Center Stage was a 2000 comedy-drama that followed the lives of various teenagers as they audition for a spot in the American Ballet Company. The film opens as students audition for the company but we learn that they have only been chosen to study at the company and are not actually members of the company yet. There is a showcase at the end of the year at which time, only a handful of students are chosen as actual members of the company.The primary characters focused on are Jody Sawyer (Amanda Schull), a young girl who has the passion for dance but doesn't really have the technique. Eva (Zoe Saldana) has the technique but doesn't have the attitude. Maureen (Susan May Pratt) was pretty much pushed into ballet by her mother (Debra Monk) who works for the company and though she has what it takes in terms of technique, learns that her heart isn't really in it. We are also are introduced to Jonathan (Peter Gallagher) the egomaniacal director of the company who constantly butts head with Cooper Nielsen (Ethan Stiefel), the principal male dancer of the company who longs to have his own company and finds himself attracted to Jody. Tony winner Donna Murphy is also featured as a teacher in the company whose battle of wills with Eva keep their working relationship very tense.Yeah, it's pretty much a soap opera on pointe shoes, but the characters presented are pretty realistic for the most part, as dancers, for the most part, are not the nicest people in the world and that film makes this very clear. Jonathan and Cooper pretty much grate on the nerves throughout, only made worse because Ethan Stiefel, though a brilliant dancer, can't act his way out of paper bag.On the other hand, Schull is charming as Jody and Saldana steals every scene she is in. There is also a cute cameo by original A CHORUS LINE cast member Priscilla Lopez as a dance instructor who is an old friend of Cooper's. There is some first-rate dancing though and Cooper's final ballet, featuring Schull and Stiefel, is spectacular.

Center StageThe main difference between attending ballet school and public school is that at ballet school they encourage you to sleep with your teacher to get ahead.A fact at least one student in this drama proves.With only a few openings for the prestigious ballet academy workshop, a group of aspiring dancers (Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt, Amanda Schull) compete against one another and themselves for the coveted positions.Meanwhile, there is a power struggle between the troupe's current choreographer Jonathon (Peter Gallagher) and Cooper (Ethan Stiefel), the lead dancer looking to replace him.Tackling the commonplace concerns facing ballet dancers, from eating disorders to complex love triangles that can only be explained through exaggerated movements, Center Stage is a realistic yet ridiculous look at the cutthroat art form.Besides, wouldn't sex with a ballerina have to involve 5 additional ballerinas, just to make it feel like there's someone else there? (Yellow Light)

i quite enjoyed this movie.it follows a group of people as they try to make it as as dancers with a prestigious ballet company.as soon as i saw it was about ballet,i groaned inwardly.i thought there's no way this could be anything other than boring.but i was proved wrong very quickly.this movie is not just about ballet.there's more going on.lets just say this is a very high energy movie,with some great dance sequences.if you don't like ballet,i feel very confident in saying that won't matter in this case.for one thing the performances are all very good,both the dancing and the acting.and the movie is choreographed very well.not to mention the great soundtrack.for me,this is a really good 115 minutes. 8/10

Having read most of the other comments on this film, I find I fall pretty-much in the middle of the range of opinions. The reviewers who think this is either The Best or The Worst movie they've ever seen are equally mistaken. The plot and characters certainly are trite, but the cast performs with such enthusiasm and talent that I don't care. I love dance, on film or on stage, and the dancing in Center Stage is great. This is the Turning Point for the end of the millennium, blended with elements of Fame and Flashdance...or almost any "gotta dance!" sort of story. There are also story elements which seem to have been lifted directly from the novel Ballerina, by Edward Stewart.I especially enjoy the sequence wherein Amanda Schull goes to an off-limits Jazz class, runs into her dance hero/crush, and has a complete ball just shaking' it loose without Ballet discipline. It's a really enjoyable sequence, in no small part because the other class members are FANTASTIC dancers (Real non-company classes rarely include more than 2 dancers of the caliber of this entire class. Many of the unnamed people in that class are current or former members of the American Ballet Theatre).If you enjoy dance movies, you'l like Center Stage; if you don't, you won't.