Imagine the scene – 90,000 excited fans packed into the Sambadrome at the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Thousands of performers and dancers dressed in exotic costumes waiting for their cue to start the parade. Hundreds of ‘passistas’ (samba dancers) from leading samba schools in Brazil. And one of them is Hayley Barnes, all the way from Mooloolaba, Australia.
Hayley’s elaborate costume is beautiful but uncomfortable, the heavy headpiece digging into her temples. By the end of the evening, her feet will be full of blisters and bruises. But it will be worth it for the sheer exhilaration of being part of the biggest and most famous carnival parade in the world.
“When the parade starts, you look up at all those people, then the ground starts shaking with the beat of thousands of feet tapping. They say it wakes up their ancestors – it’s a spine-tingling, incredibly emotional moment.
“Dancing to the sound of 300 drummers and 90,000 passionate samba supporters is an unforgettable and addictive experience,” Hayley says.
We are sitting outside at Hayley’s Mooloolaba office, where she runs the international brand, Skincare Academy, the tranquil setting a far cry from the pulsating rhythm of samba music in Brazil. It’s hard to imagine how this respected naturopath, who teaches health professionals how to treat acne internally, also earned her place in one of the most fiercely contested samba contests in the world.
The daughter of a professional fisherman and a hospital kitchen hand, Hayley grew up in a small, remote town on the Yorke Peninsula, which had a population of around 1000 people.
“Ever since I was a young child, I was always acting, doing shows, taking the lead and dancing, but we didn’t have any facilities locally, so mum would drive 45 minutes one way just so I could do a dance class,” she says.
“When we moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2008, suddenly there were so many opportunities, so I started doing a bit of hip hop and other styles at school. Then I moved away to study naturopathy and had to take a break from dancing.”
Then, Hayley’s sister, Tayla, saw a promotion advertised at a Maroochydore dance studio, Let’s Dance Latin, now called Tropicália. “I didn’t know anything about samba, but after my first samba class, my teacher asked if I had done it before because of the way my hips moved. That was six years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since!”
The road to Rio did not come easy. “I trained a lot – three hours on a Tuesday, two hours on a Saturday and another three hours a week on my own. I would also do performances on the weekends at music festivals, Brazil night celebrations and birthdays.”
Hayley confesses that she has always been determined to succeed. “Anything I do, I want to be the best at it. I had always excelled at sport and was sports captain at Mountain Creek High School. However, dancing the samba is also an art, not just an endurance thing.
“It’s not just about physicality – you must be both soft and strong. I like the challenge of that.”
Hayley is also a bit of a rebel. On her first trip to Rio de Janeiro in 2020, she travelled with a tour group and they weren’t allowed to visit the samba schools alone as they are located in the notorious ‘favelas’, densely populated neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city. However, Hayley knew that the best samba schools were located there, so she and a friend travelled to a favela, the Uber driver warning them of the dangers.
“It was the best night of my life. We watched passistas from a samba school called Portella and I had tears in my eyes. The way they performed and the energy of the Baianas (respected older women in the community) was amazing. I got a taste of what samba really means that night, and I told myself, I’m going to be a passista, and I just kept going back to achieve that.”
On that trip, Hayley managed to get onto a three-storey float at the carnival, doing a little bit of dancing. “I was able to get a 360-degree view of thousands of people in the parade. All I could think of was, ‘I want to go down there and dance on the floor.’”
With plenty more training under her belt, Hayley returned in both 2023 and 2024 to the samba School – Mocidade, from Padre Miguel, rehearsing there for two-and-a-half months each time.
“I wanted to show the community that I respect their culture and that I would put in the time because the passistas there train all year to represent their school.”
Her commitment paid off, with Hayley being selected by school director, George Louzada, Hayley’s Sunshine Coast samba teacher, Gianne Abbott and coordinator, Talita Fontana to dance in Mocidade’s Passista Ala in division one in both 2023 and 2024.
When she visits now, Hayley stays in the Padre Miguel area with a friend. “At first, they were shocked to see a foreigner buying fruit and vegetables at their local shop, but now, they welcome me with hugs and kisses, like family.”
Hayley’s acceptance into the community was also cemented when she spent an entire night before the big parade, helping to finish the costumes.
“When I found out they weren’t ready, I knew I needed to help, so I went down at 11pm to make both my costume and eight others.”
Hayley gets emotional when she describes her trips to Brazil. “My life has been enriched by their culture and family values – it’s not just about the dancing. Their lives are extremely hard and challenging, yet Brazilians are known all over the world as being such happy people.”
Hayley will be returning to dance at the Rio de Janeiro Carnival in 2026. This time, she will be accompanied by her partner and parents.
No doubt, they will be very proud of the girl from a fishing village who now dances alongside the best samba dancers in the world.