Gloria Estefan musical ‘On Your Feet!’ has moves from Toronto’s Sergio Trujillo

TORONTO – Toronto-raised star choreographer Sergio Trujillo’s rhythm is gonna get you, if the rave reviews for his work on the new Gloria Estefan bio-musical “On Your Feet!” are any indication.

Trujillo did the choreography for the show, which opened in Chicago on June 17. Time Out Chicago called his work “spectacular,” the Chicago Tribune heralded it as “restlessly building and generally superb,” and the Chicago Sun-Times declared it “sensational.”

The Colombia native calls it a “dream job” that has brought him back to his roots after decades of acclaimed work on musicals including “Jersey Boys,” “Memphis,” “Next to Normal” and “The Addams Family.”

“It’s not very often I get material that is Latin-based,” Trujillo, who will present at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in Toronto on Monday, said in a telephone interview.

“For my entire career I haven’t done anything Latin yet, so this is for me an homage, a tribute to my family and my life and my culture.”

“On Your Feet!” is based on the lives of Grammy winner Gloria Estefan and her husband, producer Emilio Estefan. It’s due to begin its Broadway run on Oct. 5.

Trujillo said he went to the Estefans’ native Cuba in January to get a feel for the dance vibes there. He wanted to infuse the moves with an Afro-Cuban spirit, so he stayed in Havana and toured the rest of the country with locals.

“I went for seven days and I had the most magical week of my life,” said the “Arrabal” director.

“I took classes with this woman who taught Afro-Cuban dance to inner-city kids, street kids, in a music instrument-making factory that was an abandoned factory. I was dancing on dirt. It was amazing.”

Trujillo also met with a troupe of female dancers who rehearse in a lobby “the size of a bathroom” in an abandoned theatre.

They were dancing on cement, but “it was art at its finest,” he said.

“Then I went and saw another guy who had another troupe that was like a Cirque show with dance in it and he rehearsed in an abandoned theatre as well and the floors were falling apart,” said Trujillo.

“When I say art at its finest, it’s all they’ve got.”

Trujillo, who won an Olivier Award in April for his choreography on “Memphis,” said salsa has been a big part of his life since he was born.

He and his parents left Colombia when he was 12 to start a better life in the Toronto suburb of North York, where he studied dance under George Randolph, founder of the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts.

They never lost their love of dance.

“No matter where we are and no matter when we get together, they always manage to get up on the floor and dance and have dance-offs,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s slightly intimidating because I don’t do it as much as they do it.”

There’s a particular style of dance that’s hot right now in his native Cali, Colombia — “it’s a fusion of Latin dance and Lindy Hop and it’s unbelievable,” he said — and he’s incorporated that into “On Your Feet!”

“My husband saw the show the other night, on opening night, and he … said, ‘Your family is up on that stage,’” said Trujillo.