Carnival: music teacher from the municipal network fulfills her dream of playing the rattle on the Portela drums

Music has been part of Eliane Zagni's life since she was very young and would listen to her mother's piano solos. Later, when she decided to become a teacher, she chose to follow in her mother's footsteps. First, she graduated in piano, and then completed a degree in art education, with a specialization in music. However, in her free time, she preferred to join the Portela drum section, where she plays the rattle, instead of joining an orchestra and performing in closed concert halls. Eliane is the second interviewee in the series of reports that show the relationship between the municipal public servant and Carnival, the largest popular festival in the country.

The pianist teacher says she fell in love with Carnival when she was still a child, when she watched the parades of street groups in Ramos, the neighborhood where she lived. A neighbor of Imperatriz Leopoldinense, she spent part of her adolescence and youth listening to the sambas that were played at the rehearsals of the green and white school. Her dream of parading in Sapucaí, however, had to be postponed. Eliane got married at 21 and soon had three children.

– I had to wait until my children were older to start parading. Before, I liked watching the parades at the Sambadrome and I would get really excited when the drum section passed by me. I would get up right away and start dancing samba.

The music teacher was teaching at the Pio X Municipal School in Tanque, Jacarepaguá, when, 15 years ago, a friend from work invited her to parade in a choreographed section of Portela. In 2008, with her children already grown, Eliane made her debut at Sapucaí and never stopped. That same year, she started attending the quadra and the feijoadas, until she plucked up the courage to ask Mestre Nilo Sérgio, who still leads the drum section of the traditional school in Madureira, if she could join Tabajara.

– He said: 'We'll start in a month, come over'. I already lived in Barra and went alone, on Monday night, to Madureira. I arrived and was very well received. It was a dream that I managed to realize, the drums are the heart of the school. To play the rattle you need more technique than strength, unlike what many people think. It is an instrument that plays an important role because it supports the playing of the drums.

A teacher in the school system since 1996, Eliane has also taught at the Burle Marx Municipal School in Curicica. She currently works at the Albert Einstein Art Center in the Novo Leblon Condominium in Barra da Tijuca. These are extracurricular activities, developed in the afternoon, in which students aged 7 to 14, from schools in the surrounding areas of Jacarepaguá, Cidade de Deus and even Guaratiba, learn to play the recorder and keyboard, in addition to participating in singing and choir classes.

– At the beginning of each year, I like to work on the theme of Carnival. The groups formed by the students study the samba schools and marches, always contextualizing the moment. The children really like it because they discover the colors of the school flag, the names of the drums, the neighborhoods of each group, and the themes of the themes.

Eliane was champion for Portela in 2017, when the club broke a 33-year drought without titles. The teacher hopes to repeat the feat this Carnival. She says she is proud to be part of a historic samba school that defends the tradition of music and culture in Rio.

– The samba school is like a second home, not just on the day of the parade. There is intense interaction with the community during rehearsals and at the feijoadas. When the votes are counted, I go to Portela and take the rattle. I feel very sad when the samba school doesn’t get a perfect score.

Portela will be the second school to enter the Sambadrome on Saturday (23/4), on the second day of the Special Group parades. The blue and white school from Madureira will take to the Avenue the theme “Igi Osè Baobá”, written by carnival artists Renato Lage and Márcia Lage. The story will portray the symbolism of baobabs, gigantic and ancient trees originating from Africa.

 

 

 

 

Carnival: teacher-athlete who works to value civil servants will hold a marathon in Sapucaí

Category:

• Carnival 2022
• City
• News

April 19th 2022

Appointments: battery Carnival rattle Music Portela teacher Public agent