海角大神

鈥⑻�A version of this post ran on the author's blog,听riorealblog.com.听The views expressed are the author's own.

British train robber Ronald Biggs made Rio de Janeiro famous as a hideaway in the 1970s. To support himself and his family, he used to hold barbecues for tourists, at his Santa Teresa home.

Nowadays foreigners arrive in droves, armed with their own money to invest. They also have ideas and business experience. And they aren鈥檛 so much into backyard barbecue as听,听,听, or听鈥斕�novidades听for many locals.

Yet Rio feeds all kinds of appetites. RioRealblog鈥檚 first profiled foreigner bearing carioca dreams is more hungry for rhythm and melody, than for food.

Born in Sarajevo, raised partly in Kuwait, Devla Imperatrix (her real middle name, honoring the Karl Orff opera Carmen Burana) speaks no less than eight languages.

After years of dancing and teaching flamenco in Europe, Devla came to Rio with samba in mind. To her surprise, a samba school existed by the name Imperatriz Leopoldinense, or Leopoldian Empress. Devla had no doubt her destiny lay in the North Zone Ramos neighborhood.

On the samba school鈥檚 dance floor last year, a director chewed out the 5-foot-ten-inch beauty for wearing flats. 鈥淎听passista听(official samba school dancer) has to wear heels,鈥� he warned.

Devla wasn鈥檛 a听passista听鈥� yet. After lessons from famed teacher Carlinhos de Jesus, she听听in this year鈥檚 Carnival parade.

鈥淚 may have been the first foreign听musa听(muse)听in a Carnival parade,鈥� she notes. 鈥淏ut because I鈥檓 fluent in Portuguese and feel possessed by samba, people didn鈥檛 really notice!鈥�

The parade was no slice of cake. Devla鈥檚 dress was ready only 45 minutes before the samba school began moving down the avenue. Her skirt came unpinned; experienced dancer and performer that she is, Devla focused on moving her arms, transmitting the magic of samba with what she calls 鈥渁 contained presence鈥�, until she could fix it.

One dream ticked off her list, Devla now aspires to create and perform a fusion of gypsy dancing and samba. She also wouldn鈥檛 mind a role in a Globo novela, or soap opera鈥� and meanwhile, she鈥檚 using her business degree and savvy at听Global Vision Visas, specializing in customized immigration solutions for multinational oil and gas companies.

鈥� Julia Michaels, a long-time resident of Brazil, writes the blog听, which she describes as a constructive and critical view of Rio de Janeiro鈥檚 ongoing transformation.

Get daily or weekly updates from CSMonitor.com delivered to your inbox.听.