“Center Stage follows a group of young ballet students through their first year of advanced training at the fictional American Ballet Center in New York.
The movie doesn't force it, but it has the pleasures of a musical. It ends with two big ballet numbers, wonderfully staged and danced, and along the way there are rehearsals and scenes in a Broadway popular dance studio that have a joy and freedom. Film is a wonderful way to look at dance, because it gets you closer and varies the point of view, but since the death of the Hollywood musical there hasn't been enough of it. Center Stage has moments of joy and moments of insight, and is about both human nature and the inhuman demands of ballet.”