If you enjoyed the first two “Centerstage” films, the story of dancing dreams coming alive continues as actress Nicole Munoz reprises her role as Bella Parker. Featuring wonderful dance choreography, a believable storyline with cast members from the first two films making an appearance for the third film. Delightful and entertaining, “Centerstage: On Pointe” is recommended!
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DVD TITLE: Centerstage: On Pointe
SERIES DATE: 2015
DURATION: 92 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: PG (Some Language)
RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2016
Directed by Director X.
Written by Nisha Ganatra
Executive Producer: Laurence Mark, Nisha Ganatra
Producer: Vicki Sotheran, Grag Malcolm
Music by Patric Caird
Cinematography by Pieter Stathis
Edited by Charles Robichaud
Production Design by Chris August
Starring:
Nicole Munoz as Bella Parker
Barton Cowperthwaite as Damon
Kenny Wormald as Tommy
Rachel Brooke Smith as Kate
Chloe Kukasiak as Gwen Murphy
Maude Green as Allegra
Kyal Legend as Candie
Kyle Toy as Ivan
Thomas L. Colford as Richard
Kane Nelson as Sam
Sascha Radetsky as Charlie
Ethan Stiefel as Cooper
Peter Gallagher as Jonathan Reeves
Jonathan Reeves (Peter Gallagher) is tasked with infusing more contemporary styles and modernism into the American Ballet Academy, and enlists his top choreographers Charlie (Sascha Radetsky), Cooper (Ethan Stiefel) and Tommy (Kenny Wormald) to recruit dancers to compete at a camp where the winners will be selected to join the Academy. Bella Parker (Nicole Muñoz), who has always lived in the shadow of her hugely successful sister Kate, finally gets her chance to step into the limelight as one of the dancers recruited for the camp.
Back in 2000, the American teen drama/dance film “Center Stage” debuted in theaters.
The film focused on a group of dancers enrolling at the American Ballet Academy in New York City coping with the stress of professional dance.
The first film introduced us to the company’s choreographer and director Jonathan (portrayed by Peter Gallagher, “American Beauty”, “The O.C.”, “While You Were Sleeping”) and the first film’s protagonist Cooper (portrayed by Ethan Stiefel, “Le corsaire”), the company’s best dancer who wanted to choreograph.   And the tensions between both men and the other dancers wanting to make it in the ballet academy.
The sequel titled “Center Stage: Turn It Up” (2008) focuses on Detroit-based dancer Kate Parker (portrayed by Rachele Brooke Smith, “Iron Man 2”, “17 Again”) who leaves home to audition at the American Ballet Academy in New York. But was passed up by the ABA due to an argument between Jonathan and Cooper, and is now dejected that her dream did not come true. But through the support of her sister Bella (portrayed by Nicole Munoz, “Defiance”, “Once Upon a Time”) and dancer Tommy Anderson (portrayed by Kenny Wormald, “Footloose”, “Kid Cannabis”, “Love & Mercy”), she decides to pursue her dancing dream by trying out for her dream on Broadway.
And here we are with the third film titled “Centerstage: On Pointe” directed by Director X (known for directing music videos for Iggy Azalea, Wiz Khalifa, Drake, Ciara, ZAYN, Fifth Harmony and more) and premiered on the Lifetime channel.
and this time around, the American Ballet Academy is in bad shape. Attendance is not getting any better and investors are threatening to pull out unless Jonathan Reeves and his crew can find ways to bringing in more audience members. And that is by infusing more contemporary styles and modernism to the Academy.
Jonathan and his crew know it is the only way to get funding and they need to bring in modern dance but they only have six weeks to make it happen and have only one chance or lose all their funding.
So, auditions to recruit dancers to compete at a camp where the winners will be selected to join the American Ballet Academy begins.
Tommy (from “Centerstage: Turn It Up”), who is now teaching at the Academy and when he texts Kate about ABA’s dilemma and she recommends recruiting her younger sister, Bella.
Because Kate Parker has become a well-known ballet dancer, Bella doesn’t want to be in her sister’s shadow. And unlike Kate, she prefers modern dance. So, she decides to audition with the name Bella Miller.
