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Litang festival

Litang festival from CHRISTOPHE COUSIN on Vimeo.

Carnival 2012 Samba Dancers: Full Coverage (Photos/Videos)

A samba dancer performs at a Brazilian National Day party in Shanghai, 2010

Carnaval is underway in Brazil and countries around the world and to celebrate we are compiling links to photo galleries and videos of samba dancers, parade floats and celebrations.

Brazil hosted this year's annual Carnaval parades as it is busy getting ready to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. A record 2.3 million revelers were expected at the Cordao da Bola Petra parade, reports the International Business Times. Fergie and Jennifer Lopez attended Sunday in the VIP boxes- but who cares about that. The Huffington Post reports, "Samba soloists who shake into overdrive as soon as the cameras turn on them; dancers dressed as Teletubbies on drugs; ambulatory American flags; psychedelic flamingos, complete with stilt legs; vertically challenged jokers brandishing jumbo soccer balls; belly dancers. And that was just one single samba school."

2012 Carnaval Photo and Video Links

Carnival 2012: In Focus

Photos: Carnaval time in Rio

In pictures: Brazil celebrates Carnaval

Rio Carnival in pictures: fun and chaos on the streets of Brazil

More Carnival party shots

Marching to Fat Tuesday

Pictures: Carnival Fever hits Rio de Janeiro

Carnival/Mardi Gras 2012

Venice Carnival Pictures

CAAM Chinese Dance Theater Photos | China the Beautiful: from the mountains to the prairies

 CAAM Chinese Dance Theater performed "China the Beautiful: from the mountains to the prairies" at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium of St. Catherine University this weekend. These photos are taken from the January 21 dress rehearsal. Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. CAAM is based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

 

 A Kazakh-themed harvest dance:

 CAAM Chinese Dance Theater performers act out a Mongolian festival:

Robert Křesťan a Druhá tráva: Ještě není tma (Bob Dylan's Not Dark Yet)

Robert Křesťan and Druha Trava perform Bob Dylan's "Not Dark Yet" in Czech.

Helen Feng of Free the Birds (Shanghai 2011 Midi Music Festival)

Helen Feng performs with her band Free the Birds at Shanghai China's 2011 Midi Music Festival. More photos from the festival and Free the Birds' performance will be posted on this website later in the week. This photos and others from the festival can be licensed for publication through Zuma Press.

Another music festival bites the dust

That's the word circulating online.

Was this weekend's Strawberry Music Festival in Suzhou canceled because someone tweeted about Ai Weiwei last week at Zhouzhuang? Some conspiracy-minded netizens think so.

Festivals and concerts are shuttered constantly in China, often at the last minute, and the true reasons are often possible to ascertain. For example, the Litang Horse Festival in Sichuan has been canceled for several years running after one attendee stood on stage and called for the return of the Dalai Lama. I was in Litang last summer on the festival day, along with a number of other disappointed visitors from China and abroad. The biggest event of the year for the entire area permanently canceled just to ensure that no one can express their personal opinion on an issue of significance.

This weekend's rock festival in Suzhou was going to feature many bands from Modern Sky records, one of the better indie labels in China.

As Morgan Short put it, "Much condolences go out to the bands that we're scheduled to play, the organizers, and the fans who were planning on heading down. Sucks."

Photos from Rio Carnaval 2011 by Peter Turnley (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Brazilian Carnaval at Latina, Shanghai (photo gallery)

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Looking for photos of Brazilian samba dancers? Try here.

More photos from the 2011 Latina party can be found here.