Hot steps - passi caldi

My review was written in October 1991 after watching the film on Prism video cassette.

Italian filmmakers come up with an okay made-in-USA variation on the "Dirty Dancing" formula with "Body Moves", a pleasant, wafer-thin youth entertainment.

Filmed on location in New Orleans, the picture fails to make much use of the Big Easy atmosphere. Instead its attractive young American cast spends most of the running time rehearsing for the Hot Steps contest.

Very corny plot twists have rich kid Steve Messina sabotaging the efforts of a rival dance team led by charismatic hero Kirk Rivera. Rivera's beautiful partner Dianne Granger eventually is won over to Messina's team, while his sister, Lindsley Allen, falls in love with Rivera.

Finale is shamelessly sentimental and the dancing becomes an anticlimax, especially due to a repetitious music track.

Granger is quite a discovery and could surface in more mainstream features requiring dancing and spectacular figures in the future. Ditto Rivera. Direction by erstwhile cameraman Gerry Lively is functional.