Rio's samba dancers stars by night, workers by day

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — It’s a life of stark contrast: By day, Diana Prado is a supervisor at an insurance company’s drably lit call center cramped with blue cubicles. But when night falls, she dazzles as a scantily clad samba school dancer in over-the-top performances glittery enough for a Hollywood musical.

Like many samba dancers, or “passistas” as they’re known in Portuguese, the 26-year-old splits her time between the feathers, body paint and shrunken bikinis of Carnival and the workaday office reality of headsets and cubicles.