Dancer Quiela in costume for the Rio Carnival Photography by Cecilia DuarteFor the four days before the desiccated gloom of Lent descends, Rio de Janeiro explodes into a furnace of colour, feathers and gyrating forms. This is the famous Rio Carnival where the rival samba schools of Brazil take over the streets in a keenly fought competition, weilding their weapons of vivid colour, extravagant excess and the loudest of music.
First staged as long ago as 1723, the Rio Carnival is now the bigge...
