Stars like Rebecca Gayheart are livin' la vida salsa at Hollywood's El Floridita.
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Halle Berry enjoys it. Minnie Driver and Michael Douglas do it. Sandra Bullock likes it so much offscreen she did it onscreen in Forces of Nature. Jennifer Lopez went so far as to launch a nightclub devoted to it. It is Latin dancing, the undulating evening activity that's had Hollywood in motion for years and has lately picked up even more speed. And of all the Latin dance styles (which include the mambo, cha-cha, samba, merengue and tango), the fast-moving salsa reigns as the current favorite--there are about 20 salsa clubs in L.A. these days, where 10 years ago there were only 2.
Aficionados like Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman and Jack Nicholson can choose between spots like the Sportsman's Lodge in the Valley, the Mayan downtown and the Wilshire District's Conga Room (backed by Lopez, Jimmy Smits and comedian Paul Rodriguez, it's where Halle Berry is on Thursdays). But one surefire favorite is Hollywood's tiny El Floridita club, where star salserita Sandra Bullock likes to tear up the floor on Monday nights. When Kevin Williamson's hotly anticipated fall TV series Wasteland debuts in a few weeks, the biggest draw at El Floridita is likely to be one of that show's stars, Rebecca Gayheart, who visits the club every few weeks to salsa with her fiancé, Rush Hour director Brett Ratner.
"The scene has so much flavor, and the dancers take it very seriously, so when we get out there and do our thing they kinda laugh," says self-proclaimed amateur Gayheart. "I basically just picked it up from Brett, who's Cuban and a great dancer." Gayheart and Ratner enjoy the scene so much she hired one of El Floridita's house bands to play at a bash she recently threw.
When Latin dancing started to get big a few years back, the movie version of the trend tried to happen at the same time. Remember the late '80s/early '90s duds Salsa and Lambada? The Mambo Kings was a better effort (El Floridita was one of the locations for its musical scenes), but last year's Dance With Me danced with just about nobody at the box office. We'll see what Felicity star Keri Russell can do for the big screen trend when she plays a Latin-dance competitor in the upcoming Mad About Mambo. In the meantime, Gayheart will be doing wonders for the real thing. "Latin dancing's lots of fun to do for a change," she says. "It's like being in a whole different place and culture."
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