The Greatest Show on Earth
A VEE-TV documentary special
Channel 4
Sunday 23 April 2006 &
Saturday
29 April
2006
This
week’s VEE-TV is the first of two international
documentary specials. The Greatest Show on Earth follows
the journey of Nana Twum-Danso, a 25 year old deaf woman,
from her day job in Top Shop to Rio de Janeiro , where she
has one week to learn to samba in time for Carnival.Dance
is Nana’s
passion, it’s how she expresses
herself and her emotions. She’s danced salsa and studied
contemporary dance, but none of that can prepare her for
the supersonic speed of Rio samba. She joins Estacio de Sa,
Rio’s
oldest samba school, where teachers Henrique de Silva and
Maite Oliviera push her to her limits and show her what she
can do. When she feels the drums, she becomes a puppet, pulled
and controlled by the music - there’s no way anyone
can ignore the beat of samba, deaf or not!
In the week leading up to Carnival, Nana throws herself into
all night rehearsals with the thousands of dancers of all
ages preparing for the show. At times she despairs of reaching
their level. Carnival is so important to the people of Rio
that they spend the whole year building up to it - before starting
all over again in preparation for the next year.
Can she learn
in a week what the Brazilian dancers have spent their whole
lives practising? Henrique and Maite will tell her the night before the big
parade whether she has made the grade or not ...  This is the sixth series of VEE-TV, the popular entertainment
programme made by a young deaf team, with its own special mix
of celebrity interviews, location reports, features, arts and
lifestyle. Each week, VEE-TV takes on a different theme and
goes out on the road, travelling the UK and overseas to catch
the best of the festivals, live events and parties. Coming
up are programmes on Extreme Sports, Comedy, Asian Culture,
Performance, Festivals and Cars. And later in the run, we follow
the Brazil documentary special with a second unique film about
young deaf people’s lives in China ... |
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Henrique and
Maite from Paraiso School of Samba, in Rio to take part
in the Rio Carnival, worked with Rosa Rogers and the
Maverick TV crew in the creation of this documentary.
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