How many teen movies feature major dance stars in lead roles (Stiefel and Radetsky), the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet as extras, excerpts from actual classical ballet repertoire (Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes), and a Tony Award–winning theater director (Nicholas Hytner) at the helm? Center Stage hews closely to the classic teen romance trope-boy meets girl, boy gets girl, girl realizes boy is kind of a jerk and dumps him for the nice guy who’s been hiding in plain sight all along-but it’s also so much more than that. It’s the 20th anniversary of Center Stage, the cult-classic dance flick about aspiring ballerina Jody Sawyer (Amanda Schull) who is caught in a love triangle between bad boy dance star Cooper Nielson (Ethan Stiefel) and nice guy dance student Charlie Sims (Sascha Radetsky).
Clockwise from top left: ABT’s Katie Boren, Connor Holloway, Zimmi Coker, and Javier Rivet Film still of Amanda Schull Cast promotional photo of Zoë Saldana, Schull, Ilia Kulik, Shakiem Evans, Ethan Stiefel, and Sascha Radetsky ABT’s Courtney Shealy Schull and Stiefel on the set of Center Stage Schull and Radetsky on set.
