The story of Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s love story famously started when the couple met on the set of 2006 dance hit Step Up. While the story itself is well-known to fans, there’s now visual evidence–12 years later–of their electric and palpable chemistry.
In time for the home release of Step Up: High Water, Dewan Tatum released her audition tape from the original film this week, describing the throwback clip as equal parts “embarrassing and crazy.” It starts with the actress demonstrating her dance talent to the crew, and eventually, she’s accompanied by the handsome up-and-coming actor.
The two are asked to pose together, and Dewan Tatum cracks that “she can be taller” while the actor squats down to reach her height. “We’re like, posing for our prom,” she jokes as he starts dancing. “Stop it right now,” she laughs. “You said, ‘I don’t know how to dance.’”
Of course, Dewan Tatum eventually nabbed the role of leading lady and the co-stars fell in love on the set. They went on to date, marry and expand their family. Both spouses have previously opened up about that initial experience, and acting upon those romantic feelings was something Dewan Tatum resisted at first.
“It was two nights of being weird. We hadn’t even kissed,” Dewan Tatum told Cosmopolitan in January 2017. “And then he went out partying with a bunch of dancers. His room was right above mine, and he came down drunk with a sombrero on, banging on my door.”
“He was like, ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Let’s do this. I just want to be with you,’” she continued. “From that point forward, we were together.”
The couple married in 2009, and they will celebrate nine years of marriage this year. “Something about being a dancer connects you to your physical body,” she expressed in the same interview. “It’s primal, earthy, sexual energy by nature. You feel your body in a certain way. Channing is very much the same way. He’s very in tune with that.”
Watch their dance origins above.
