Various groups and dancers perform parades at the carnival, including the well-known street dancers, "ala de passistas," many of whom train at the well-known Portela school of Samba.
With 21 titles, Portela has won more carnival championships than any other school. However, the school hasn't won a title since 1984, and is hoping this will be the year that breaks the losing streak.
This year, the Porleta dancers are joined by 25-year-old Russian dancer, Juliana Titaeva. She became interested in samba while living in Moscow, and got in touch with the co-ordinator of "ala de passistas," Nilce Fran. Fran told Sputnik that Juliana is a samba natural, and is hoping that her contribution will make all the difference.
"Juliana is a real discovery! When somebody has a sense of rhythm, emotion, the power of desire, everything turns out well. In the end, it wasn't Juliana who asked to join us at Portela, it was I who invited her. She has fire, she has grace, and she is here with us," Fran said.
Juliana told Sputnik that she first became interested in the Brazilian carnival thanks to the US cartoon Rio, which featured a scene at the carnival. In Moscow, she found a Brazilian teacher of the carnival samba, and soon had her first lesson.
"For five years I dreamed of going to Rio, but I couldn't do it because of my career. But last year I was able to travel to Rio and see the carnival. Of course, for me it was something amazing because Brazil always seemed a country far away and unreal, but a year ago I saw it all, my dreams came true."
Juliana returned to her PR job in Moscow, but she was "happy and devastated at the same time," because after her dream came true, she wasn't sure what to do next.
Then, she had an idea: to try and dance at the carnival, with the famous Portela school. Juliana called the new friends she met at the carnival and asked them to help her.
They showed Juliana's videos to Fran, who said that while Juliana seemed to have potential, she wanted to see her dance in real life, and invited her to dance at a practice in June. Despite the large costs involved, Juliana dropped everything and hopped on a plane to Rio.
"I dropped everything, literally left within a week, arrived there and came to Nilce's audition. We had three meetings. At the end she said, 'you can be a passist (street dancer), I accept you, come in January," Juliana said.
"The first rehearsals began immediately, I went 'from the ship to the ball.' They weren't even at the school, but on the street straightaway, in Madureira. I had trained for about half a year in the dance hall, I can't say that I felt confident in Moscow but my samba teacher told me not to worry, said that when I come there will be a completely different atmosphere, different energy, live drums. She was right."
"The samba is a purely African dance, it's purely a trance. The main thing is to understand the energy, because it's pure energy and it's infectious – that's why Brazilians, even the ones who are playing the drums, they are in a trance," Juliana said.
"But when I came here, I realized that is really unnecessary. I mean, I can do some combinations and jumps and everything I was taught and that's all beautiful, but people really start to join in, clap and enjoy it when we do the basis steps," Juliana said.
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