Update  4/28/22– We are days from the premiere, the film took all the major prizes at both the LA Film Festival and NY Film Festival. Those included Best Film, Most Inspirational, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor. Fortunately, for my acting- no Razzee! The red carpet event and film debut will happen at the International Christian Film Festival in Orlando May 6th. The film should be out on Pay Per View (i.e. Netflix, Amazon, Apple Plus) in July.

Long time student Anayancy Thomas and filmmaker husband Jess Thomas, just completed their dream film God & Salsa. Based on some experiences of Anayancy at Let’s Dance, and some added Hollywood storytelling, the script was terrific. With Enio as one of the actors and choreographer, many scenes were created with over a dozen former Let’s Dance LA students. Terryl got to play herself and harass Enio as usual. Enio and Terryl flew in for the week, went straight into filming and flew home the next day.

One of the fun developments is that after we worked so hard to make them good dancers in the past, our Let’s Dance Students suddenly had to dust off all their original bad habits and look like the worst beginners ever. After seeing their improvements through the Hollywood timeline, you would think the “God” aspect of the film has to do with the “miracle” of Enio and Terryl turning these left footed monkeys into nice dancers. Though more LDLA dancers were cast to be in the class and club scenes, the sudden spike in Covid caused many to have to drop out. Long time friend Carlitos Navarro brought one of my favorite bands Son Y Clave to play for the club scenes. Son Y Clave played at both 216 and the Granada Alhambra probably as much as Johnny Polanco if not more.

With crew masked throughout the filming, actors including yours truly, had to constantly be reminded to put masks back on between scenes, makeup and numerous costume changes. We will post pictures very soon and keep you updated when the film will be released.