The Standard Ballet Conflicts Make Their Way to ‘Center Stage’

From “The Red Shoes” to “The Turning Point,” dramatic films about the ballet world have begged the question: How is it that such a serious and disciplined performing art attracts such silly and chaotic people?

The callow young dance aspirants in “Center Stage” weren’t even born when Mikhail Baryshnikov flaunted his famous leaps in “The Turning Point” (1977). But the tensions and obstacles are as unchanging as the Lincoln Center plaza where his co-stars Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft ripped each other’s hair out: sex, family, competition and making choices.

“Center Stage” is a quintessential backstage-movie cocktail, about four parts hooey to one part reality, chased by a big swig of high-stepping razzle-dazzle. Written with transparent ink by Carol Heikkinen, it follows the tribulations of a sextet of ballet students as they train at the ultra-competitive American Ballet Academy (helmed by that swan prince of arrogance, Peter Gallagher).

All of the neophytes have been cast with professional dancers, which makes for some wobbly toed performances. There is the naive but determined Jody (Amanda Schull); the rebellious, smart-mouthed Eva (Zoe Saldana); the bulimic diva-in-training, Maureen (a convincing Susan May Pratt); the All-American hunk from Seattle, Charlie (Sascha Radetsky); the Russian roue, Sergei (Ilia Kulik); and the token black homosexual with no personal life, Erik (Shakeim Evans).

Typically, “Center Stage” hyperventilates in an effort to show that all male dancers are not pansies, so Heikkinen unambiguously asserts the sexual orientation of every guy in their first lines of dialogue. Within minutes, Erik is cruising Charlie, Charlie is swooning for Jody, Jody is falling for international star Cooper (American Ballet Theater headliner Ethan Stiefel, a rather terrible actor), Maureen is succumbing to the advances of a premed student, and Sergei is striking out at every turn.

We don’t really care about any of this, because “Center Stage” only really kicks in when it is dancing, which is about half the time. Susan Stroman, the reigning Miss Thing of Broadway hoofing, makes her film choreography debut with mixed results. Predictably, her best work is the “Flashdance”-like stuff at a disco or in a Broadway dance class. The more ambitious crossover piece at the big closing performance, weaving urban iconography into classical ballet language, might seem clever and even electric in live performance but seems a bit dumb as captured on film.

It’s rarely boring, because director Nicholas Hytner (“The Crucible,” “The Madness of King George”) knows how to energize theater-oriented work. But he’s used to far better material, and it feels like he’s slumming here. He has recruited a dandy group of New York actors to play the grown-ups, so we can revel in Debra Monk as an overbearing stage mother and the wonderful Donna Murphy, who penetrates the artifice with genuine feeling as the most sympathetic of the dance instructors.

“A Chorus Line’s” charismatic Priscilla Lopez makes an exuberant impression as a jazz dance teacher, an all-too-brief cameo that leaves us with the sobering suggestion of what awaits those who are lucky enough to grab their 15 minutes of dance fame.

* MPAA rating: PG-13 for language and some sensuality. Times guidelines: Sexuality is in the air--but mostly it’s just talk.

‘Center Stage’

Amanda Schull: Jody

Zoe Saldana: Eva

Susan May Pratt: Maureen

Peter Gallagher: Jonathan

Sascha Radetsky: Charlie

Columbia Pictures presents a Laurence Mark production of a Nicholas Hytner film. Director Nicholas Hytner. Producer Laurence Mark. Screenplay Carol Heikkinen. Cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson. Editor Tariq Anwar. Costume designer Ruth Myers. Music George Fenton. Production designer David Gropman. Art director Peter Rogness. Set decorator Susan Bode. Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes.

In general release.