GRANDE RIO

[Translated from O Dia]

GRANDE RIO DOES A LUXURIOUS PARADE, BUT HAS PROBLEMS WITH COMISSAO DE FRENTE

Grande Rio, the second escola in Grupo Especial to parade at Sapucai this Sunday night, made an homage to France with the theme: "Voila, Caxias! Liberté, Egalité, Fraternit´forever". The escola displayed a beautiful set of floats and costumes.

One of the great moments of the presentation was the passing of the 5th float, which represented "Moulin Rouge." The carry had impeccable illumination with 36 dancers making beautiful choreographies.

Mestre Odilon's bateria thrilled the crowd with his paradinhas. The star Paola Oliveira, at the front of the bateria, interacted well with the drummers, in spite of not showing very much samba dance.

In spite of the visual impact, the escola already had problems at the beginning of the parade. One of the members of the comissão de frente, which represented the reign of Luiz XIV, had difficulties in moving and fell during the presentation in front of the first judges' booth. This caused a certain tension for the LIESA president, Jorge Castanheira, who had to assist the dancer.

There were other problems in the opening float, with problems in the illumination system; it went out as it passed in front of setor 5.

As is customary, many artists participated in the parade of the tricolor escola, among them Zeca Pagodinho, Susana Vieira, Fernanda Lima, Beth Lago e Cristiane Torloni.

[...]
The honorary president of the escola, Antonio Jader Soares, had to be attended by the paramedics. The rumor was that he had twisted his foot. Asked whether he would parade, he made a positive signal and limited himself to saying "it's a lot of work."