Carnival Crowds

Abstract

Through selective readings of literary chronicles, artistic and media representations, this paper explores how a particular kind of crowd -the carnival crowdhas been interpreted and represented in key periods of Rio de Janeiro's history. I argue that the temporal, spatial and aesthetic configurations of the carnival crowd express the bodily dimensions of a profane collective celebration that mirrors the distinct cultural negotiations of the city. In contemporary Rio de Janeiro, the return of the carnival crowd also highlights old and new forms of public interaction. The presence of partying multitudes in the streets of the city posits considerable organizational and social challenges. But the carnival crowd is endorsed by the media, the municipal authorities and the tourist industry because it represents a major source of commercial profit, it promotes a mythical image of the hedonistic city and it also expresses an ultimate celebratory occupation of public space. Caught in the crowdIn 2011, the carnival took place in early March. Under the blazing summer sun, I stood with a couple of friends in an old colonial square in downtown Rio. The live carnival band was playing full blast, street vendors were plying wares of masks, drinks and trinkets. The crowd kept getting thicker and thicker. Soon my carnival mask was glued to my face and the tinsel and serpentine coils streaking my hair were soaked with sweat. The crowd swayed and sang. My body was sandwiched between other bodies. I had no choice but to follow the rhythm and relax with the flow. As the band changed tunes, people moved accordingly and brief blanks of empty space emerged. After many hours, we broke loose from the crowd. Crossing the street and perching myself on the stone steps of a baroque church, I could see from afar the dense mass of pulsating, compacted people. I had been a part of the variegated, anonymous, sweat drenched, loud, carnival crowd.My carnival experience was far from unique. The year 2011 established Rio de Janeiro as the main city of street carnival in all of Brazil. The municipality authorized the partying of 425 blocos. Varying in size and sophistication, the blocos are associations of friends, residents of the same neighbourhood, or amateur and professional lovers of carnival that gather together and form a bs_bs_banner

Institutional rhythms: Combining practice theory and rhythmanalysis to conceptualise processes of institutionalisation

“…In an edited collection on Geographies of Rhythm , Edensor (2010) and colleagues explore issues of rhythm and space across a number of sites from urban outreach in the polyrhythmic city (Hall, 2010), to changing everyday life in rural Irish towns (Conlon, 2010), to improvising cycling rhythms in urban spaces (Spinney, 2010). A recent special issue edited by Smith and Hetherington (2013) continues this theme on Urban Rhythms examining the rhythms of carnival crowds (Jaguaribe, 2013), the railway station (Revill, 2013), and the twenty-four-hour city (Smith and Hall, 2013). Henriques et al.…”

“…In an edited collection on Geographies of Rhythm, Edensor (2010) and colleagues explore issues of rhythm and space across a number of sites from urban outreach in the polyrhythmic city (Hall, 2010), to changing everyday life in rural Irish towns (Conlon, 2010), to improvising cycling rhythms in urban spaces (Spinney, 2010). A recent special issue edited by Smith and Hetherington (2013) continues this theme on Urban Rhythms examining the rhythms of carnival crowds (Jaguaribe, 2013), the railway station (Revill, 2013), and the twenty-four-hour city (Smith and Hall, 2013). Henriques et al (2014) bring a range of historical antecedents to Lefebre's writing on rhythms, including Bode (2014), Laban (2014), and Spencer (1867), to bear on contemporary understandings of embodiment, culture, and rhythm in a collection that investigates the rhythms of gymnastics and dance (Crespi, 2014), of playing video games (Va¨liaho, 2014), and those involved in the sonic events of digital sound installations (Ikoniadou, 2014).…”