São Paulo – The Rio de Janeiro samba school Em Cima da Hora (Portuguese for at the last minute) has taken its cue from the One Thousand and One Nights to highlight Arab presence in the city in its 2015 parade. The school is in the Carnival’s A Series, directly below the Special Group, which features the top tier schools. Em Cima da Hora’s parade is themed “In the Heart of the City, a history from the One Thousand and One Nights: Rio from Arabia,” inspired by the famed Eastern tales.
“The parade is really upbeat, light, an explosion of colours, reminiscent of ancient Arabia and the 21st century,” one of the school’s carnival directors, Daniel Thompson, has told ANBA. The theme was chosen by carnival designer Marco Antônio Falleiros, who came up with the motif for the samba enredo (theme song). Thompson announces that the parade will feature creativity and pomp.
On the school’s Facebook page, previews are already up of costumes of merchants and street peddlers, odalisques and caliphs for the dancers, of sultans for the drumming section, and others reminiscent of the desert sun, the magic carpets, and a dress whose skirts is a camel, making it look like the dancer is sitting on the animal’s back.
Falleiros’ samba tells of the magical scenery conjured by the Thousand and One Nights. It describes the book’s reality as a world of fascination populated by genies, sailors and princesses. “A culture that time has preserved, love stories that make us dream, inspiration to guide us in leaving the palaces and deserts, crossing the seven seas, through paths unknown, until we find paradise,” the lyrics go. The samba sings of how this magical world arrives in Rio de Janeiro, paradise.
The song even features Arabic expressions such as "Inshallah" and "Salam Aleikum," respectively meaning “God willing” and “May peace upon you.” “And then I found you, marvellous city which enchants my gaze, sing it, right on time. Inshallah,” the song goes. “From the East, the hope, Salam Aleikum! I arrived here, made art my heritage, the customs and dances I recreated,” Em Cima da Hora’s theme song says.
The Thousand and One Nights tell the story of a king who decided to spend each night with a different woman, all of whom would be beheaded the morning after. To dodge her fate, one of them, Sheherazade, started telling stories to the king, leaving the denouement to the next evening, and thus postponing her own death. In the end, the king makes Sheherazade his queen.
The samba school drew inspiration from the tales to discuss the customs Arab immigrants introduced in Rio de Janeiro. In its justification of the parade’s theme, Em Cima da Hora describes Arab immigration as a great adventure, like those of characters featured in the One Thousand and One Nights. It also lists other Arab features of Rio’s, like the architecture, the art, the culture of bargaining, and the Sahara – a large downtown retail hub established by Arab immigrants.
The A Series Group, in which Em Cima da Hora belongs, comprises the former A and B Access Groups, and the winning school joins the Special Group the following year. The school will parade on Friday, February 13th, at 10:05 pm, in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome. According to Thompson, the school’s parade will feature 2,000 people, and the budget forecast was R$ 1.2 million (roughly US$ 462,000) as of early December, but the school was still seeking funding.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
