Ready for Rocinha

After a few months of practicing, five Norwegian women are entering the last phase of preparations for carnival – in high heels and tiny bikinis. Saturday night they are dancing down the sambódromo in Rio de Janeiro like true samba queens.

“It’s great work-out, actually not so different from telemark skiing. It’s especially hard on the thigh muscles”, says Kristin Stubbråten when the one hour samba class  Tuesday morning is over. Kristin has been living in Rio de Janeiro with her 5 year old son and husband for two years, and is also on the board of the “Norsk i Rio” association. Along with four other women, whose husbands are working in Norwegian companies like Statoil and Hydro in Brazil, she has been practicing intensively with samba instructor Carla Campos in her studio in Ipanema since November last year.

This Tuesday they met to practice moves and lyrics of the Rocinha samba school. They are all taking part in the parade this weekend, and when the school enters the sambódromo Saturday night, there’s no room for mistakes.

That being said, there is surprisingly little “Norwegian stiffness” to see in Carla Campos’ studio this morning. The rhythm seems to have a contagious and energizing effect on the dancers. They make the choreography look easy, and know the lyrics by heart.

Great progress
The Norwegian samba dancers assure they are going to do their very best for Rocinha.

“We weren’t really sure we were able to do it, and didn’t even think we could learn to dance properly. But when Tone said she wanted to participate, the rest of us decided to go along”, Mona Lerøen, Torill Sulland and Kristin Stubbråten explain.

On Saturday February 18th, the second best ranked schools are competing for a highly desired vacancy in the group of schools in the top division, whose parade will take place Sunday and Monday night. Rocinha is the second school to enter the sambódromo on Saturday.

The group of Norwegian women was among the very first students when instructor Carla Campos opened her own studio in Ipanema last year.

“They have made great progress since they started”, says Carla Campos, who is also the samba teacher of celebrities like former model Luiza Brunet, currently the queen of the drums of Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school, and Natália Guimarães, former Miss Brasil.

“We started in a slower rhythm, and have worked the hips and legs a lot. Not only foreigners find it difficult, there are a lot of Brazilians that don’t know to dance samba either, she says.

This is the second year that Carla’s samba students are participating in the carnival parades.

“But this is the first time I have foreign students in the parade. Rocinha gave me 50 costumes to sell, and the only requirement is that they know the lyrics of the samba. Saturday night the five Norwegian women are going to be on two separate floats, some in the very beginning of the parade, and some on float number five”, she explains.

Feathers and high heels
“We are representing trees, and my bikini is green. Kristin and Marianne are going be on a fountain, symbolizing the fountain of life, dressed in white bikini and feather costumes, says Torill Sulland. She is actually a carnival veteran and is participating in the parade for the second time. In 2010 she participated in the spectacular parade of Unidos da Tijuca samba school, who won the parade that year. Kristin Stubbråten has also walked down the sambódromo before. Last year she took part in Salgueiros parade on cinema.

Is being a samba queen for a night every woman’s secret dream?

“Not really. We actually prefer to blend in, but this is a once in a lifetime experience and a chance we couldn’t turn down. Not everyone is given the opportunity to participate in a bikini – and up there on a float. But we admit that we were hoping for the bikinis to be a little bit bigger”, they say.

By Runa Hestmann Tierno, NBCC journalist