In a crop of dance movies that came out between 20 ( Center Stage, Step Up, etc.), Save the Last Dance is the most direct about race and racism, making explicit what a lot of the other movies leave implicit. The sequences in which Julia Stiles and her body double do ballet – and especially when they perform the climactic ballet-hip hop hybrid final number – are a reminder that while it can be hard to cast actors who can really dance (or dancers who can really act), it’s usually worth it.Īs for the racial politics of the movie – suburban white girl moves to Chicago to live with her father when her mother dies, goes to a majority Black high school where students have criminal records and kids, falls for the college-bound Black boy who teaches her hip hop, and is relieved of the comforting colorblind fantasy that there’s “only one world” – it’s not so much that they’ve aged badly. Unfortunately, for lovers of dance, Save the Last Dance’s dance sequences themselves leave a lot to be desired: the hip hop club scenes are given short shrift, as are the moments in which the lead characters go to the Joffrey Ballet to watch a professional performance. A dramatic final number performed in front of snooty gatekeepers? Of course. Bleeding toes mangled by hours spent dancing in pointe shoes? Obviously. It also has a lot of what you’d expect to find in a dance movie, especially one about a ballet dancer. A 23-year-old Kerry Washington in one of her first adult roles, radiating the kind of charisma and power that will one day convince Pope Associates to kill and die for her? Damn right. References to James Baldwin in the first twelve minutes? You got it. A soundtrack that includes Jill Scott and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes? Yes. Save the Last Dance, which turns 20 this year, has some things you probably want in a movie. (Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection) 30 Essential Dance MoviesĪs seminal dance film Save the Last Dance turns 20, we look at the best dance films ever made… and why the Julia Stiles favorite is just a bit too off-beat to make the cut.
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