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 | Category: | Movies | | Genre: | Drama |
One of the central motifs of story telling involves tales of young people coming into adulthood. In our modern era, such a story often features a young woman with superior athletic talent. With great effort, she trains her body, overcomes her doubts, and rises to a crowning achievement while learning how to wield her erotic power, curb her susceptibility to the charms of the lothario, and become a woman.
The telling of this kind of tale focuses on both the human dimensions and the struggle for mastery of a physical skill. When the character is a woman, the endeavor is often ice skating, singing, or dancing. In Center Stage, the action is centered around ballet at the American Ballet Company in New York City. Jody (Amanda Schull), about as white bread blonde as one can imagine, has a stage charisma with her physical presence as a dancer, but lacks the perfect body type and ease in twisting it into the positions ballet requires.
All of the students at ABC are from the best of the best aspiring talent. They come to train for a year. If they perform well enough, they either have a chance of being hired by dance companies from around the world, or if they are among the three best women and men, they will be offered a coveted spot in the American Ballet Company.
The dance training and performance sequences are wonderful. We feel the pain of the creaking muscles, the bleeding feet, the missed steps, the injuries, the dashed hopes. We are treated to an amalgam of both classical ballet and modern experimental performances. We are whisked away into the off hours and extra-curricular forays of Salsa and freer forms of more overtly erotic expression.
Though Center Stage portrays three interesting male dancers, a black gay who is using his talent to live in a world of artistic and male erotic potential, a straight white student of exceptional talent who has the personality of a friend and confidant, and the lead dancer in the regular troop who serves as the wild idol and seducer, the main character explorations are among the women.
Maureen, technically the best dancer, must cast aside her enslavement to bulimia and the wishes of a domineering mother, even at the risk of a career in dance. Eva, the rebellious, tough minded iconoclast, must retain her independence and yet find a way to accept the advice of mentors who may be strict and demanding but are not her enemies and will do all they can to help if they are given a chance.
Then, there is Jody. We need not spoil the details of her journey and there are really no big surprises in the film. Our delight came at the end when she asserted herself as a dancer. Even more important was the way she dealt with the man who is bad for her as a lover but important to her as a dance partner and collaborator. What a joy to see a young woman say "no" to sexual advances, even from a former lover, while maintaining a sense of power and purpose
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