United we dance

Salsa culture in Los Angeles is about more than the dance. 

As a longtime member of a group of salsa fanatics before he moved to Montana a few years ago, Nelson Barahona found fellowship and friendship.

“We were so well connected through salsa. It united us,” said Barahona, who now lives in Kalispell. “We went on cruises together, held birthday parties, went to movies. We came from different jobs, backgrounds and cultures, and the only thing that united us was salsa.”

Barahona, 41, hopes to create a similar scene in Northwest Montana. The native of Honduras has been giving salsa instruction in Kalispell and Whitefish once a week and holding monthly salsa dance parties at the Eagles.

He’s got Donna Nelson hooked on the Latin dance form.

The 46-year-old hospice nurse has been attending Barahona’s lessons since mid-December 2009, when he began teaching in the Flathead Valley.

The Bigfork resident dances two or three times a week with Barahona, driving to Whitefish for Tuesday-night sessions at the Craggy Range and hitting Thursday-night lessons at Red’s Wines & Blues in Kalispell. Barahona also instructs occasionally in Polson and Missoula.

Nelson had no prior dance experience before taking up salsa, but always had wanted to learn and welcomed the diversion from the stress of her job. She says there is a small community of like-minded dancers here already, and as in L.A. they are different ages and backgrounds.

“Salsa is a social environment, where you dance with everyone,” she said.

And she praises Barahona for his ability to keep people dancing.

“He is very patient with you no matter what your skill level,” she said. “He finds the good and does not focus on the negative.”

Crystal Adams and Toby Ferguson showed up for Barahona’s session at Red’s for the first time on Thursday. Adams, 29, dubs herself an “intermediate” salsa dancer, while Ferguson is just learning.

“I love Latin dance, and he’s willing to learn,” Adams said of Ferguson. “This is the perfect time, the perfect place and the perfect instructor.”

She was impressed with Barahona’s style of teaching.

“Nelson is awesome,” she said. “He’s got a smoothness that is innate and he teaches that well. He teaches men how to lead and if a man knows how to lead, they can drag a woman across the floor and you can look like you’re on ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ He teaches the cues very well.”

Barahona, who works at the Los Caporales restaurant on U.S. 93 South in Kalispell, has been in the United States for 19 years.

He was living in Los Angeles, learning his salsa moves as part of the thriving scene there, when his ex-wife moved to Polson with their son, now 3. He decided to move to Polson in 2008.

Barahona was “going nuts” during his first winter in Polson and decided he had to do something to keep himself occupied.

“I went to a local gym in Polson and asked if they knew anyone who was doing salsa,” he said. “They didn’t even know what salsa was.”

But Barahona started giving lessons in Polson and he also became involved in the Missoula scene, which had been going for years due to the number of people of Latin heritage there. A studio there asked Barahona to teach, and he started driving to Missoula once a week; he then added a night at Ricciardi’s restaurant north of Polson.

He said the thought of traveling south to Kalispell to teach hadn’t crossed his mind until he met a few dancers who encouraged him to do so. In November last year, he gave a presentation for a jazz dance at the Kalispell Hilton Garden Inn at which Cocinando Latin Jazz Orchestra was playing.

He started to establish his presence in the Flathead as a dance instructor, and then decided to move to the area so he wouldn’t have to commute from Polson two or more times each week.

“I saw potential here,” he said. “No one else was doing it, and that is how I landed in Kalispell.”

His sessions at the Craggy Range or at Red’s range from eight to 12 dancers, but his monthly salsa dance parties at the Eagles have drawn up to 75.

With the growing numbers, Barahona is beginning to see his hopes for a local scene materialize.

“My vision is connection,” Barahona said. “I am very much a people person and through salsa you connect with people.”

Barahona offers salsa lessons at the Craggy Range in Whitefish on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. for $12 a person. On Thursdays, he’s at Red’s Wines & Blues at 7 p.m., $10. Partners are not required. His next monthly salsa dance party is May 21 at the Eagles in Kalispell at 9 p.m. For more information, call Barahona at 626-367-1943 or e-mail vivalasalsapolson@yahoo.com

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com