Capsule Film Review: Center Stage (2000)

2000 dance film Center Stage is one of the relatively rare examples of the genres dedicated to the world of classical ballet. Nominal protagonist, played by Amanda Schull, is Jody Sawyer, young dancer who managed to get accepted into prestigious American Ballet Academy and who dreams to become part of even more prestigious American Ballet Company. This is a difficult task not only because of her body type and dance technique being outside parameters of Company’s strict choreographer Jonathan Reeves (played by Peter Gallagher), but because she has stiff competition in form of young men and women as ambitious as her. Although script by Carol Heikkinen occasionally deals with some dark issues of ballet world, like rampant smoking and bulimia among dancers, it is mostly collection of annoying cliches, including obligatory romantic subplots. Director Nicholas Hytner didn’t care much about it, being focused more on dance scenes and trying to require as little acting ability from his cast, mostly made of actual dancers instead of actors.

RATING: 5/10