Assuming that every generation needs its own dance film, Hytner revists the turf of films like Turning Point (classic ballet), Chrous Line (Broadway dancing) and Saturday Night Fever (disco) and blends together their themes and persona to little effect.
Center Stage
Life doesn't hold tryouts.
2000 · 1h 55m · PG-13
Drama, Music
Directed by
Nicholas Hytner
Overview
A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.
Director and cast
- Nicholas Hytner Director
- Amanda Schull as Jody Sawyer
- Zoe Saldaña as Eva Rodríguez
- Susan May Pratt as Maureen Cummings
- Peter Gallagher as Jonathan Reeves
- Scottie Thompson as Ensemble
- Maryann Plunkett as Mrs. Sawyer
- Ethan Stiefel as Cooper
- Sascha Radetsky as Charlie
- Donna Murphy as Juliette
- Megan Pepin as Anna
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
If you have the remotest interest in ballet, Center Stage is impossible to pass up.
The dance sequences in his film make the most exciting footage.
Center Stage is the same old stuff, not an arabesque more.
With a plot that is constructed entirely out of formula situations and familiar plot elements, Center Stage feels like a rerun of Flashdance grafted onto The Cutting Edge.
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