Dance Movies

Wishing Stairs is a 2003 South Korean horror film. It is the third in a series of South Korean horror films set in girls high schools that began with 1998’s Whispering Corridors, but, as with all movies in the series so far, is unrelated to the others.

Plot summary

The legend goes that if you climb the twenty eight steps leading up to the school dormitory, counting each step aloud, and find a twenty ninth, a spirit will appear and grant you a wish.

The movie takes place in a girl’s art school and focuses on two friends studying ballet, however their friendship soon turns sour when they find themselves competing for a single spot in a Russian ballet school. Yun Jin-seong played by Sung Ji Hyo, remembering the old legend of the “Wishing Stairs” wishes for a place in the prestigious arts school, and in a shocking turn of events, she gets it, at the cost of her best friend, Kim So-hee’s life. However, it’s only when the extremely odd character of Eom Hye-ju wishes the dead girl back, that an unspeakable evil is released.

The film itself seems to mirror the ballet “Giselle”, which girls in the film are studying, as well as drawing upon the classic short story “The Monkey’s Paw”. So-hie as Giselle, and Jin-sung as Albrecht. Unhappy with always having to play the “prince” to So-hee’s princess, Jin-sung betrays So-hee, which in turn leads to So-hee being crippled and commits suicide after her friend Jin-sung confesses she has hated her all along. When So-hee’s spirit is wished back, Jin-sung is haunted by So-hee’s ghost, the love she once felt for her friend warped by Jin-sung’s hurtful actions.

As in the prior two movies, this film has strong indications of friendship, betrayal, and the taboo of lesbian affairs in an all-girls school.

Trivia

• This movie is parodied in japanese anime School Rumble in episode 4 of the 2nd season where two girls put a Push pin in Mikoto Suo’s ballet shoes due to their wish to outshine Suo’s better dancing.

The Company is a film about the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. It was released on December 26, 2003 in the United States and around the world in the first half of 2004. The movie was directed by Robert Altman and stars Neve Campbell, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film. The movie also stars Malcolm McDowell as the ballet company’s artistic director, a character based on Gerald Arpino.

Plot

The Company is composed of stories gathered from the actual dancers, choreographers, and office staff of the Joffrey Ballet. Most of the roles are played by real-life company members. While there are small subplots involving a love story between Campbell’s character and a character played by James Franco, most of the movie focuses on the company as a whole, without any real star or linear plot. The many real-life stories woven together show the dedication and hard work that dancers must put in to their art, even though they are seldom rewarded with fame, fortune, or even a statue, painting, or album on which to look back.

Trivia

It has been reported that The Company was an idea of Campbell’s for a long time – she began her career as a ballet dancer, having been a student at Canada’s National Ballet School. Altman was reportedly reluctant to take on the directing of the movie initially, but later relented. After filming was concluded, Campbell herself was offered a position to dance in the company. She turned it down, stating that at her age, a dancing career would be extremely short and considering all the bodily damage she has accumulated from dance so far, she wanted to continue her pursuit into acting.

Reception

Elvis Mitchell called the film “enjoyably lithe and droll” and attributed a “great deal of the film’s appeal” to McDowell’s performance, while noting the film “doesn’t stick with you as a whole.” Eighty-three of the 120 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes rated the film as “fresh.” Roger Ebert gave the film a 3 and-a-half stars out of four, and Slant Magazine called the movie the best movie of 2003. Box Office Mojo reported a worldwide box office of $6.4 million, less than half of its estimated $15 million budget.

Save the Last Dance is a 2001 drama film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Sony Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main character, played by Stiles, train for a dance audition. A direct-to-video sequel, Save the Last Dance 2, was released in 2006.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack, filled with music underscoring the dance scenes from the film, also became a success. It features a lineup of R&B and hip hop performers such as Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Pink and Notorious B.I.G., Jesse Powell, K-Ci & Jo-Jo, Donnell Jones, X-2-C, Athena Cage, Chaka Demus and Soulbone. Fredro Starr, of the hip hop group Onyx, who also appears in the film in a supporting role, performs the main theme on the soundtrack.

