 

You can get a pretty good idea of what it's about by watching some Youtube vidéo. Waste of time and money IMO. Does not in any way "compensate" for Carnaval, any more than maybe Disney Epcot's France compensates for a trip to Paris, wine country and Lascaux. Go find yourself a slice of real Carioca life, instead of some stage designer's idea of what the most uninformed foreigner imagines.

 

Happy to help with details of discovering some "genuine" facets of Carioca life, if you wish to do so.

Edited by VidaNaPraia
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And do realize that your "expert" informant on the other forum gets most of his info from the internet, not his very limited personal experience in an extremely circumscribed area of Brazil. Often very misleading.

Edited by VidaNaPraia
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That article, whose link has already been given to them by the Google King mentioned above, deals with the activities at the samba school neighborhoods, which are over for the year at the time the OP will be in Rio. The article is also limited to just a couple of the many samba schools in Rio, those in neighborhoods closest to the tourist zone.

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I checked already. The schools will be closed for a period after the Parade. Quite understandable and can actually be expected if one thinks about it.

 

Just some detail to add to your understanding of how Carnaval in Rio develops over the yearly cycle:

The "parade" in the Sambodromo us not simply about elaborate costumes, fancy floats, or skimpily dressed women.

 

Each year, a general theme for the entire Carnaval is chosen (around the beginning of SA winter iirc). Each school's composer writes that year's "samba enredo", which illustrates that school's approach to/idea about the theme. Everybody in the neighborhood/school begins to learn the samba enredo, and it is also published for the general public, to heighten the anticipation. Each school plans their costumes and floats for how that school individually will address the theme according to that school's samba enredo.

Costumes are designed and ordered/sewn (by locals and now sometimes abroad). Floats are designed and building begins. Uncostumed rehearsals begin weekly, as do feijoada lunches to raise funds, in each neighborhood in the designated open practice area used by each school. (So there is really nothing to "close" after the season peaks at the competition, but group activity does cease until the next year's theme is announced.) These continue until just before the competition. Each school gets one chance at an uncostumed full rehearsal in the Sambodromo just before the date of the competition.

 

The competition is the passion of many people in the neighborhood of a given samba school. People devote much of their time and energy for most of the year to this, outside their regular jobs, showing their pride in their neighborhood. For example, I know one gentleman who has been parading with his neighborhood school for 50 years.

 

Hope that adds to your knowledge about Carnaval in Rio.

--------

 

Again, since the party never stops in Rio even though Carnaval is over, I would encourage you to find some genuine Carioca fun, not waste time/money on some tacky tourist show.

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