Latin dancing helping raise money for Latin band concert

Montana State University-Northern Office of Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Program’s Multicultural Center has organized its last Latin Salsa Dancing night for Friday to raise money for a concert during Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

“It’s going to be really fun,” Multicultural Center Diversity Committee member Jasmine Carbajal said.

The event will take place at Vizsla Brewing Co. Friday, and will have Rocky Boy Schools art teacher Michael Bober teaching the class, she added.

The concert will be Friday, Oct. 11, at Northern’s Student Union Building at 6 p.m. and will feature John Roberts Y Pan Blanco, an internationally known Latin band, she said. She added that Roberts is a teacher at Montana State University Billings.

She said that Hill County Community Foundation and Triangle Communications have both awarded the Heritage Center funds to help put on the concert for the community. 

“We’re really excited they are going to come up to Havre,” Carbajal said. “I think it’s going to be a one-of-a-kind experience and a really great concert we don’t want people to miss.”

The event is free and open to all ages and the whole family, she said.

Beaver Creek Golf course will be serving alcoholic beverages at the event and Guadalajara Family Mexican Restaurant will be selling nachos, she said. She added that the money made off of the nacho sales will go toward the Havre High School Spanish Club to help the club pay for their bi-yearly trip this year. 

She added that she is excited to share Hispanic culture with the community as well as bring a fun event for everyone to enjoy.

“It is really the one big time of the year we get to highlight the Hispanic culture,” she said.

Bober said he has danced for a number of years but had stopped for a period of time until he started teaching the Latin salsa dancing classes. He added that the classes are a lot of fun and usually have a good turn out with people of the community. 

He said although he is not a professional salsa dancer he enjoys teaching people and has fun seeing how people improve. 

Carbajal said that Latin salsa dancing night started last year through the Multicultural Center. She added that after the center’s success with the celebration last year for Hispanic Heritage Month and the interest from the community, the center wanted to be able to give the community more opportunities to learn Latin salsa dancing.

Classes took place at least once a month at either Vizsla Brewing Co. or Vine 19, she said. She added that they did take a break for the summer and did not have any classes. 

The class Friday starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 8 p.m., she said. She added that Vizsla Brewing Co. has allowed them to use the brewery’s sound system to play music. The first 30 to 40 minutes of each class usually is when Bober instructs people on how to dance, she said, the rest of the time people are given time to practice what they learned.

Vizsla and Vine 19 donate $1 of each beer or wine sold during the classes to the Multicultural Center, Carbajal said. She added that each class averages around 30 to 40 people.

The Latin salsa dancing classes so far have raised about $200 to $300 for the concert next month.

The Multicultural Center is located in Cowan Hall, room 308, and is a place for students to come in and have a space to work or get information, she said. It also advocates multicultural awareness, inclusion and social justice. 

She said that people can visit the events Facebook page for more information on the Latin Salsa Dance Nights at https://www.facebook.com/events/413668919409552/ .