What is it About the 살사 Dance World that Attracts Many to the Point of Addiction? 

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What is it About the Salsa Dance World that Attracts Many to...

COLD NIGHTS, HOT SALSA:  The passionate story of two young salsa dancers from Montreal, in love with dancing and each other, who, over three ambitious years, set their sights on winning a World Salsa Championship.

“At some point in the making of this film I asked myself, what is it about the salsa dance world that attracts many to the point of addiction, often avoiding alcohol or other drugs because these substances interfere with their deeper addiction? I found that some got their start growing up in a home where Latin dance was simply a part of life. Others started by going in search of social possibilities, and others went looking to fill a void in their lives. But when music and motion come together in this form of Latin street dance, something else takes hold and leads to places few, including myself, have regretted going…

Watch the trailer for COLD NIGHTS HOT SALSA here…

COLD NIGHTS HOT SALSA takes you inside the international dance world of Victor and Katia, aspiring young salsa dancers from Montreal, who seek to win a World Salsa Championship.

During their three-year quest Victor and Katia draw upon the talents of Eddie Torres, Tito & Tamara, Billy Fajardo, and Katie Marlow. Central figures in the salsa dance world, these mentors put their passion and professional dance skills before you and reveal what it takes to perform and compete at the highest level.

Victor and Katia’s story is a love story. It’s the story of their love to dance and of how being a couple enhances and also complicates their life together and dance ambitions.
After winning the Canadian Salsa Championship, we watch as they first compete in the 3rd World Salsa Championship. They return home to Montreal to work on taking their dance skills to a higher level. After months of preparation, including working with a number of key mentors, they put their dreams on the line and travel to Florida to compete in the 4th World Salsa Championship.

Along with Victor and Katia’s story, the film explores some of the social and historical roots of salsa, as told through Eddie Torres, Billy Fajardo, Tito Ortos, and Edson Vallon.

Experience the beauty and excitement of competitive dance, the compelling force of world leaders in salsa, and the romantic charm of two young dancers who want to make their mark on the Latin dance world.

Edwin Gailits has followed a number of roads to his current role as the producer, director, and editor of Cold Nights Hot Salsa. He began his career as a professional still photographer and then gravitated to theatre, where, for almost a decade, he produced and directed numerous classics theatre productions.

For the past 20 years he has been producing, directing, and editing films in a broad range of subject areas. Edwin has profiled the work of a Shibori fabric artist, examined the relationship between satellite data imagery, mathematics and watercolor painting and has produced a series of hybrid educational/fiction films that explored mathematics. More recently he produced a health care documentary that looks at some of the underlying structural problems of the US health care system. During the making of Cold Nights Hot Salsa, other projects he has worked on include producing films for an organization that studies and promotes the health benefits of music.

Cold Nights Hot Salsa Trailer FF from Edwin Gailits on Vimeo.

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