Entertainment Movies Romantic Movies Danica McKellar Is Ready to Flex Her 'Dancing with the Stars' Muscles in New Rom-Com The 'Wonder Years' alum is starring in 'Swing into Romance', a new rom-com with a story by her husband that's coming soon to Great American Family By Breanne L. Heldman Updated on July 13, 2023 02:07PM EDT Photo: Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Danica McKellar is ready to shake and shimmy into her next role! PEOPLE can exclusively reveal that The Wonder Years alum, who competed on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars in 2014, will be putting those skills to the test once more in the coming months as she films Swinging into Romance, her latest rom-com movie for Great American Family. According to the network, the film follows former dancer Christine Sims (McKellar) when she temporarily returns to her hometown for the Fall Festival and learns that her family's General Store is struggling. In order to help save the business, Christine will need to dust off her dancing shoes and face her ex-fiancé — and she may even find love in the process. "I've been wanting to dance in a movie since I was on Dancing with the Stars in 2014, but I've always loved dancing," McKellar, 48, tells PEOPLE. "My mom was a professional dancer before I was born, so the love of dance is in my genes." UPDATE: On July 13, McKellar revealed her costars, David Haydn-Jones and DWTS favorite Gleb Savchenko. "The uber-talented and charming David Haydn-Jones and I did a Christmas movie together in 2016, and it was awesome to work with him again in Swing Into Romance! Our chemistry is great, and I was so impressed at how much dance he learned in a very short amount of time," she wrote on Instagram. She continued: "It was SUCH a joy to relive the thrill of my time on Dancing with the Stars with the incredible Gleb Savchenko. The really cool and unique part was that we were mentors to each other: Not only did he mentor me in dance, but this was first acting role, so I had the great pleasure to mentor him in acting! We would alternate between dance rehearsals and acting rehearsals over the weekends. He was like a sponge with everything I taught him and did a terrific job playing my ex-fiancé and ex-dance partner - you'd never know it was his first acting job. And dancing with him is some of the most fun I have ever had on a movie set! (Yes, I dance with both David and Gleb in this movie." Danica McKellar Reveals She Moved to Rural Tennessee: 'My Christmas Movie Characters Have Rubbed Off on Me' Courtesy of Danica McKellar McKellar is one of the executive producers on the film, which hits very close to home for her since her husband, Scott Sveslosky, wrote the story! "Back in 2017, I told my husband that I wanted to play a math teacher in a movie, and he wrote the story for a movie that ended up being called Campfire Kiss, and I did that for Hallmark," McKellar explains. "More recently, I said, 'I really want to dance in a movie,' and he wrote this story." She adds, "He's not a writer! He's a lawyer. He just is good at putting together ideas when I really want to do something. And it's just fun to have that knowledge that he's a part of this." Danica McKellar Says She's 'So Grateful' for The Wonder Years as She Celebrates Show's 35th Anniversary Asked if those ideas stem from a conversation, or if he surprises her with a story, the actress is quick to recognize Sveslosky's romantic gesture. "More or less, he will surprise me with it," she says. "He'll say, 'Hey, so remember when you were talking about how you wanted to do a movie about dance?' I'm like, 'Yeah.' And he says, 'Well I wrote this 10 pages of a story. What do you think?' So it's really all him. Again, it's not his day job, so the fact he will take to time to do that is really cool. He's so romantic. I hit the jackpot." Adam Taylor/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Danica McKellar Breaks a Rib in Dancing With the Stars Practice McKellar started hitting the floor well before her costar and choreographer were cast. "I have been training anyway," she admits. "Not specific dance moves, but in general, with a coach. Because, let's face it, it's nine years after Dancing with the Stars — so I'm nine years older — and it's not something I do every day. But I love it so much and I want to do a good job. So, like anything else, I'm doing my best to prepare." With her next Christmas movie shooting soon after this film, McKellar says 2023 is "a busy year of dancing, which is really exciting. I'm not sure I could ever quite obtain what I had during Dancing with the Stars, but I'll maybe get into the second-best shape of my life. It's my job, after all!" Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Last month, Great American Family announced that McKellar would star in their 2023 holiday movie Royal Christmas Ball, which she'll also executive produce based on a story she wrote with Marcy Holland. Swinging into Romance will debut on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT as part of the network's Autumn Harvest event. (Originally published on March 20 and updated with costar information.)