Earnings and awards

The film was, according to Clint Eastwood, “a surprise success” in theaters especially with the teenage female audience^{[citation needed]}, and is regarded as having two of the best breakthrough performances for its leading actors, Stiles, and especially Thomas.^{[citation needed]} It was a financial success as well, with box-office earnings of $91,038,276 in the US alone and toppling the $100 million mark worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Save the Last Dance was also successful at a number of movie awards, most notably:

• The 2001 MTV Movie Awards, winning in the category “Best Kiss” for Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas, who also won “Breakthrough Male Performance”; and being nominated for “Best Female Performance” for Julia Stiles and “Best Dance Sequence” for a scene in the hip hop club

• The 2001 Teen Choice Awards, winning in the categories “Film – Choice Actress” for Julia Stiles, “Film – Choice Breakout Performance” for Kerry Washington and “Film – Choice Fight Scene” for Julia Stiles and Bianca Lawson; and being nominated as best “Film – Choice Drama”

• The 2001 Young Hollywood Awards, winning in the category “Standout Performance – Male” for Sean Patrick Thomas

• It was also nominated for the 2002 Black Reel Awards in the category “Theatrical – Best Supporting Actress” for Kerry Washington and the 2002 Golden Reel Awards in the category “Best Sound Editing – Music, Musical Feature Film” for the music editor Michael T. Ryan.

Despite these awards, the movie was not well received by critics. Rotten Tomatoes’ rating assesses the film as “Rotten,” with 47 of 92 reviewers panning the film, and summarizes the critical consensus as “This teen romance flick feels like a predictable rehashing of other movies.” Even the reviews marked “fresh” are hardly enthusiastic, with remarks such as, “Look elsewhere for reality or good drama. Look here, however, if you’re in the mood for a good heaping of fantasy and some fun”; “a decent, well-put-together romantic drama to hold hands to on the weekend”; and “A sometimes predictable, but mostly enjoyable tale.” Salon’s reviewer called the film “a bad, friendly, enjoyable movie,” observing that “for all its dumb clichés it offers the basic appeal of teen movies: the pleasure of watching kids be kids, acting as they do among themselves instead of how parents and teachers expect them to act.”

Cast

• Julia Stiles as Sara Johnson
• Sean Patrick Thomas as Derek Reynolds
• Kerry Washington as Chenille Reynolds
• Fredro Starr as Malakai
• Terry Kinney as Roy Johnson
• Bianca Lawson as Nikki
• Vince Green as Snookie

Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner in 2000, is about a group of young dancers from various backgrounds who enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York City. The film explores the issues and difficulties in the world of professional dance, and how each individiual copes with the stressors.

Plot

After a series of country-wide auditions, 12 young dancers gain entry to the American Ballet Academy (which is loosely based on the School of American Ballet). They work hard, attending classes every day for weeks to make them the best dancers they can possibly be, and in preparations for a final dance workshop which will determine those (three boys and three girls) who will be asked to join the American Ballet Company (which appears to be based on either the American Ballet Theatre or the New York City Ballet). The workshop will also provide an opportunity for the students to showcase their talent to other ballet companies across the country. Gaining a leading part in the workshop, is therefore essential.

Details and cameos

• Of the main characters who are dancers, four are professional ballet dancers (Amanda Schull, Ethan Stiefel, Sascha Radetsky and Julie Kent), one is a professional figure skater (Ilia Kulik), one had ballet training (Zoë Saldaña), and two were actors with no ballet training (Susan May Pratt and Shakiem Evans). Body doubles were used for many of the major dance sequences.
• After being accepted into the ABA, Jody’s mom says to her, “Indiana has a great dance program.” Schull, who plays Jody, attended Indiana University for two years in real life.
• Sergei (Kulik) is picked to join the San Francisco Ballet Company after performing in the workshop. Schull, who plays Jody, was a member of the SFB’s corps de ballet for several seasons.
• As Cooper, Stiefel makes a stage appearance astride a Harley. In real life, he is an avid motorbike rider and owns a Harley-Davidson Wide Glide.
• There is a subplot in which Cooper attracts the financial support of a flirtatious wealthy female philanthropic (played by Elizabeth Hubbard). A 15 August 2004 New York Times article entitled “How Much Is That Dancer in the Program?” revealed that Stiefel has a very similar real-life sponsorship relationship with a philanthropist named Anka Palitz.
• After the performance of Stars and Stripes, Cooper (Stiefel) shuns Jody and walks out of the theatre with another woman. This woman is played by Gillian Murphy, Stiefel’s actual girlfriend and a Prima-ballerina of American Ballet Theatre.

