Oakland University hosts Hispanic Heritage Month, holding a variety of events to experience involving Hispanic culture in several different ways. From community service projects to film festivals to OU’s own Festival del Barrio, students have been able to experience various aspects of Hispanic culture.
La Fiesta de Baile, hosted by the Student Programming Board (SPB), WXOU and Ballroom & Latin Dance Club at OU, taught the OU community how to perform a few Latin dances for themselves during this rhythmic night to remember.
Following her role of organizing SPB’s pumpkin carving event in WXOU’s Harvest Fest, BoiGia Phui, the special events coordinator for SPB, brought La Fiesta de Baile to life.
“The event is a celebration of Hispanic culture for the month of October,” Phui said. “La Fiesta de Baile is a celebration of Latin dance and Latin music, so we have dance instructors, we have churros, we have some fruit punch and we have face painters, in celebration of the Spanish culture.”
The dance instructors from the Ballroom & Latin Dance Club are Mia Mehalko and Jasper Walter. Mehalko delves into the different dances taught at the event.
“We got some people learning some introductory merengue and salsa,” Mehalko said. “I feel like the vibe was really good. Lots of social time, lots of laughs. It wasn’t anything too serious, so I think a lot of people were able to come out, enjoy themselves and dance.
Mehalko explains her favorite Latin dance to work with.
“My favorite is samba,” Mehalko said. “I like how energetic it is and how bouncy it is. I like that it’s the only Latin traveling dance besides Paso, so I think it’s really cool to kind of just bounce across the floor like that.”
Joseph Dean, the treasurer of SPB, talks about his experience with the event.
“It exceeded my expectations,” Dean said. “It was just more low key, and everyone could just relax and have some fun. I didn’t think I would enjoy Latin dancing this much.”
Dia Camara, an attendant of the event, explains his experience with different styles of dancing.
“The dancing was cool,” Camara said. “I’m more of a freestyle dancer, though, so I was not too good at some of the more organized dances, but I think there’s a beauty to it.”
Aside from merengue and salsa, students at the event could easily pick up bachata as well. Leonardo Patek, an attendant of the event, expresses his enjoyment of bachata.
“I love it, and I want to do it with more people,” Patek said. “I think everybody should learn this dance. I used to ballroom dance, way back in the day, but I never learned the bachata. I only learned stuff like tango, waltz and cha-cha.”
For more information regarding Hispanic Heritage Month and OU’s upcoming events, visit the OU webpage. To learn more about the Ballroom & Latin Dance Club and the different dances they teach, visit their Instagram page @ballroomdanceou, or visit their GrizzOrgs webpage. Don’t forget to check out SPB’s upcoming events on their Instagram page @spbou or visit their GrizzOrgs webpage.
