Samba School - History

History

The origins of samba schools is linked to the history of carnival in Rio itself, as well as the creation of the modern samba. The first parades, or "cortumes," as Luso-Brazilians called them, were more exclusive events and used to have white revelers, rather than mostly African-Brazilian like nowadays. The rhythms were often the "marchinhas," with a more Portuguese or European flair. Samba players from a group called Estácio were the pioneers of present-day samba schools, with the founding of "Deixa Falar", or Let Me Speak in 1928. Ismael Silva seems to have been the first to have come up with idea of creating "blocos de Carnaval" in which groups could dance and move to the sound of samba rhythms and sounds.

The first samba school contests began in 1929 and were held at the home of Zé Espinguela, where his Conjunto Oswaldo Cruz won and Mangueira and Deixa Falar also competed for the title. Some consider this as the starting point leading to the development of present-day samba schools.

However, between 1930 and 1932, these were only considered a variation of the blocks, and in 1932 the owner of Mundo Sportivo, Mário Filho, decided to sponsor the first Parade of Samba Schools in the Praça Onze . Composers such as Antônio Nassar, Armando Reis and Orestes Barbosa) had the idea organizing a Carnival parade which was supported by local newspapers. Newspaper owners and journalists such as Mário Filho and his brother Nélson Rodrigues, who did not have much to write about after the end of the soccer season, joined journalist Carlos Pimentel, who was connected to samba personalities in holding a parade at Praca XI square.

At the invitation of "Sports World," 19 schools attended. The newspaper established the criteria for judging the participating schools and nowadays news network still have some say on the parades as they strive for fairness and high quality, especially because a lot o money is invested on TV networks that have the broadcasting rights on the parades. Newspapers and magazines make huge profits as well. The traditional "ala das Baianas" was a prerequisite to compete, and the schools, all with more than one hundred members, should present sambas unpublished and not use pipe instruments, among other requirements.

The winning school was the Mangueira, while the second group had the Conjunto Osvaldo Cruz, or Portela. The officials assured the success of the contest remained up in Praca XI Square in 1941. Over time, the samba schools took many elements brought by ranches, such as the plot, the pair of mestre-sala cortsy and flag holder and the opening committee, elements with which Ismael Silva disagreed.

With the rise of populist dictator Getúlio Vargas and the foundation of the General Union of Samba Schools in 1934, the marginalization of samba persisted for some time. Then, it regained power and began to expand and gain importance in the Rio carnival, supplanting the ranches carnival. It did not take long for the samba schools to expand to other states, with the foundation in 1935 of the "Primeira São Paulo" (First of São Paulo), the first school of samba de São Paulo. The official competitions of the samba schools in São Paulo only started in 1950 with the victory of Lavapés, but before that there were other minor tournaments at the municipal and state levels. In the early 1960s some organized soccer support fan groups, like the Vai-Vai (Go-Go) and the Camisa Verde e Branco (Green and White Jersey) became samba schools.

Due to the large number of schools, in 1952, the access league "Grupo de Acesso" was created in order to allow news schools in and promote them to the "premier league" only if they aboded by certain rules of excellence. That year, the parade of the access league (Group 2, current Group RJ-1) went seamlessly, but the parade of the main group (Group 1, currently the Special Group)was carried out under heavy rain. The judging results were canceled and all schools belonging to the access league were promoted to the "premier league".

In 1953 UGESB and FBESAssociation of Schools of Samba City in Rio de Janeiro, merged as LIESA, an association of samba schools from the premier league which became know in Portuguese as Grupo Especial. In 2008, LESGA was created, representing schools from the access league. LIESA inspired the creation of similar bodies in other cities, such as LIGA-SP.

In 1984, Rio de Janeiro governor Leonel Brizola dedicated the Sambadrome, a special space for the parading of samba schools. Years later, in São Paulo, Mayor Luiza Erundina did the same, creating the Anhembi Sambadrome.

Today, many other cities throughout the country also have their Sambadromes, including Manaus and in 1993 its parade was broadcast for the first time.