But immediately when she auditions, she is frowned upon by the ballet dance instructor but with the three other judges, they decide to give Bella a chance to become one of the 12 dancers. Jonathan remembers Bella as being Kate’s sister and tells her that he doesn’t want to make the same mistake that he did with Kate.
But things are not all smooth at ABA because some of the ballet dancers frown upon modern dancers and thus, tension exists between the dancers.
Also, with Bella being scrutinized for not being a ballet dancer, she receives a lot of heat from ballet teacher, Lorenza (portrayed by Sarah-Jane Redmond), who is not a fan of modern dancing.
Meanwhile, Gwen Murphy (portrayed by Chloe Lukasiak) is a young teenager who made the audition but wants to be selected in the final cast. Allegra (portrayed by Maude Green) who is a ballet dancer who knows she must make the final as this is her last chance. And Bella’s partner, Damon (portrayed by Barton Cowperthwaite) must resist the urge of falling for his partner and making sure the two do their best in the final competition.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Centerstage: On Pointe” is presented in 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. Picture quality is as good as it can get on DVD. Lighting is well-done, many shots are well-lit and for the most part, picture quality is good.
As for audio, the series is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 and dialogue is crystal clear, as with the music presented throughout the film. Crowd and outdoor ambiance are utilized for the surround channels.
The film is presented with English, English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Centerstage: On Pointe” comes with the following special feature:
- Dance Tutorial with Chloe – (10:36) Chloe Lukasiak who plays the role of Gwen and choreographer Monica Proenca teaches viewers on how to do Gwen’s audition dance.
While the last two “Centerstage” films have been films shown on cable channels such as Oxygen and most recently, Lifetime, one should not think that this films are anything less from the original film.
If anything, unlike other dance films, what “Centerstage” has managed to do well is stay with a consistency by making sure characters from the original film appeared in the sequel and characters from both films appear in the third film, “Centerstage: On Pointe”.
And this typically doesn’t happen, considering that 16 years have passed since the first film and eight years since “Center Stage: Turn It Up”.
And for those who watched “Center Stage: Turn It Up”, many will be happy to see little Bella Parker (played by actress Nicole Munoz), younger sister of Kate, is now the protagonist of the third film, “Centerstage: On Pointe”. And yes, Jonathan, Cooper, Kate and Tommy appear in the third film as well!
Lately, we have seen films infusing ballet with modern dance and found the storyline of the American Ballet Academy feeling the financial pinch and needing to spruce things up as believable. And I can see purists slightly bothered by seeing a ballet company having to change, but many companies are forced to embrace modern times and in the case of the ABA, ballet and contemporary dance must find a happy medium to entice audiences to come out and watch the shows.
So, I found the storyline plausible. I also find the division between the ballet dancers and the modern dancers (including teachers) to be believable, as not everyone is welcome to embracing change.
As mentioned in other reviews of dance films, I’m not super critical on the acting of dance films, because I would rather see people who can dance and make the film become a believable dance film versus an actor hired for acting and can’t dance at all. If you can find talents who can do both, then that’s great. But such is not always the case.
But I did enjoy this film because of the consistency of using characters from past films and for the creators of the film for bringing back actress Nicole Munoz, who was a young girl on “Center Stage: Turn It Up” and seeing her today as a beautiful young woman, who can act and can dance!
For “Centerstage: On Pointe”, for the most part, acting is good but certain scenes felt a bit too scripted, forced and some scenes, I felt they were not needed at all. And while not better than the first two, the third film still holds up very well and I was entertained.
But I do feel that Director X’s musical knowledge and knowledge of the dancing scene helped in making “Centerstage: On Pointe” cool and entertaining!
As for the DVD, picture quality looks as good as it can get on DVD and audio features crystal clear dialogue and music. There is a single featurette with actress Chloe Lukasiak teaching the viewers on how to dance her audition routine.
Overall, if you enjoyed the first two “Centerstage” films, the story of dancing dreams coming alive continues as actress Nicole Munoz reprises her role as Bella Parker. Featuring wonderful dance choreography, a believable storyline with cast members from the first two films making an appearance for the third film.
Delightful and entertaining, “Centerstage: On Pointe” is recommended!
