Speaking to SBS Portuguese between rehearsals in Rio de Janeiro, Talita says she is busy preparing for the annual competition of Carnaval, where 13 samba schools compete for the title of Carnaval’s 2020 winner.
It is the biggest accolade in Brazil’s samba world, with the event taking place annually at the Marques de Sapucaí Avenue, also known as Sambadrome.
Talita says it's a "pivotal" moment in her life.
“It's my debut on Carnaval’s biggest stage.”
She says that winning the Australasian Samba Queen competition in Brisbane and coming runner up at the Australian Samba Congress in Sydney opened the way for a triumphant return to Brazil. She was invited to be the dancer and muse at two big samba schools, Portela and Renascer de Jacarepaguá.
Talita is enormously excited to be back in Brazil for the first time since she left two years ago, and to dance accompanied by the bateria, a live drum orchestra formed by thousands of drummers.
“I am still not registering what is going on, what is happening to me. I may cry or laugh during the parade, I don’t know, this is really big.”
A similar feeling may be upon the 20 or so Australian samba students from Adelaide who decided to join Talita and are now in Rio getting ready for Carnaval. Six of them were even brave enough to do the catwalk with Talita at Renascer’s parade.
“We are all a big family, everything happened very quickly, they are all super excited to debut at the Sambadrome with me in Rio.”
“I’m referred to here in Brazil as 'Australia’s Samba Queen', they are all very curious about my journey, and the fact that I came from an Assembly of God family,” says Talita, who became a minor media sensation and has been featured on the local Rio newspapers and the powerful Globo TV network.
Samba in Adelaide
“I learned samba in Adelaide, it is amazing that I had to cross the globe to learn about my own culture,” said Talita, who was a contemporary and classical ballet dancer before transforming into a real samba queen in Australia of all places.
Talita’s family, who for four generations have been a part of the strict Pentecostal church Assembly of God, was against music and samba at home when she was a child.
“I was very repressed. My family’s religion stopped me from dancing samba in Rio. Only in Adelaide, I felt free, followed the advice of my friends and returned to dance and decided to learn samba, its history, its movements.”
The 32 year old ‘carioca’ from Realengo, Rio de Janeiro, enrolled in classes online and decided to compete to see ‘how far’ she could go.
From dancing in front of a computer screen at home and becoming Australia’s biggest expression of the samba scene was a large step to take.
“I won in the free style category at the Australasian Samba Queen and was runner up at the Sydney Samba Congress, I lost the title there because I didn’t have the required resilience.”
Talita will return home at the end of the month. She sees a prosperous future for samba in Australia, “especially in Adelaide”.
“Many women want to learn samba because of the sensual moves, the lovely tight and bright clothing, the feathers, but many are now seeking the dance style for its great cardio workout.
“I have a 70 year old student who says samba has been great for his health. He said to me ‘everything you bring at the samba classes are beneficial, you can always count on me’. I can see everyone over there getting into the samba groove, they already are.”
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Brisbane to Brazil: Samba dancer makes history as first Aussie ‘muse’ in Rio Carnival
