<P>Well-staged film where dance scenes aren\'t cut to shreds to hide the performers\' limitations.</P>

Well-staged film where dance scenes aren\'t cut to shreds to hide the performers\' limitations.

The aspirations of young people to the heights of fame and fortune are the stuff of television and film - you only have to think of the recent success of Popstars. And so it is with Centre Stage where three young women have survived enormous competition to gain a place at the prestigious American Ballet Academy from which the cream will be chosen to dance for the Ballet Company. There`s Jody (Amanda Schull) who has the commitment but not the feet or the body of a dancer, and Eva (Zoe Saldana) who has an attitude problem - and Maureen, who`s got great technique but maybe not the stomach... There`s not a lot that`s new here... bulimia, wrongly - based alliances, stage mothers, bullying taskmasters... but what is new is that because the dancers are truly talented we do see a film in which dance can feature in its own right, without being cut to shreds to hide the performer`s limitations. One could wish for slightly more substance in the characters or even some -but hey, you can`t have everything. This is a well-staged film from British director Nicolas Hytner who made The Madness of King George at home and The Crucible and The Object of My Affection over there...... but maybe he should start to remember that staging isn`t everything. David`s Comment: Every putting on a show cliche in the book, this time set in the ballet world. Some attractive performers, but the plot creaks. The dialogue probably wrote itself.