Each year a procession of thundering drums, rattling beads, and shimmering sequins marches through downtown McCall during the Winter Carnival. More often than not, Rob Dodge finds himself right in the middle of it.
Dodge is the band leader for Mountain Samba, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a fixture in the carnival’s Mardi Gras Parade.
Come Saturday at noon, Dodge and about a dozen other drummers, along with about 20 dancers, will see their work over the last two months come to life in front of thousands of people gathered along each side of Third Street through downtown McCall.
“It’s something you can’t explain unless you’re right in the middle of it,” said Dodge, a McCall resident who has been involved in Mountain Samba off and on since it began in 2005.
Among Dodge’s responsibilities are to keep the band and dancers in unison through whistle-blown signals. As a drummer in a local band known as the Merchants of Groove, Dodge is no stranger to performing in front of crowds. Still, he found himself flustered during his first parade performance.
“I get the whistle in my mouth and I start breathing real heavy because I was so blown away by the amount of people on both sides of me,” Dodge said. “I was accidentally blowing the whistle and I didn’t want to!”
For Kimi Houston, a dancer in the group, the crowd’s energy helps keep her own energy levels up while dancing for about an hour along the parade route, which is nearly a mile long.
“It’s an adrenaline rush, for sure,” said Houston, a McCall resident. “That’s what carries me through the entire parade.”
Samba origins
Mountain Samba arose from a chance encounter of Jan Morrison and Kirsten Evensen during an African dancing workshop in McCall in 2004, said Janna Sylvia, the current dance leader.
“After the workshop, they talked about how fun it would be to do some sort of performance in the parade,” Sylvia said.
Thus, Samba in Sorels—the group’s original name—was born, with the name paying homage to the popular winter boots sported by many of its members.
Sylvia got involved with the group shortly thereafter at the urging of her co-workers in the McCall-Donnelly School District. All it took was seeing one performance and she was hooked.
“I was watching the parade, and I could hear the ‘boom, boom, boom’ of the drums echoing down,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, what is that? I need to be part of that.’ So I joined and the rest is history.”
Performance prep
Mountain Samba’s mesmerizing, synchronized dance routine is the product of weekly practices that start about two months before the carnival.
Designing the dance, however, starts well before then. That process begins by reviewing archives of previous performances in a binder filled with dance steps, choreography, and hand-drawn depictions of the dance moves performed by stick figures.
“I designed six different routines this year and practiced each one of them to make sure that it flowed okay,” Sylvia said. “It was the sixth routine that I landed on.”
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This year, Sylvia also sent videos of herself performing the routine to previous members of the dance group who have since moved away, but are traveling from as far as Arizona and Oregon to be part of the 20th anniversary performance.
The process is similar for the band, which develops music for the performance independently of the dancers, who pace their steps based on whatever music the band plays.
The band and the dancers practice separately up until one dress rehearsal right before the carnival. This year, that rehearsal was last Sunday in the Rite Aid parking lot.
‘Heartbeat’ of Samba
The dancers, donned in homemade costumes adorned with beads, sequins, and colorful fabric, often steal the show, but the band is the real key, according to Sylvia, who formerly served as the band leader.
“Everybody gives all the dancers all the attention, but us dancers call the band our heartbeat because they’re our driving force,” she said.
Over the years, Mountain Samba has become a favorite of carnival spectators. Most years, the group takes home the “Best Drill Team” prize awarded by the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the carnival.
McKenzie Kraemer, a spokesperson for the chamber, described Mountain Samba as “the embodiment of the Mardi Gras parade and the community spirit it takes to put on the carnival.”
“This amazing group gets together well before the event to practice and design costumes. Then they dance the ENTIRE parade route — not an easy feat!” Kraemer said. “No one pays them. No one asks them to do it. They just do. And they make a lot of magic by doing so.”
Sylvia, meanwhile, said the pleasure is all theirs.
“We’re just happy to be out there and performing for them, because that’s what we’re there for and that’s what we enjoy doing,” she said.
