Alright, everyone, we made it to Friday, so welcome to Vulture's Friday Night Movie Club. This is @ChloeAngyal, and in just a few minutes we are going to watch - ok, let's be real, REwatch - the greatest movie of all time. #vulturemovieclub
vulture.com/2020/05/watch-…
vulture.com/2020/05/watch-…
Ready? Hitting play in 5, 6, 7, AND...
Welcome to Center Stage, original title City Ballet, then called The Dance Movie.
According to Sascha Radetsky, who played Charlie, “we had sweatshirts and paraphernalia, swag” with “The Dance Movie” on it. #vulturemovieclub
According to Sascha Radetsky, who played Charlie, “we had sweatshirts and paraphernalia, swag” with “The Dance Movie” on it. #vulturemovieclub
Amanda Schull fell on her butt during her dance audition. “Susan Stroman had me do pirouettes, and I did a triple to the right and I said, ‘Do you want to see me do triple to the left?’ Because I could at that time, I was ambidextrous…”
“...And I did three pirouettes, my leg went out from underneath me and I promptly fell on my butt.”
Apparently it would NOT be better if we all did a triple.
Apparently it would NOT be better if we all did a triple.
I just want to note, by the way, that just *really enjoying petit allegro* is not enough to make you a good ballet dancer.
Believe me, I have tried.
Believe me, I have tried.
Indiana does, indeed, have a great dance program! Right, @FadeleyLauren? #vulturemovieclub
One of the best things about this movie is seeing the ballet extras who at the time were in the corps at City Ballet and ABT and would go on to be the stars of those companies. Janie Taylor! Craig Hall! Rebecca Krohn!
Also: Stella Abrera and Gillian Murphy, then in the corps of ABT, now principal dancers (and married, respectively, to Sascha Radetsky and Ethan Stiefel).
Here’s Charlie, from Seattle, who in the original script was Carlos. The studio re-wrote him as an “American boy next door,” which is a very Hollywood way of saying they wanted the winning love interest to be a white guy.
THE EYEBROWS HAVE ARRIVED
Donna Murphy was very nervous about playing a ballet teacher and former ballet star, until she realized that most ballet teachers demonstrate steps using “hand-ography.”
It’s true: If you’ve ever seen a girl with a bun standing on the subway platform flapping her hands around while looking off into the middle distance… it’s because she’s running choreography.
Costume designer Ruth Myers had to find a way to convey Eva’s rebellious character - with just a leotard and a ballet skirt.
“Zoe is such a consummate actress and such a beautiful girl, that you could do maybe less with her... A small gesture from her would mean a lot.”
“Zoe is such a consummate actress and such a beautiful girl, that you could do maybe less with her... A small gesture from her would mean a lot.”
This is one of the few times we actually see Maureen dancing. A review from Susan May Pratt’s 13-year-old daughter:
"It was weird that they call you the best dancer but they didn't even show you dancing.”
"It was weird that they call you the best dancer but they didn't even show you dancing.”
Jody was very clearly not chaine-ing on pointe there for some reason!
The female gaze 
WHAT is this outfit? It doesn’t matter, Julie Kent can pull it off.
“Cooper throws this huge fit in rehearsal in front of the whole company and calls her a slut and stuff, it was un-believable.”
Uh, it was sexual harassment, and someone should probably look into that!
Uh, it was sexual harassment, and someone should probably look into that!
Lots of parts of this movie have not aged well, like these two white women talking self-satisfied shit about the “amazingly” talented Black girl who isn’t appropriately deferential. Also, salad bars. We’re never doing that again.
Credit where it’s due: they kept the sound of the pointe shoes in. Pointe shoes are LOUD!
According to the costume designer, Kent loved this Juliet costume so much she kept it and wore it for guest appearances.
“She loved it because it was entirely light and floaty, whereas the original one [that she would have worn with ABT] was built to last and this one wasn’t.”
“She loved it because it was entirely light and floaty, whereas the original one [that she would have worn with ABT] was built to last and this one wasn’t.”
This is 100% the most accurate scene in the movie. Give a dancer an empty stage and they WILL attempt a trick of some kind. See also: a beach, a mountaintop, basically anywhere photogenic.
Presenting the most late-90s thing you will ever see.
In case you’re wondering whether this vague “visit the nutritionist” stuff still happens 20 years later, it does! Plenty of dancers are still told to “get in shape” or “lengthen their lines” and they know *exactly* what that means...
...In fact, Amanda Schull said she got this very talk when she went back to her ballet company after shooting and gaining some weight during production. #vulturemovieclub
Did you know that it is technically illegal to make a ballet movie *without* a close up of bleeding feet? It’s in the Constitution.
Gallagher on the Margot Fonteyn scene:
“I remember saying ‘ok, this is a job I would never want to do. I would never be able to be a judge on The Voice or anything judging other performers because I just want them all to succeed and I never want anybody to hurt…”
“I remember saying ‘ok, this is a job I would never want to do. I would never be able to be a judge on The Voice or anything judging other performers because I just want them all to succeed and I never want anybody to hurt…”
“…I don’t know, it wouldn’t be a job for me, I wouldn’t have the heart or the balls.”
Jody’s turnout is fine. Her feet are not great, sure. Her turnout, however, is just fine.
This was Saldana’s first feature. “The DP was a very nice man, he would always tell me, ‘hey, if you’re hiding behind that wall, I can’t see you. If you feel the light on your face then, guess what, you’re in the shot!’ I was like, ‘oh ok!’”
"We're not encouraged to date company members." Uh, has someone told the company members? Because Cooper does not appear to have gotten the message.
