Rio de Janeiro - A group of gagged people, beheaded dancers and a bloody giant baby closed the first of Rio's world-famous carnival parades early on Monday, injecting considerable controversy and questionable taste into the otherwise joyous event.
The bizarre sights were thought up by the Unidos do Viradouro samba school, and were carefully engineered to contrast with competing schools that had entered more traditional animal effigies and semi-nude dancers.
A shroud-covered float carrying the motionless group wearing cloth across their mouths was Viradouro's protest at a judge's order last week prohibiting what would have been its most shocking display: a platform of skeletal Holocaust victims accompanied by a dancing Hitler.
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Viradouro's creative director, Paulo Barros, had complained that the Rio Jewish group behind the ban misunderstood the intent of his theme, which was to shock, through depictions of death, fear and cold.
| Nearby, dancers jigged along holding their severed "heads" in one hand |
The Holocaust imagery, he said, was meant to serve as a warning against such atrocities ever being repeated.
Instead, he had to hastily modify that float into a protest at what he saw as censorship, and concentrate on the other parts of the school's show.
Those elements included another float upon which huge hands held a mechanized giant baby covered in blood with its umbilical cord attached.
Nearby, dancers jigged along holding their severed "heads" in one hand.
There were also snippy Edward Scissorhands and creatures from the movie "Alien," as well as school members dressed as black spiders and cockroaches and flies, women parading with prosthetic arms tied to crosses above their heads, and gold-painted couples writhing in positions from the Karma Sutra.
| Many of the women wore very little, mostly glittering g-strings |
The lighter part of the spectacle was a mobile ski slope, complete with skiers and snowboarders.
The Rio processions - which were to conclude with a second night of parades late on Monday - are the climax of Brazil's five-day pre-Lent celebrations.
Other schools in the first night of the event stuck to more customary imagery.
A life-size elephant, and a jaguar, a parrot and butterflies all resized to giant proportions, as well as a King Kong gorilla, were among the fauna featured on the elaborate floats that filed from Sunday night to near dawn on Monday, under intermittent rain.
The 50 000-strong crowd were also treated to the sight of women dancers tanned and tone to please.
Many of the women wore very little, mostly glittering g-strings and long feathers.
Others wore even less, including two in the opening entry by the Sao Clemente samba school.
They danced their way along the 700m parade runway in nothing more than a bottle-top-sized piece of shiny stick-on foil in a strategic spot.
Tourists in the audience were awestruck by the lavish floats and lascivious models.
Locals, though, gave their heartiest applause to a runway cleaner who briefly got distracted by the samba and put on his own impromptu show, using his broom as a prop.
"Each carnival, the parades just get better and better," enthused Glaucia Medici, a 37-year-old Brazilian bank manager in the stands.
"At this time of year, all everyone wants to do is samba and have fun," she said.
The parades are in fact a competition between Rio de Janeiro's top 12 samba schools.
Each was being judged on criteria including the lyrics of their songs, the allegories represented by their floats - and their ability to get their 5 000 members over the finish line in less than 80 minutes.
One costumed participant, who gave her name as Edna, said after completing the parade that she felt "overjoyed" and "emotional" at the experience under the arc lights and cameras. - AFP
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