Cast

• Amanda Schull – Jody Sawyer
• Zoë Saldaña – Eva Rodríguez
• Susan May Pratt – Maureen Cummings
• Peter Gallagher – Jonathan Reeves
• Donna Murphy – Juliette Simone
• Debra Monk – Nancy Cummings
• Ethan Stiefel – Cooper Nielson
• Sascha Radetsky – Charlie Sims
• Julie Kent – Kathleen Donahue
• Ilia Kulik – Sergei
• Eion Bailey – Jim Gordon

Billy Elliot is a 2000 film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in the fictional town of ‘Everington’ in the real County Durham, UK, it stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, an aspiring dancer, Gary Lewis as his coal miner father, Jamie Draven as Billy’s older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher. In 2001, author Melvin Burgess was commissioned to write the novelisation of the film based on Lee Hall’s screenplay. The story was adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005; it opened on Broadway in 2008.

Soundtrack

1. “Cosmic Dancer” – T. Rex
2. “Get It On (Bang a Gong)” – T. Rex
3. “Town Called Malice” – The Jam
4. “I Love to Boogie” – T. Rex
5. “London Calling” – The Clash
6. “Children of the Revolution” – T. Rex
7. “Shout to the Top” – The Style Council
8. “Walls Come Tumbling Down” – The Style Council
9. “Ride a White Swan” – T. Rex
10. “Burning Up” – Eagle Eye Cherry

Cast

• Jamie Bell as Billy Elliot
• Julie Walters as Mrs. Wilkinson
• Gary Lewis as Jackie Elliot
• Jamie Draven as Tony Elliot
• Jean Heywood as Grandma Elliot
• Janine Birkett as Mrs. Elliot
• Stuart Wells as Michael Caffrey
• Mike Elliott as George Watson
• Billy Fane as Mr. Braithwaite
• Nicola Blackwell as Debbie Wilkinson
• Colin MacLachlan as Mr. Tom Wilkinson
• Adam Cooper as Billy Elliot, age 25
• Merryn Owen as Michael Caffrey, age 25

White Nights is a 1985 film starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, Jerzy Skolimowski, Helen Mirren and Isabella Rossellini. Directed by Taylor Hackford, it was shot in Finland.

The film is notable both for the dancing of Hines and Baryshnikov and for the Academy Award winning song “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie, as well as “Separate Lives” performed by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin and written by Stephen Bishop.

Taylor Hackford met his future wife, Oscar Award-winning actress Helen Mirren, during the filming of White Nights. As a young woman, Mirren had vowed never to marry, but after 12 years together she and Hackford tied the knot on December 31, 1997 at Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness, Scotland.

Plot

Hines plays an American tap dancer, Raymond Greenwood, who has defected to the Soviet Union. He encounters and befriends Nikolai ‘Kolya’ Rodchenko, a Soviet ballet dancer played by Baryshnikov, who had previously defected in the other direction. Isabella Rossellini plays Darya, Greenwood’s wife, and Helen Mirren plays Galina Ivanova, a former ballerina who never left the Soviet Union and is an old flame of Rodchenko.

Greenwood and Rodchenko perform a cinematic pas de deux after a plane carrying the latter makes a forced landing in Siberia and he is recognized. Both dancers are brought to Leningrad where the Soviets seek to exploit Rodchenko’s talent. After an initial period of racial and artistic friction, the two dancers (and defectors in opposite directions) become strong friends and Greenwood helps arrange an escape. Rodchenko’s second defection, at the end of the film, presages the later fall of the Soviet Union in similar vein to Rocky IV.

The Turning Point (1977) was written by Arthur Laurents and directed by Herbert Ross. In starring roles were Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne, Tom Skerritt, Martha Scott, Anthony Zerbe, Marshall Thompson and James Mitchell.

Synopsis

DeeDee (Shirley MacLaine), left ballet after becoming pregnant with the child of another ballet dancer, Wayne (Tom Skerritt). The two settled down to raise a family and co-run a ballet studio in a Midwestern one-horse town. Emma (Anne Bancroft), an old friend of DeeDee’s, stayed in the company and became a prima ballerina. When the company finally comes back to town, the two reunite. The reunion stirs back old memories and present ever-growing wounds.

DeeDee’s daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne) is invited to join the company at Emma’s request. Emilia starts an affair with a big-name Russian ballet defector (Mikhail Baryshnikov). Emma’s brother Ethan is offered two ballet scholarships, but is unsure to pursue a career between ballet and baseball. And an old male friend of DeeDee’s is getting to know her all over again. Meanwhile, it looks as if Emma’s day in the sun is coming to an end.

