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Most of the 200 people who show up each year at the Caribbean Nights Dance Party really just want to dance to the contagious Latin and reggae tunes of Combo Sabroso, a band that comes up each year from Boston. But for five years, guests at the annual event have played a central role in paying teachers, buying uniforms and in general educating children at the EbenEzerSchool in the rural town of Milot, Haiti. (Click headline for full article) 

“We love playing this gig because, not only are the people who come ready for an awesome dance party, but also because we are all learning about and helping kids in Haiti who might not ever learn to read or write without our help, ”said Matt Jenson of Arlington, Mass., band leader and University of New Hampshire alumnus who is currently on the piano faculty at Berklee College of Music.

The fifth annual Caribbean Night Dance Party will be 7 pm Saturday, March 22 at the VFW in Portsmouth. Local food and local restaurants, which have become increasingly important to the success of this dance, will contribute Indian and Mexican food, as well as chowder, baked goods, meatballs and flatbread pizza.

Latin dance instructor Piotrek will be there again to teach a few steps early in the evening for those who want to pick up the basics.

And this year the dance will include a video production by local high school student Georgia Barlow of South Berwick, who traveled school vacation week to the Eben Ezer School.

The Dance Party begins at7 pmwith the video and a short update on the progress made thanks to the hundreds of seacoast residents who have been involved, including about a dozen who have been down to the school.

Dancing starts at 8 pmto the great beat of Combo Sabroso, which plays a variety of Latin music, including traditional Afro-Cuban music and reggae.

The first Caribbean Nights Dance Party was held in 2010 when the Eben Ezer School had only 100 students and four classrooms. Since then it has grown three-fold. Dozens of families in the Seacoast and beyond have signed up to sponsor students at the school, and through the dance provide the operating funds that allow the school to continue.

Combo Sabroso was formed in 1998 when keyboard player Matt Jenson, then living in Portsmouth, assembled the best Latino musicians he could find in Boston. The band’s main influences are the ensembles of Latin piano icon Eddie Palmieri and the grand percussionist, Tito Puente. The band’s repertoire runs from Cha Cha to Danzon, from Bolero to Salsa, from Latin jazz to Plena. 

The line-up for this year’s event includes David Rivera from San Juan Puerto Rico, on drum set and vocals, Yaure Muniz from Havana, Cuba, and member of the Afro Cuban Allstars on trumpet; Winston Maccow from the island of Saint Marten bass and vocals; Eric German from San Juan Puerto Rico on percussion and vocals, local star Matt Langley from Eliot, Maine on tenor sax and on keyboards and vocals, band leader Matt Jenson, who teaches a class on Bob Marley at Berklee School of Music.

The video and slide presentation will include an update on efforts to build a guesthouse by Life and Hope to help the school create its own income and train vocational students. York Rotarian Paul Salacain, who was in Milot in February, met with Rotarians there and investigated options for building a water tank and buying materials. The guesthouse is being designed by Mike Lassel of Lassel Architects in South Berwick. Salacain also helped build charcoal ovens.

The Eben Ezer School was started by Lucia Anglade, a Haitian American woman living in Long Island. It is operated by the non-profit Life and Hope Haiti. More than six dozen families and individuals, most of them in southern Maine and New Hampshire, sponsor children in Milot in the name of the school. These donations of $220 a year keep the school operating.

Tickets are being sold at Black Bean in Rollinsford, Ceres Bakery in Portsmouth, Nature’s Way in South Berwick, Full Circle Community Thrift Store in Eliot and G Willikers! In Portsmouth and RiverRun Books/Lils in Kittery. Checks, made out to Life and Hope Haiti, can also be sent to 37 Highland Ave. in South Berwick. Tickets cost $20.