Robby Rosa, former lead singer of the super group Menudo, stars in this sexy story of young dreams,dangerous passions and dance-floor fireworks! With special performances by Salsa legends Celia Cruzand Tito Puente, this high-energy musical sizzles with breathtaking choreography and all the spice of red-hot salsa! In a nightly escape from his day job as a mechanic, Rico (Rosa) enters his true element: the wild exuberance of the East L.A. La Luna salsa club. Dreaming of making himself and his girlfriend the King and Queen of Salsa, Rico pours all his energy into winning La Luna's Grand Salsa Competition. But when the club's gorgeous owner sets her sights on making Rico her dance partner, Rico must decide what drives himhis ambition or his heart.

With a title like "Salsa," you can know what to expect from this movie, and this movie does not disappoint. A young love story, a love quadrangle, and a salsa contest are all plot points to get us to the next dance scene. Fortunately we don't have to wait long between drama interludes to get to all the fun and what this movie is all about! Don't buy this movie for the acting; buy it for the dancing! Of course, this movie was made in the 80's so you'll see all the trappings of this decade woven through the movie. One could watch this movie as an 80's study. This isn't a detractor, however, from this great dance flick. You'll see bits of 80's specific dancing, 80's style salsa, salsa that transcends decades, "New York" style Salsa, "street" salsa, solo dance numbers, group "line" salsa, and multiple partner switching. Lots of the dancing is timeless and stuff you can incorporate today! One of the features of this movie is the music performances done by multiple artists of the period. The most notable of them being one each from the amazing, late Celia Cruz and the amazing, late Tito Puente. Their music performances are the backdrop for much of the dancing. As with all forms of dance, there is snobbery as to how to dance "real" salsa. This is even addressed at one point in the movie when Rico, with his more "street" style and the club owner La Luna, with her more polished "New York" style tell each other that they're not sure if what the other is dancing is "real" salsa. Ha ha! The snobbery in dance is ever living!
You will recognise the club owner in the movie as the same actress in the movie Dirty Dancing who tried to steal Patrick Swayzee's character from Jennifer Gray's. She is reprising a similar role here. Once again, though, don't get this movie for the acting/plot/drama; buy it for the dancing! [Note One] the acting here isn't terrible and is certainly bearable, it's just not as high quality as that in Dirty Dancing which has a better plot and acting but is not as good in the dance scenes. [Note Two] this movie has minimal Spanish; it is 95% in English. Most of the Spanish words are the basic ones we all learned from Sesame Street when we were kids.

Nu ook Nederlands ondertiteld!