CARNAVAL DO BRAZIL FEBRUARY 15

Brazilian Carnaval is a time to indulge your fantasies and enjoy yourself before Lent arrives.

"Costume revelers writhe at street parties and gala balls to the seductive samba beat... Deprive Brazil of music and you will see it die. The Brazilian feeds on music and sweats music. For a Brazilian, life is not life if cannot be sung."

At CHANGS FEBRUARY CARNAVAL PARTY, the samba and frevo music and dance will be represented. You will hear a famous old samba, TRISTEZA, as our Portuguese royalty welcomes us to Carnaval. The words say Sadness please go away. let it leave forever. Let my lips sing again. From this day on my days are of sun and roses. My life is a carnival of song.

You will then dance to a frevo, carnival music of northeast Brazil. Half of us will make a circle and the other half will go inside to dance. A whistle is blown when the groups change places. We will change a couple of times. You can put together your own dance. You could use steps you know: the grapevine steps, the scissor steps of Jove Male Mome, the reda, the spins of Bastan Dantza
or you could just walk while waving your arms. You can do whatever best expresses you.

You will then hear a drum-led samba to wind our way around the room in a conga line. This is a follow-the-leader dance so listen for the leader to signal with a whistle to change the step. We will break for announcements and then go back to regular dancing. There will be Brazilian music for the last dance, another follow-the-leader in a circle dance.

Your costume can express your fantasy. In Brazil every group picks a theme but you will each pick your own theme and express it with as many or as few clothes as you wish. Remember, Brazil represents African, Portuguese and Indian populations so you could dress in one of those directions. You could let an interesting aspect of yourself (even if it's your inner banker) come out in costume.

Maybe its best to put aside everyday life and think beaded necklaces, feathered hats or headdresses, scarves or sashes around the head, neck, shoulders or hips, sequins, masks, glitter, animal or tropical prints. It's probably too cold to wear a thong but summer whites, bright and light colors are good. Face painting is good too and with glitter it's even better.

So we will dance out our saudade (feelings of melancholy) as the Brazilians do and create a memory of alegria (happiness) to carry us through the week. Such is the theme of our samba FEST DO INTERIOR.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS
VIVA CHANGS