Carnival
Rio de Janeiro
5 March 2003

Christ on the Mountain. This statue is very large.....around 50 feet high. It stands on a high peak just behind the town in the forest area. We took this photo when we went to the forest for our "little shower". It is one of the most precious things about the city.... At any turn you may see the Christ appear out of the clouds	This picture of Rio is also taken from the forest road. You can see that there is a lake right in the middle of things. With the ocean at its feet and the mountains at it's back, enormous ancient trees line most of the streets, nature is not very far away in Rio.

All year long the people of the favelas (slums) save for their costumes. The schools are based in these neighborhoods and there is a lot of loyalty. The creative directors of the schools determine the theme, commission the floats, have the costumes designed, and a theme samba is created to be sung throughout the march down the "Avenue". Throughout the city neighborhood "bloco's" play the theme samba of the area. Blocos are mini parades or gatherings that take place the week leading up to Carnival and then throughout the five days of the Carnival celebrations. They are published in the newspaper and enormous crowds gather to samba down the street, or around a "square" singing their hearts open, throwing confetti and streamers and generally having a fabulous time.

Our dear friend Patricia from Sao Paulo had made arrangements for us to dance in the Carnival Parade with Mangueira, one of the most traditional samba "Schools". Maria Ache had been polishing up our samba. Our group in the parade would not be doing set choreography, our job was simply to dance along, singing and smiling with the rest of our "School". I have isolated this word to make sure that there is no misunderstanding. There is no schooling involved in this relationship.

Maria Ache is prime mover in our stay in Rio. She had come to a Lama Foundation Dances of Universal Peace camp in 1998 and met Anahata and I. That was the seed of our first visit to Brazil in 99, to teach Tara and other dances. Maria and her mother Vera became very committed to the Tara Dance practice and she joined us in the 2001 pilgrimage to India and Nepal. Now she leads a very successful Tara Dance group in Rio. She is the focalizer of the Tarot dances. Seen here in this photo with her 8 year old son Joao.

Our elaborate costumes had been prepared for us, but we were not prepared for them. Towering peacock feathers adorned our black, turban like hats, posing a logistical problem of how we could ever keep them up and keep dancing. A velvet and sequin adorned wire cage was adjusted to rest on our shoulders holding up the shoulder feathers (extending a couple of feet to the right, parallel with the earth), an astrological cape covering our back, an enormous silver moon spanning both shoulders that competed with the turban and peacock feathers for space and a set of plate like sparkling mandalas that hung in front of our chest heading towards our nether chakras. Our lime green, gold embroidered chiffon floor length skirt panels were open to show our jester like black and yellow tights and gold dancing shoes, medium heels with the toe area turned up to a tantalizing golden point. We grasped a staff topped by a blue/green velvet and sequin shield with streaming ribbons.

The Mangueira School had chosen for its pageant theme "The Ten Commandments of Peace", based on the story of Moses parting the seas and his people's march out of Egypt to freedom. We were the Pharoah's Priestesses around 500 strong dancing and waving behind the unbelievably elaborate palace, adorned with every kind of fairy tale shape and sparkle, little platforms displaying almost naked, feather shrouded, bejeweled dancers, and of course the lavish platform of the royal court. The refrain of our samba was, "Quem Planta a Paz, Vai Colhaer Amor" (Those who plant peace, harvest love).

Jorge and Isabel have been front and center in managing the many details of the pilgrimage. Jorge was assigned the job of being Anahata and my personal driver as he has a little Fiat with fabulous air-conditioning. He is a professional photographer and we will be posting some of his marvelous photos on the web as soon as we get them printed and scanned. In the meantime you have to make due with my digital camera antics. Isabel is a darling woman, a professional actress, a powerhouse of organizational abilities. She is the one who sees to the logistics of our ever changing plans. Vera is Maria's mother. One of our pilgrims (Mekare) has stayed in her little apartment near Copacabana beach for this pilgrimage. She is the grand mistress of the Tarot in Brazil and gave us many points of interest during our workshop.

The night before our debut we had attended the first day's display of ten schools. Our approach to the stadium was harrowing as we walked through poor neighborhoods, gray with poverty, feeling an underlying threat of violence. For those of you who saw the incredible movie, "Black Orpeus", we were propelled into the scene of Orpeus' wild search for his kidnapped sweetheart, Eurydice. Inside the "Sambadrome" we were led down narrow alleys under the bleachers stuffed with every kind of fantasy creature as the dancers who had just completed their pageant tossed pieces of their finery about and gently jostled their way out the guarded entrance. The lighting was murky so we held fast to each other looking for our section. The ticket sellers oversell so even though we had coveted tickets with seat numbers we had to fight our way up to the top most bleachers to find standing room only. We quickly discovered that no seats didn't matter since for most of the parade everyone stood and ..... well ..... squirmed is the only way I can describe it, since of course no footwork could possibly be involved. The samba squirm. We hung in for about three hours watching three pageants, and of course we had our favorites.

