The samba schools that compete in São Paulo’s annual Carnival parade are big, complex organizations. Mocidade Alegre, which danced away with first place in the parade this year and in 2012, brings almost 4,000 people to the parade. They show up on time, dressed in exuberant costumes and arranged in 25 wings, singing and dancing in a tightly choreographed display that they’ve been practicing for nine months. There’s also a 250-man percussion orchestra (known as a bateria) and five floats interspersed among the wings.