Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990 TAG: 9003162083
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Two independent movie companies owned by rival cousins are releasing quickie films head-to-head today to take advantage of the steamy Afro-Brazilian dance sensation sweeping the country.
Cannon Films' "Lambada: Set the Night On Fire" completed production only last week and will open on some 1,000 screens nationwide, including Roanoke's Towers Mall and Valley View Mall 6 theaters. Made in six weeks for about $4 million, the film is about a high school teacher who uses lambada to encourage barrio kids to study.
"The Forbidden Dance," produced by 21st Century Film Corp., opens on 500 U.S. screens after a month in the making. It tells the story of a Brazilian princess who uses lambada dancing to save her country's rain forests.
"They're both being rushed out," said John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks movie box office performance.
Cannon originally scheduled a May 4 release and 21st Century an April 6 premiere. Most films take at least a year, and often twice as long, to make and release.
Krier speculated the intense competition between the films is tied to the rivalry of cousins Menahem Golan of 21st Century and Yoram Globus of Cannon. They founded Cannon, which has since been bought by Pathe Communications.
Dance instructors hope the films will fuel the already heated interest in lambada, just as "Saturday Night Fever," "Dirty Dancing," and "Flashdance" revitalized club dancing.
"Lambada's going to bring people back into the studios, get them back into couple dancing," said Los Angeles instructor Michael Davis, who has taught the dance about three months.
"The last dance craze was the hustle some seven years ago. Since then it's just been freestyle dancing. Now it's time for a return to couple dancing."
Born decades ago in Brazil's northern Bahia, lambada somewhat resembles other Latin dances, such as salsa. It is a close dance, with male and female partners entwined around each other, grinding their hips together.
Lambada is an appealing dance in the AIDS era, Davis said.
"This is about the closest you can get to having sex without actually doing it," he said.
The craze arrived in the United States late last year from France, where lambada fever reached a frenzy last summer and autumn.
Exporting the dance to the United States was the marketing brainchild of French music entrepreneur Jean Krakos and his partner Olivier Lorsac.
They acquired rights to several lambada songs and formed a multinational band to perform them. The group, Kaoma, produced the album "World Beat" and a single, "Lambada," which topped the charts in 15 European countries.
Late last year, the dance arrived in New York, where it has its largest U.S. following. It picked up steam in Los Angeles and is now hitting Washington and Miami.
In New York, some 2,500 people gather at the Palladium every Friday to lambada, said Steve Gold, the club's executive director. Lambada night began Jan. 12.
"We saw how popular it had been in Europe and we were hoping it would catch on here, too," Gold said. "Now, everyone seems to be talking about it - on the streets, on the late night talk shows, even soap operas."
by CNB