Awards

It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Anne Bancroft), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shirley MacLaine), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Leslie Browne), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Despite these 11 nominations, the film won no Oscars. Thus, along with The Color Purple, it shares the dubious distinction of receiving the most Oscar nominations without any awards.

Trivia

• The title is a pun, referring to that moment in life where everything turns and changes and you must take a new path in life when you come to the cross-roads and the piroutte step in ballet.

• Shirley MacLaine and Leslie Browne were the only stars in the movie who had ballet training. Anne Bancroft, who plays a renown principal ballerina in the film, used a stunt double and did ballerina poses for her role.

• Contains Phillip Saunders’ only acting credit.

• The film’s ballet company is based on the American Ballet Theatre (which supplied the corps de ballet). Many of the principals and production team were affiliated with ABT in some form: Baryshnikov and Browne were both members of the company at the time of filming; director Ross choreographed for the company in the 1950s; executive producer (and Ross’ wife) Nora Kaye was one of its most famous principal dancers; and Mitchell was a frequent guest soloist (and one of Kaye’s dancing partners) during the 1950s.

• Michael, the choreographer/artistic director, is partly based on Jerome Robbins. James Mitchell was the principal male dancer in Robbins’ musical “Billion Dollar Baby” (1945) and participated in his American Theatre Laboratory in the late 1960s; later, while performing with American Ballet Theatre, he partnered executive producer Nora Kaye in Robbins’ ballet “Facsimile.”

• The rivalry between the main characters, Deedee and Emma, is loosely based on the relationship between Kaye and Browne’s mother, Isabel Brown, while the artistic director, Michael, is an amalgam of Jerome Robbins and Oliver Smith (Lawrence 430).

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) is a British film adaptation of Jacques Offenbach’s opera Les contes d’Hoffmann, written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company, The Archers. The film stars Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Léonide Massine, and features Robert Rounseville, Pamela Brown, Ludmilla Tchérina and Anne Ayars.

The production team included cinematographer Christopher Challis, Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hein Heckroth, who was nominated for two 1952 Academy Awards for his work on the film, as production and costume designer. The Tales of Hoffmann is widely regarded by many fans of Powell and Pressburger as their last great film together. It is not just a film of a staged opera, but a true cinematic opera that makes use of film techniques not available to an opera presented on stage.

Plot

In a tavern in Nuremberg, the young Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville) tells three stories of past loves (played by Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tchérina, and Anne Ayars). He recounts the stories during the interval of a ballet, which stars his new love Stella (also played by Shearer). Léonide Massine and Robert Helpmann have roles in each story.

Production

The Tales of Hoffmann was not a well liked film both before and after its production. Alexander Korda, who was often sympathetic to the duo’s earlier movies, was skeptical about this film and went as far as to slash nine minutes of the original cut (which were subsequently restored). The cut scenes included portions of the Dragonfly ballet performed by Stella in the prologue under Lindorf’s lustful gazes.

In the later years of their partnership, Powell began toying with what he had called, “a composed film”, a marriage of image to operatic sounds. The finale of Black Narcissus and the celebrated ‘ballet’ sequence of The Red Shoes were his earlier forays to achieve this goal.

The Tales of Hoffmann is an achievement of this ideal, as the entire opera was pre-recorded to create the soundtrack and the movie was edited to the rhythms of the music. The production was akin to that of a silent film, since it is completely without dialogue and, with the exception of Robert Rounseville and Anne Ayars, none of the actors did their own singing. Some of the singer had established careers in Britain at the time. Grahame Clifford, for example, had been a leading comedian with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company for several years, and Monica Sinclair, was fast becoming an audience favorite at Covent Garden; she would later become one of the company’s most popular artists of the next two decades.

The acting (especially by Helpmann) is highly stylized and similar to that of the silent film era. Because of the unusual production, George A. Romero, who is one of the film’s greatest champions, has likened it to a music video and he even compares Helpmann’s characters, in both performance and characterization, as similar to Dracula.

