From afar, Rio’s Carnival often seems the quintessential expression of everything Brazilian. The intense and relentless rhythms incite a trance-like celebration, where song and dance amplify the joyful aura to its utmost hypnotising. The foreign onlooker gawks at the carnival because of its enthralling release from the usual reign of restraint and rationality. To them, it plays as a sensorial reverie whose exuberant exterior embodies the “exotic”, but beyond the initial flash and pan, there’s a communal force deeply ingrained in the event.
