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Center Stage (2000)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer (WGA):
Carol Heikkinen (written by)
Release Date:
12 May 2000 (USA)
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Tagline:
Life doesn't hold tryouts.
Plot:
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. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win
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NewsDesk:
(60 articles)
A Christmas Memory Opens at Centre Stage, 12/3
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 1 December 2009, 12:39 PM, PST)
A Christmas Memory Opens at Centre Stage, 12/3
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 24 November 2009, 5:44 PM, PST)
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 1 December 2009, 12:39 PM, PST)
A Christmas Memory Opens at Centre Stage, 12/3
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 24 November 2009, 5:44 PM, PST)
User Comments:
The Dance is the Thing
more (203 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Amanda Schull | ... | Jody Sawyer | |
| Zoe Saldana | ... | Eva Rodriguez (as Zoë Saldana) | |
| Susan May Pratt | ... | Maureen Cummings | |
| Peter Gallagher | ... | Jonathan Reeves | |
| Donna Murphy | ... | Juliette Simone | |
| Debra Monk | ... | Nancy Cummings | |
| Ethan Stiefel | ... | Cooper Nielson | |
| Sascha Radetsky | ... | Charlie Sims | |
| Julie Kent | ... | Kathleen Donahue | |
| Ilia Kulik | ... | Sergei | |
| Eion Bailey | ... | Jim Gordon | |
| Shakiem Evans | ... | Erik Jones | |
| Elizabeth Hubbard | ... | Joan Miller | |
| Victor Anthony | ... | Thomas | |
| Christine Dunham | ... | Audition Teacher |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Centre Stage (Australia)
City Ballet (USA) (working title)
The Dance Movie (USA) (working title)
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City Ballet (USA) (working title)
The Dance Movie (USA) (working title)
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MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for language and some sensuality.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
115 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Iceland:L |
Brazil:12 |
Malaysia:U |
Finland:S |
South Korea:15 |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:M |
Chile:14 |
Denmark:A |
France:U |
Germany:12 (original rating) |
Germany:o.Al. (video rating) |
New Zealand:M |
Norway:A |
Singapore:PG |
Spain:T |
Sweden:Btl |
UK:12 |
USA:PG-13 (certificate #37228) |
Philippines:G
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
There is a subplot in which Cooper Nielson, played by Ethan Stiefel, attracts the financial support of a wealthy philanthropic benefactress. A 15 August 2004 New York Times article entitled "How Much Is That Dancer in the Program?" revealed that Stiefel has a very similar real-life sponsorship relationship with a philanthropist named Anka Palitz.
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Goofs:
Factual errors: Maureen's mother comments that Juliette's father managed a Walmart in New Jersey ("Perth Amboy"). However, the first Walmart in New Jersey didn't open until 1991.
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Quotes:
Maureen Cummings:
I've got priorities. I mean, you only get to be a dancer for ten years - maybe fifteen if you don't get injured. So for the next decade at least...
Jim Gordon: Hey, all I'm asking for is a date...
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Jim Gordon: Hey, all I'm asking for is a date...
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Movie Connections:
Spoofed in Dance Flick (2009)
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Soundtrack:
First Kiss
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (203 total)
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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.