It's carnival!

It's nearly Carnival and soon I'll be parading on the Avenida, dressed as a mummy... in a reenactment of the first performance of Aida at the Teatro Municipal, here in Rio, in 1910. The parade of Vila Isabel, the school I'm parading for, is themed around the Teatro Municipal, Rio's main theatre, because this year is the 100th anniversary of the monument. The show is a huge enterprise. There will be 8 cars parading down the avenue of the Sambodromo, with around 5000 dancers! One car will be a miniature version of the Teatro,
which was inspired by the Opéra of Paris; there'll
also be a massive swan (after Swan Lake) and an egyptian temple (that's my car, it's the setting of Aida). I am very impressed with the amount of energy and resources that were put into setting up these Carnival parades. So many people were involved: choreographers, designers, costume-makers, theatre people, and of course, musicians and carnival specialists - the carnavalescos. Carioca are usually really disorganised and unprofessional, but when it comes to Carnival.... it's another story!

that's me, not as a mummy but with my Carmen Miranda headgear on