This just in from Hanna Rubin at Dance Magazine. The filming of the movie Center Stage 2 is currently underway in Vancouver. The original Center Stage came out in 2000 and was kind of a cult hit among fans of American Ballet Theater and NYCity Ballet starring as it did several dancers from those companies, including ABT’s lovely Julie Kent and heartthrobs Ethan Stiefel and Sascha Radetsky. It was cute in an ABC After School Special kind of way and detailed the drama taking place at training school for pre-professional ballet dancers replete with eating disorders, body-type issues, harsh disciplinarian teachers, and back-stabbing hyper-competitiveness. And there was a little love triangle in which Ethan, as the cocky womanizing shit, and Sascha, as the nice guy, vie for the attentions of the main female character. Blast if I couldn’t find a YouTube of the little dance competition between these two guys, my favorite part. But here’s one giving a good musical overview of the whole.
Anyway, according to Dance Mag, Ethan will be reprising his role, this time playing cocky-shit dancer as well as cocky-shit teacher 😀 This time the main character is a small-town girl, played by newcomer to the big screen (? — I can’t find anything on the web on her), Rachele Smith, who enrolls at the academy with hopes of making it as a pro ballerina but who is also passionate about hip hop, and is hence an object of scorn by some of her ballet classmates. Ethan, it appears, will be dancing some hip hop. Fun fun! And he sounds very excited about it. According to the e-newsletter: “‘It was fantastic! I’m not sure I was necessarily successful, but what was beautiful was the collaboration with the other dancers. At this point in my career, when learning something brand-new like this falls into your lap, it’s challenging and exciting.”
I hope the sequel is more sophisticated than the original, but even if it’s not, watching Ethan dance hip hop should be worth the price of at least one admission.
Oh thanks for this update! I KNEW they were going to have some dancer who wanted to do hip-hop–it’s such a popular subject in dance films and so overdone! Ethan doing hio-hop? That could be very good or very bad…but I agree, that’s worth the price of the ticket!
Thanks so much for the update!
The ballet/hip hop thing is so overdone, I feel like they probably think no one wants to see ‘straight up ballet’ but if Ethan’s doing the hip hop, I can deal : )
Rawr. You beat me to it lol. I’m so super excited that this is happening. I once sat and watched Center Stage over and over for like 7 hours straight with some of my dancer friends. Yikes!
Selly
Aah! I’m hyperventilating
The hip-hop aspect seems disappointing, but if Ethan’s okay with it, then I guess I am too. But the idea of a sequel to that fantastic movie in itself is just so thrilling…
I’m kind of mad they added hip-hop to it. It’s over done(Save the last Dance, Save the Last Dance 2). But because I love Ethan, I’ll probably rent it
Yeah, seriously, what’s up with hip hop vs ballet? What about all the other countless fabulous dance genres out there. I want to see a salsa vs ballet movie. Or modern vs swing. Or ballroom vs bellydance, etc etc…
Still, you can bet I will be going to see this. I luuuurve dance movies, no matter how bad or cheezy 🙂
Oh yeah, I forgot about those movies! Yeah, the hip hop vs. ballet thing — while it makes sense since the styles are so completely different, it *is* really overdone. Lately, there have been a lot of ballet dancers going into ballroom, probably because it’s more lucrative (at least the teaching is) and, now with all the shows you have a better chance of being on TV doing that style, etc. Maybe they could do something with that?… I’ll definitely go see this movie, but I’m more excited about the movie based on Carlos Acosta’s life… although it seems that one is only in the planning stages so it’s going to be a long time coming…
OK so, there’s already been
Save The Last Dance
Save The Last Dance 2
Step Up
Step Up 2 will probably be out by the time Center Stage 2 is.
So this will be the… 5th time we’ve seen this plot line used?
I’m slightly less excited now.
Selly
Oh my gosh, is the Carlos Acosta movie a go? If so, I can’t wait to see it!!
when I saw the tile center stage 2 I confess I was really happy but then the plot really disappointed me. but anyway, good chance to see ethan dancing and etc.
let’s see when this is going to arrive here!
I think the Acosta movie is a go, Sophie — at least according to the BBC it is!
Rachele Smith is from Phoenix and danced at Royal Dance Works. They have a blurb about her on their website http://www.royaldanceworks.com
Thanks Sandy D!
Kenny Wormald is the lead male, and his character’s name is Tommy Anderson. He’s an extremely talented dancer, so you guys watch out for him! He’s doing big things! Kenny is the main reason I’m going to even watch this movie. I would be way less excited to see it if he wasn’t in it. I actually don’t know if I’d even watch it. You guys are gonna be blown away by the way he moves. The movie should be coming out approximately early summer. =)
Thanks for commenting, Victoria! And thanks for this info — I will definitely be looking out for him!
Yeah! I’m glad it’s coming out soon-ish. My ballet teacher and I were talking about how it’s probably going to suck, but we’ll both see it anyway just to see Ethan do hip hop.
Selly
No problem, I’m glad to spread the word about Kenny. I want as many people to know about him as possible. I’d feel selfish if I didn’t because he’s so good. And did I mention, HE’S INCREDIBLY GOOD LOOKING!!! =P You guys should watch Kenny’s Youtube videos; his username is ‘worm727’. Maybe those videos will serve as a little sneak peak into how good Kenny really is.