Choreographer Susan Stroman on the salsa club: “A lot of that didn't end up in the movie but I had some real salsa dancers and then I had what I choreographed for the ballet dancers. That was really fun to shoot.”
I really regret that I did not track down the actor who tells this very bizarre mouse-raping-an-elephant joke and interview him for the oral history. I have failed you as a journalist and I’m very sorry.
Charlie is a heartbeat away from tattooing her name on his ass.
The fact that Susan Stroman got Olympic gold medallist Ilia Kulik to do this weird thrusty hip thing will never not be hilarious to me.
Peter Gallagher invented Boy Brow.
PRISCILLA LOPEZ, the original Morales from A Chorus Line, a goddess.
Susan Stroman choreographed this jazz class scene. “I was able to use musical theater people… [the director] wanted it to be something that would look like Ethan and Amanda would love to dance quite freely, without worrying about their technique or their turnout or anything.”
Wow those grey sweatpants on Cooper are NOT subtle.
My poor tired hip flexors are weeping at this warmup.
Stroman: “The jazz class I was great fun, because we did it over and over and over again. And I'll never forget one of my dancers Sean Martin Hingston said, 'Stroman, this combination is... taxing.'
I thought he was going to say 'fabulous.'”
I thought he was going to say 'fabulous.'”
IT IS CHEATING TO PUT THE SWITCH LEAP IN SLO MO COME ON
Hoo boy, this storyline in which the powerful hot shot company star sleeps with and mistreats a ballet student in the feeder company has NOT aged well.
Hands up if you were the Anna of your dance school
She got the lead in Italian Symphony! It's Gelsey Kirkland's old part! And nothing bad ever happened to her ever!
Julie Kent's bitch face deserved an Oscar for this performance. Julie Kent's bitch face was robbed.
I really hope that the series they announced this week gives us more Eric and Eva, and more of them together.
I swear to god, Ilia, if you don't point your toes...
Murphy on Saldana: "I just remember coming out of that saying, 'that girl's gonna be a star.'.. she's very intuitive, but she knows what she's doing, she has craft. She's gorgeous. She's mindful. And she was very young, but she had a grace about her and also a grit."
The boat was Sascha Radetsky's first day on set, and he was late to work. And Amanda Schull threw up the whole time.
"They've practically printed your name in programs already." Yeah, babe, he's a straight white man in ballet.
Sitting in this rehearsal as extras: Rebecca Krohn and Jared Angle, teeny babies here but future NYCB principal dancers.
Sorry, closing scene of Casablanca, this is the greatest moment in western cinema.
This is Stars and Stripes, choreographed by George Balanchine to the music of John Philip Sousa during the Kennedy administration. It's a strange one, but the sweat is for real: it is hard.
As someone pointed out to me this week, no self-respecting stage crew member is letting Jody Sawyer hang out in the wings during Stars and Stripes.
Schull said the hardest thing about shooting this was the long breaks between set ups. "I am lucky that I didn't injure myself. And that I had that young body that was just more capable of doing things. I mean, a few years down the road I just would have been hobbling mess."
Sascha agrees: "I did 'Flesh and Bone' the year that I retired from ABT, when I was 37, and it was a totally different ballgame at that point in my physical decay than when we filmed Center Stage. I mean, I was 22. You’re just kind of ready to roll with anything."
PSA: "Fat" and "beautiful" are not mutually exclusive!
ARE. YOU. READY. For the best goddamn burn at the American Ballet Academy?
Who the hell are you?
Do not ever let go of your center, that's not a thing, and definitely not in a renversé!
Poor Andre, why didn't they let him dance?
Jim, or as someone once described him to me, Knock Off Paul Rudd, is very good in this movie!
Workshop time!
SURPRISE!
Saldana's dance double is Aesha Ash, who you've seen throughout the movie. She was in the corps at NYCB at the time.
Susan May Pratt: “I do like the message for Maureen about how she stopped to take care of herself and to discover who she is, I think that's a good message. To get healthy.”
"Jonathan's" ballet was choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, who had recently retired from NYCB to choreograph full time. And I spent a lot of teenaged time trying to teach myself this choreography.
Brace yourself for what's next.
Amanda Schull, on the iconic tear-off tutu: "Resets for that just took a small army to snap me back together. I remember having five people under my skirt trying to put me back together like Humpty Dumpty."
If you're wondering if her stage panties have sequins on them, the answer is OF COURSE they do.
Radetsky said this pas de trois was his favorite part to shoot, because it had the most technical stuff.
The reason Charlie's "winning" tour-pirouette combination is easier than what Cooper did in rehearsal? They filmed the performance first. And then, in the rehearsal scene, Stiefel kept upping the ante.
Jumps: 10. Continuity: 3.
Jumps: 10. Continuity: 3.
Here we go!
Scull still has these shoes:
Do we understand the physics behind how she changed her hair and shoes AND TIGHTS so fast?
They shot this at about 3am.
Schull auditioned with this scene.
Jonathan DIDN’T make her the best dancer she could be! JULIETTE did that! Jonathan barely even taught class!
I asked Stiefel and Radetsky to dream cast their parts in a remake. Stiefel said ABT corps member Aran Bell for the new Cooper, and Radetsky said ABT soloist Calvin Royal III for the new Charlie.
And that is a wrap on tonight's Friday Night Movie Club, folks. This is @ChloeAngyal signing off - thanks for joining me! If you haven't read the oral history of this straight up masterpiece, you can do that now. vulture.com/2020/05/an-ora…
And remember: just dance the shit out of it!
