Sob a Luz da Fama

Every now and then there's a new movie about dancers, or dancing, or one with a lot of dancing in it. From Astaire to Kelly to Hines, it's the poetry of motion. If you have any appreciation for the art form whatsoever, the one to see right now is Center Stage. It's about a school year in the life of three teenage girls who are roommates at a ballet academy in New York. They pass the auditions to get into the school, but then have to work as hard as possible to move on from there. At the end of the year is a workshop performance where they can be seen by most of the people in the industry who could hire them, including the resident company. They work toward and hope for a career in the most demanding pursuit imaginable, facing gifted competition, and placed on a limited schedule. "A dancer has ten years, maybe fifteen if they're not injured" in order to peak in their career and be the best they can ever be. A singer can sing most of their life. An actor can act all his life. A dancer's clock is ticking. It's only a matter of time before they can only teach and choreograph, so there's a unique sense of urgency to start young, study hard, and survive. All that might make a good movie. Might not.

Along with the good, you have to take the less than good. The characters are nothing new. There's the naive female ingŽnue (Amanda Schull), the bad girl (Zoe Saldana), the favorite girl (Susan May Pratt), the cocky lead boy (Ethan Stiefel, "hailed as the most advanced male dancer in the world"), the nice guy dancer (Sascha Radetsky), the nice guy non-dancer (Eion Bailey), the gay friend (Shakiem Evans), the pushy mother (Debra Monk), the demanding teacher (Donna Murphy), and the dictatorial company director (Peter Gallagher). How'd he get in there? There's even a Russian figure skater (Ilia Kulik) in the cast as a dancer. By the way, everybody is amazingly good-looking. Kind of like, Friends as done by George Ballanchine. Only in the movies, right? The story is nothing new either. Will everything work out? Will their dreams come true? Will they survive the heartbreaks of love, and the bodyaches of dance? Well, it's the movies, isn't it? Since the cast features some of the youngest and best dancers in the world, the acting comes second. Often a distant second. Or third. Don't expect any awards to be handed out in that area. Some parts are surprisingly weak, but then they move on and get back to letting their feet do the talking.

Did I mention that the only reason to see this is for the dancing? The way it's filmed here is excellent, without actually having to go to a ballet. The beauty of movement, the grace of the girls, and the strength and skill of the boys is captured as well as any other movie in the subject you're likely to see. The big dance numbers at the end are worth seeing by themselves, including more modern styles. Beforehand, there are a couple of dance scenes without ballet. The kids go to a club one night and salsa, and later we see a bunch of Broadway hoofers in a jazz class lead by Priscilla Lopez (original cast of A Chorus Line) that reminded me of scenes in All That Jazz. Those were the most fun. Other scenes will remind you of The Turning Point, White Nights, and even Dirty Dancing. The comparison to Fame is inevitable. That was then, this is a new century. The natural talent, dedication, motivation, support, and ass-busting hard work needed to succeed at this kind of life is touched on here, but also touched on is the sheer love of the game. For dance itself. That's the main thing. E-mail and comments are welcome.

I loved this for the dancing - the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, the dance of the little swans from Swan Lake, a bit of the Stars and Stripes, and some great modern stuff, especially the show sequence which works through Michael Jackson and Jamiroquai. The story is just a bundle of cliches in looks and personalities and you just know how it is all going to end. So, worth seeing for the dance sequences, but its turn off your brain time for the rest. With a stronger storyline this could have been a really good film. As it is, its a high 7 out of 10.

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")

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.

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.