Into the Light World Tour [VHS]

Captured during a two-night stand at a Dutch arena, this 100-minute concert special documents Gloria Estefan's lavish 1991 world tour, which underscored the Cuban-American singer's graduation from acclaim as a dance-floor diva to the ranks of female pop superstars. At its best, Into the Light World Tour displays the relentless energy, personal warmth, and crack musicianship that Estefan and her husband, producer, and principal collaborator, Emilio Estefan Jr., had evolved through her old band, the Miami Sound Machine, and taken uptown through her solo career. When the star and her band kick into high gear, percussion simmering and horns blazing in taut, deftly arranged choruses, the propulsive lure of salsa is hard to resist.

Technically, Estefan is a singer with a supple tone but modest range, hardly suggesting the caliber expected of a bona fide diva. Neither does her small, compact frame suggest a dancer's physique, despite the production's reliance on extended dance sequences. Yet she makes the most with what she has, harnessing formidable physical energy and transmitting considerable warmth to her audience. Her material, including both Miami Sound Machine hits and subsequent solo signatures, works best when staying closest to her roots, riding the giddy syncopations of uptempo Latin rhythms, or plying the lambent emotions of traditional ballads. Her exhortations to dance--"Get on Your Feet," "Conga," and "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" being the inevitable faves--work handily with an ecstatic audience.

More grizzled viewers should be forewarned that this, like most recent concert films, isn't purely documentary--apart from backstage sequences that duly flatter the star, the live sound has been liberally sweetened during post-concert production. --Sam Sutherland