We were fortunate to have Maria with us who had danced in Carnival since childhood. She pointed out things we would have been sure to miss. Each school has a section of older women, some as old as 90, who have danced in the parades since childhood. They are dressed in heavy costumes with floor length skirts that bell out like an enormous full moon. Their job is to turn. And turn they do, every time the groups stop to do something "fancy".

Our school actually had Moses levitating at each stop, something he supposedly learned to do from a magician and his method was a closely guarded secret.

Our five pilgrims have been just wonderful to have as friends and accomplices in all our adventures. Aimee and Mekare are seen here with our adorable Jorge. Aimee is the principle teacher of The Mountain School at the Abode of the Message in upstate New York. Mekare is one of our leading Tara Dance teachers based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and thinking to rent an apartment in Rio cha cha cha.

Almost every school also had a group of wheel chair participants who were rolled along by dancing, bejeweled buddies. The entire area was patrolled by security, who also danced as they directed the dancing traffic and whisked the odd bit of costume effluvia out of the way. (Maria calls this force the "Directors of Anarchy".

The next day we did our best to rest and prepare, but really what could prepare us for what we came to call our "initiation". Late afternoon we gathered our costumes, putting on everything but the feathers and moon which we carried in black plastic garbage bags. We rode the underground subway with a large group from our "School" singing through every stop.

Once at the parade grounds we were free to explore the floats and relish the amazing spectacle of the different sections' elaborate costumes, all as fabulous as our own. We had just put on our feathers, adjusted our jeweled waist band and ...... thunder and lightening. Yep, right there under the wide open sky it began to pour with rain. We had been warned. This happens at some point during every Carnival. We were the blessed fortunate ones. Throughout the entire carnival it only rained on our part of the parade.

Vanda is a freewheeling writer, born in England to English parents, she was conceived in Rio and this is a homecoming for her. Her current residence is a houseboat in Sausalito. Trishana is one of our precious Tara Dance teachers and island friends living in Kauai, Hawaii.

People were more than kind trying to find us shelter through the worst of it. Our fabulous feathers were drooping and I confess if it had been just me I would have thrown in the sequins and watched it all from the safety of a living room TV. But not our pilgrims. Determination beamed from every eye. Patricia told us that for the Brazilians this was seen as special incentive. The parade never stops. Even though lightening temporarily blew the electricity we were going to have our moment on the Avenue. And then the Pharaoh's float took off. And so did we. Pink clad organizers tried to keep our drifting green lines in order, We only knew the refrain so we gaily mouthed the rest of the words of our samba and took heart from the Brazilians who were shaking their feathers around us. They were fully transported and took us right with them.

Each school averages around 5000 dancing bodies and ours was one of the most popular schools so the entire stadium of over 100,000 stood for our grand sashay down the "Avenue" voices belting out our song bodies squirming to the relentless beat.

The privileged seats close to the parade street were filled with every Brazilian celebrity, and our darling Patricia was breathless with the proximity of her favorite singers, actors and soccer players. We gave it all we had. And then .... it was over.

Our feathers had already started to fluff up in the heat. We clung to each other as we found our way through a long underground tunnel to the street where our faithful van would pick up our costumes and taxis would deliver us home. We were exhausted and satisfied. Like a mother on the other side of the birth pangs we were already talking about the next time.

I will be mounting photos on a photo site, and hopefully will be able to send elaborate captions via this group site and to be posted on www.taradhatu.org. This is all going to take me some time, but we are determined to share the wonder of this time with all of our friends and family.

Beijos e abracos (kisses and hugs)

Prema and Anahata

Yvonne was a professional dance teacher until an illness gave her the gift of not being able to dance. She became a very successful psychotherapist in Atlanta, Georgia. One of her focuses is Sand Box therapy. She is our crone....over 60. On this pilgrimage the conditions have been challenging because of the extreme heat and the flexibility of Caraoke scheduling. Our pilgrims have been champions, never complaining, adapting with great good humor.

In this photo we see Isabel the water baby under the "little shower" up in the forest. We have visited this spot a couple of times ..... the forest is a wonder of blazing blue butterflies and bird song. The air is cooler and lighter and the mind opens to the limitless horizon with the little lookout turnouts.