Pre Production       In summer 1996 Liz Curtis, former US Latin Champion, invited Enio to be involved on a movie project that was in the works. Tentatively titled "Shut up and Dance" the project was a screenplay written by Darryl Matthews based on characters he had known from his days as a ballroom dance instructor. Soon after doing some location shots at the US Ballroom Championships in Miami, director Randa Haines came to Los Angeles and worked with Enio to develop an understanding of the international style Rumba (also known as Bolero). Meanwhile in New York lead actress Vanessa Williams trained in New York with former US Champions Liz Curtis, Tony Meredith, Rick Valenzuela and World Champion Donnie Burns. Once everything was in place the production moved out to LA and a giant backstage lot was set up in Culver City where hundreds of extras were auditioned, and the lead and supporting actors were trained in the dances they would be performing. With a rehearsal studio next to the Houston studio set. Actors would go from the rehearsal hall through makeup onto the set in front of the camera and back in a matter of minutes. Daily training for actors Chayenne, Vanessa Williams, Joan Plowright, Kris Kristofferson, Jane Krakowski, and Scott Paetty was handled by Let's Dance instructors Enio Cordoba, Terryl Jones, Natalie Mavor, and local pros Jacqui Kuka and Marilyn Benitez.

      When time came to select the pros for the featured roles, Liz asked Enio and Terryl whether they would rather dance in the Salsa scenes or Ballroom scenes they initially opted for the salsa scenes until they found out that the Salsa scenes would shoot for 3 days and the Ballroom scenes would shoot for 3 weeks. Although they were involved in much of the choreography for the Dance Studio, Salsa and Club scenes, they could not appear in both scenes because the Salsa club and the dance studio were located in Houston, also be seen in the ballroom competition was located in Las Vegas. An interesting sidenote- if you look closely at the props for the studio in Houston, You'll notice that the pictures on the wall are of Enio and former partners Karen Lee and Natalie Mavor. In fact most of the trophies, magazines and photo albums dotting the set were borrowed from Let's Dance.

      Enio and Terryl initially appear in the Pro-Am competition dancing with students and later can be seen wearing the cornflower blue outfits in the first round of the competition behind Vanessa and Rick. They appear quite a bit in the next few minutes with Enio causing Vanessa to bump into Chayenne and Terryl picking up Joan Plowright's cape as she does her solo. Finally they appear in the after competition party scene.

       Other Let's Dance L.A. students appearing in the movie include Saul Hernandez, Pearl Ryerson, Michelle Kimura, and Bobby Romero in the Salsa Club while Brian Cordoba led the children onto the floor for the junior competition. Let's Dance teacher Kristy Rivers can be seen dancing with her brother in the dance studio scene



       In gratitude for their work on Dance With Me producers Allan Wertheim and Ted Zachary gave Enio the magnificent dance floor that you see in the Las Vegas ballroom where the competition was held. Hopefully that floor will adorn the new location! That set was actually an airplane hangar at the Van Nuys airport. Kris Kristofferson's house was actually a location in Pasadena on New York Ave near Lake. Finally even after the shooting was over, Enio and Natalie Mavor were hired to do some Foley work (adding sound effects) for realism.

Most asked questions:
Could Chayenne and Vanessa really dance? Believe it or not he's a better dancer than many of the professionals who actually danced in the movie. In movie lingo- He's a triple threat (sings, dances, acts). Vanessa who had the toughest dancing in the movie impressed Enio enough that when discussing her ability to hold her own against top professionals with so little training, former US Latin Champion Rick Valenzuela replied- "Makes you think we spent too much time practicing our Rumba walks." Costars Jane Krakowski (Ally McBeal) has been dancing all her life and recently did an Entertainment Tonight Salsa segment with Enio at the Hollywood hangout El Floridita. Harry Groener who trained for his audition by learning Paso Doble with Enio was one of the original stars of the Broadway show CATS!        To see more pics go to our Dance With Me gallery with more pictures to be added later.
Dance With Me- Behind the Scenes.