The film is also highly regarded for its production design and cinematography. Each tale is marked by its own individual primary colour denoting each of its repective themes. “The Tale of Olympia”, set in Paris, has yellow contours highlighting the farcical nature and tone of the first act. “The Tale of Giuletta” is a hellish depiction of Venice, where dark colours, especially red, are used. The final tale, set in Greece, uses different shades of blue, alluding to its sad nature. The set design is deliberately made to look artificial with the sets similarly stylized. The opening scene of the ‘Tale of Giuletta’ (where Giuletta performs the “Barcarolle”, the most famous theme of the opera) is staged on a gondola which moves through deliberately artificial Venetian canals, although it does not seem to actually move on the water.

The Tales of Hoffman was in production from 1 July through 16 July 1950^[1] at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey in the U.K.

Cast

• Moira Shearer as Stella / Olympia’
• Ludmilla Tchérina as Giulietta
• Anne Ayars as Antonia
• Pamela Brown as Nicklaus
• Léonide Massine as Spalanzani / Schlemil / Franz
• Robert Helpmann as Lindorf / Coppelius / Dapertutto / Dr Miracle
• Frederick Ashton as Kleinsach / Cochenille
• Mogens Wieth as Crespel
• Robert Rounseville as Hoffmann
• Lionel Harris as Pitichinaccio
• Meinhart Maur as Luther
• Edmond Audran as Stella’s partner in Dragonfly ballet
• Thomas Beecham as Conductor (uncredited)

The Red Shoes (1948) is a British feature film about ballet, written, directed and produced by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as The Archers. Based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a pair of enchanted crimson ballet slippers, “The Red Shoes,” it tells the story of a young ballerina who joins an established ballet company and becomes the lead dancer in a new ballet called The Red Shoes, based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen about a woman who cannot stop dancing. The film stars Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook and Marius Goring and features Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine and Ludmilla Tchérina, renowned dancers from the ballet world, as well as Esmond Knight and Albert Basserman. It has original music by Brian Easdale and cinematography by Jack Cardiff, and is well regarded for its creative use of Technicolor.

Production

Pressburger originally wrote the screenplay for Alexander Korda as a vehicle for Korda’s future wife Merle Oberon. After some years had passed without the film being made, Powell and Pressburger rewrote the screenplay, including more emphasis on dancing, and produced it themselves.

Powell and Pressburger decided early on that they had to use dancers who could act rather than actors who could dance a bit. To create a realistic feeling of a ballet company at work, and to be able to include a fifteen minute ballet as the high point of the film, they created their own ballet company using many dancers from The Royal Ballet. The principal dancers were Robert Helpmann (who also choreographed the main ballet), Léonide Massine (who also choreographed the role of The Shoemaker), Ludmilla Tchérina and Moira Shearer.

Subsequent history

The Red Shoes received good reviews, but did not make much money at first in the UK, because the Rank Organisation could not afford to spend much on promotion due to severe financial problems exacerbated by the expense of Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Also, the financial backers did not understand the artistic merits of the film.

At first, the film received only a limited release in the U.S., in a 110-week run. However, the success of this run showed Universal Studios that The Red Shoes was a worthwhile film. Universal took over the U.S. distribution in 1951 and it became one of the highest earning British films of all time.

When it was first previewed, many ballet critics in the UK and in the US wrote positively, pleased to see ballet portrayed so well on screen, but when they realised that it was universally popular, their reviews suddenly became quite dismissive of the film.

Brian Easdale’s score won an Oscar for “Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture” in 1948. The film also won an Oscar for “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” for Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson. It was also nominated in the categories “Best Picture” (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger), “Best Writing, Motion Picture Story” (Emeric Pressburger) and “Best Film Editing” (Reginald Mills). ^[11]

The Red Shoes led to a few other films that treated ballet seriously. It was only after he made the studio executives watch The Red Shoes a few times that Gene Kelly was able to include ballet in An American in Paris.

The Red Shoes is also arguably the most famous work done by Powell and Pressburger and is considered one of their great works as well as a classic of British cinema. The film is particularly known for its cinematography, particularly its use of colour. In the introduction for The Criterion Collection DVD of Jean Renoir’s The River, Martin Scorsese, who has long championed Powell and Pressburger’s works, considers The Red Shoes, along with the Renoir film to be the two most beautiful colour films.

Cast

• Moira Shearer as Vicky Page
• Marius Goring as Julian Craster
• Anton Walbrook as Boris Lermontov
• Léonide Massine as Grischa Ljubov
• Robert Helpmann as Ivan Boleslawsky
• Albert Bassermann as Sergei Ratov
• Ludmilla Tchérina as Irina Boronskaja
• Esmond Knight as Livingstone ‘Livy’ Montagne