Ok, Carnival 2008 in Rio is over, but its repercussions are not! This years carnival had a new spice to the crowd, media, and samba schools judges to reflect upon: Was samba dancer Viviane Castro, a 25 year old model born in Luiziânia, in the state of Goiás naked or not?

The carnal controversy may be hot, but dead serious. Rio de Janeiro Major League Samba School Association (called "LIESA"), decided in 1990 that it was permanently prohibited to parade with "exposed genitalia", in every possible way: naked, painted, or decorated. If any member of a samba school was identified breaking the rule, a penalty would then be applied to that samba school which would loose 0.5 point during the parade contest. In reality, the aphrodisiac discussion goes back to 1989, as historian Iran Araújo points out: Ex-model Enoli Lara appropriately embodied the Greek Goddess Aphrodite on top of a float of União da Ilha Samba School in Rio Sambadrome totally naked (yes, not in a micro mini skirt, or tiny string bikini !! ) but wearing only high-heel boots and a veil. After that incident, LIESA decided to take some measures to avoid nudity in the following carnival parades.


See below Vivane Parading with Sao Clemente Samba School in Sambadrome




Viviane Castro, who paraded as a Drum Queen for Sao Clemente Samba School, at Rio Sambadrome, was costumed as a native indian as they appeared to the Portuguese. (The samba group chose as their parading theme "enredo", the arrival of the Portuguese court to Brazil). In addition to a marvelous necklace and head-piece, the model innovated with a 1.6-inch ( 4 cm ) "sex cover," or patch, believed to be the smallest in Rio parading history. The problem was that after a parading for a few minutes, the glued on patch fell and she indeed paraded wearing the same clothes as the natives indians from Brazil's discovery period.

This stimulating controversy was sufficient to give her 15 minutes of fame. Viviane's suggestive parading became the most talked upon theme during Rio´s carnival, covered by national and even foreign media channels, like CNN.

São Clemente Samba School was penalized having 0.5 point taken off her scores by these contest criteria but even São Clemente directors admit their parading was not so luxurious as in the past years. The samba school was downgraded to what is called "Grupo de Acessos", or Access Group, that parades one day before the major samba schools scoring the last position with 387,5 points. The school also had another penalty for having an extra float-car, loosing one entire point. The schools directors agree the schools downgrading had nothing to do with Viviane 4 cm patch, since they lost important points in several other categories such as Harmony, Samba theme, and Floats.

For the 25 year model of Goiás, the voluptuous controversy seems to be paying off: She was recently invited to pose to Playboy magazine, participate in several celebrity talk shows, and is supposedly dating São Paulo worldwide famous soccer player Adriano, also known as "the Imperor".



One thing is for sure: Developments of Rio´s carnival can last many days, months and even years. Watch out for what you do and be careful with the magic that can hypnotize even the coolest hearts!

Cheers!

This is a non-commercial blog devoted to wonders of Rio de Janeiro, with a focus to the Brazilian Carnival. Our sole objective is to describe how Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is magically created, its artists, dancers and musicians that make up the world’s largest show. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.