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 RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Rio's oldest samba group opened Brazil's carnival parade Sunday with more than 4,000 dancers and a cavalcade of opulent floats on display for the centerpiece of the celebrations, a hard-fought dance competition.
Estacio da Sa led off its performance with a troupe of Aztec-inspired dancers before a shimmering, golden float crowned with a gigantic lion's head — its jaws in motion and a huge golden paw sweeping from side to side.
The parades will last past dawn Monday, featuring women wearing impossibly high heels and glittering body paint, shaking their stuff alongside bare-chested men. Thousands of elaborately costumed dancers and hundreds of drummers escort the floats, keeping up an earsplitting rhythm.
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