Camino a la fama

The title comes from the dancer's center of gravity, which I'm told is used to explain the difference between Russian and American dance to us non-dancers. The Russian tradition is one of capturing and controlling it; the American (since Balanchine, whose work is employed here) is to understand it and let the center `go.' And insofar as it can, that is the point of the drama employed to tie together the dance segments of this film. It is a non-trivial point, underlined by employing not actors in the key roles, but dancers who `act.' These kids are surely endearing.

Two points seem worth mentioning.

The first is the matter of dance in film. Dance is intrinsically cinematic in terms of emotion as motion. But it is too personal, too directly a matter between humans, to convey well to the funnel of film: everything squashed into an image, then given indiscriminately and undifferentiatingly to all viewers. So the cinematographer has a tough choice: what to do with the camera to increase bodily intimacy.

One, unacceptable, extreme is to stay stationary at a few points, another is to choreograph the camera so the viewer is one of the dancers. In this case, at the end at least, we have a happy medium so far as camera involvement. The camera is stationary, but often within the field of dance, and it pans. The staging of the dance was partly to the audience pictured, and partly to us, which is very clever. But it would have been nice to be more adventurous in this regard, especially since there are several choreographers in NYC who are up to the challenge, and cheap!

The second point is a matter of self-reference, which I appreciate almost without qualification when I see it.

The filmmaker gives us a bunch of young actors (actually dancers) who surprise us by effectively showing us their souls in a little love triangle drama. And the matter of their story? A bunch of young dancers who surprise the audience in the film by effectively showing their souls in a little love triangle drama. The film as summarized in the dance is a very intelligent device which I appreciated. And you will too.

A group of young dancers arrives at the ABA (American Ballet Academy) in New York to an audition. Twelve are selected to dispute the opportunity to be chosen to a workshop to have a chance to become professional dancers. Among the female dancers, the gorgeous Jody Sawyer (Amanda Schull), the rebel Eva Rodriguez (Zoe Saldana) and the anorexic Maureen Cummings (Susan May Pratt) share a room and become friends. The lead dancer and choreographer Cooper Nielson (Ethan Stiefel) has a personal dispute with the director and choreographer Jonathan Reeves (Peter Gallagher) since he married his partner and girlfriend Kathleen Donahue (Julie Kent). Along the days, there are friendship, tension, romance, frustration and many training in the lives of the participants.

"Stage Center" is a film that impresses first because of the ballet dancers, most of them professionals. The screenplay with entwined storylines and the natural and powerful performances of these young and unknown actors and dancers are also highly attractive. It seems that they are indeed fighting for a chance to be recognized by Hollywood as great actors and actresses, trying to show their skills to the studios. It shows a splendid direction of the excellent Nycholas Hytner. The choreography and soundtrack are also great. Certainly it is a lovely and wonderful movie, highly indicated for fans of 'Fame', dance, ballet and good films. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Sob a Luz da Fama" ("Under the Spotlight of the Fame")

Ballet movies are incredibly rare. Some are good movies even without the dancing and some are bad with great dancing. This movie happens to be an ok movie with incredible dancing. The characters are really caricatures with exaggerated behaviors that come off feeling very afternoon teen special-ish. The plot is incredibly predictable. You can tell what's going to happen to Jody after the first 15 minutes. However, this movie is lucky enough to have no less than three ABT members in its cast. Ethan Steifel is of course arguably the greatest male dancer in the world right now and while I was watching him I was struck with how similar he is to Baryshnikov. His every move looks effortless and gravity-defying. Sascha Radetsky shows that if he was with any other company that he'd be a principal dancer. Julie Kent should prove to be a mixture of Leslie Browne and Gelsey Kirkland and be an inspiration to another generation of girls. Amanda Schull shows a great deal of promise which really shows in the last number. Zoe Saldana is very good and is perhaps the most complex character. She carries off this acting job adequately. Susan May Pratt is of course the only non-dancer who is also lacking in any dance experience. It's actually kind of ironic that her character has to be the most technically accomplished of the students. However, she looks as natural in the environment as do her fellow dancer co-stars. The final dance sequences are amazing. One includes Rachmaninov's "2nd Piano Concerto" and is a beautiful piece. The other ballet is one that illustrates where ballet is heading. Full of flashy colors, flashy costumes, and effects, the sequence also includes some fabulous dancing. As long as you watch it for the dancing, this movie will please you. If you watch it as a movie than you'll be disappointed.

"Center Stage," a film about the lives of young modern dancers who want nothing more than to make a name for themselves, dazzles with some of the best on-screen dance performances since Patrick Swayze shook his hips in "Dirty Dancing" thirteen years ago. Starring some of the most talented modern dancers ever to hit the silver screen, "Stage" focuses its attention on the lives surrounding the young dancers and their struggles for stardom. The film is a revealing exploitation of the complexity associated with modern dance, diving into the realities of dance phenoms that sacrifice their social life for a role that will find them performing in front of a live audience.

Rating: 6

Let's see--you've got a bunch of young hopefuls in a tough ballet school in NYC--you have the tough, but lovable, black girl; the token gay man; the sweet virginal heroine; the arrogant Russian guy; the sweet lovable guy who's perfect for the sweet heroine, but she doesn't know it; the b**** who's starving herself to death; the guy who loves her and wants to help her; the tyrannical (but lovable) ballet teachers--yep, they're all here! The script is utterly predictable, you know how it's going to end 10 minutes into the movie, but I loved it! The acting is surprisingly good, it's beautifully filmed, the whole cast is attractive and the dancing is simply superb. I wasn't bored once during the entire 2 hours. Well worth seeing.