In Which Erica Talks - Centerstage (2000)

Harken! The mountain's four wise men/women left the summit to discuss Nicholas Hytner's Centerstage! Released in 2000, the film stars Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan Matt Pratt, and many others. It was filmed in the United States and was distributed by Sony Pictures! Enjoy your monthly trip to Shaolin. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everybody. This is justin the hoary Urchin and before
we start our show, i'd like to remind you to
like and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. Please give
us a ranking, preferably all the stars, and give us
a view, preferably glowing. We'd also like to talk to
all of our listeners and answer any questions that you
all might have, For example, why do this or for
what purpose? Or will Erica ever find love? Well?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Email us at the Heavenly Mandate all one word, the
Heavenly Mandate at gmail dot com. That's the Heavenly Mandate
at gmail dot com. And maybe you can be that
special someone Eric has been looking for. Without further ado,
onto the show.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
It's bad news.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
It's travelers.

Speaker 5 (00:43):
Watch up a group of men.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
That's fine, you.

Speaker 6 (00:51):
Saved me.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
I have nothing to welcome to you.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Welcome to them, Welcome to the Heavily Mandate. Welcome to
the Heavily Mandates. We have descended from our mountain abode,
momentarily forsaking our kung fu studies to take turns picking
films and bestowing our unique perspectives on the beleaguered and

(01:19):
wretched people of the earth. I am just in the
whole urchin joining me today is the drunken Master himself, Calvin.
How are you doing, sir?

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Doing pretty well? It's good to return to this. It
feels like an eon since all of us gathered for such,
and thank god it's for a project like this. I
think everybody is going to be pretty pretty pretty vocal
at any rate about what we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Josh, the Deadliest of Venoms is here. How are you doing,
sir good?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
I'm not clear why the pants are so tight.

Speaker 7 (01:54):
But you dressed in theme right as opposed to instead
of instead of Donald Ducking, you're doing the exact opposite.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Eric, my cod piece outfit.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Erica Lady destab Cruella de Illist is here trafting behind
the mall of Novy Michigan and Novy Michigan. He's all
breacked up into Messa. How are you doing?

Speaker 4 (02:27):
I Every time I continue to think about that origin
story and where we're going to go from here. From
my mall days, I'm doing well. I'm so excited to
share this amazing film with you guys.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
And yeah, how are you doing?

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Justin?

Speaker 1 (02:44):
I am doing splendid because today we were reviewing two
thousand's Center Stage, directed by Nicola Yeah. The film features
Amanda Zoe's Saw Donna, Peter Gallaher and others. Without further ado,

(03:08):
let me pass the heavily mike over to wise woman Erica,
who might, okay visit the Nutritions this week for some pointers.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Of all the things to quote in the show, talk
to a girl about.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
The quote, like.

Speaker 8 (03:28):
To tell anyone, I'm glad, I said to me, Yes,
so talking about Center Stage, which is one of my
favorite movies, and it, you know, given that we don't
have a theme this season, and I was so.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
I will also say I was not allowed to select
my first choice, which was returned to us because someone
has a weird life.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Goal that would have killed one of our cast members.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
So I mean that cast member have had it coming
at that point, but I went for an alternative that
I thought might be just as enjoyable. But yes, Center
Stage is a is one of my favorite films from
my youth. It is a dance film. Any dancer out
there knows and loves Center Stage. It is a cult

(04:20):
classic and it is like I mean, yes, it's cheesy.
Yes the acting is bad, just the writing is bad,
but the dancing is amazing. Is amazing, and that's why
it's so so well loved.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
It would have been better if they got Russell Crowe,
that's all I gotta say.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
I mean, he's long for performing it in strengths he
doesn't have, right, I mean, why not cast a non
singer and laymans?

Speaker 3 (04:43):
I mean, hey, now I have a question. I know
you were a disciple of the dances Erica. Were you
ever a ballet dancer or did you just do other dances?

Speaker 9 (04:58):
No?

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Okay, I start did as a ballet you know, I
started doing ballet five as one does, so I did
ballet at Is.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
That like the standard when you're supposed to start?

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Well, I mean every little girl wants to be a
ballet dancer they grow up, right, that's like the stereotype.
Even my niece, who actually isn't in ballet class right now,
and I pointed that out to her. I'm like, don't
you think you should go back and take ballet again?
If that's your career goal, that's your actual goal. Yeah,
she wants to be a vet and a ballet dancer.
And I was like, okay, I mean I'll support both,

(05:30):
but we need a course correct a little bit right now.
But yes, I actually you want to you know why
I got into ballet. This is a great story. Have
you guys ever watched I don't think you've read it,
but if you ever watched Flowers in the Attic.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Mm hmm, I've heard of it.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
Okay past oh wait, yes, but but but the incest
isn't in the movie, and it's a huge part of
the whole series, but it's not in the movie. Actually,
so the movie is like the eighties and I was
actually probably way too young. I know, I was way
too young to have watched that movie in my childhood,

(06:06):
but it's freaking amazing. And then when we were in
Missus Molalley's ninth grade English class and we had to
do a book report on a banned book, I saw
VC Andrews like Flowers in the Attic in there, I
was like absolutely, and I devoured the entire series. And
then I just kept going with V. C.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Andrews.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I was totally on that bandwagon. And yes, it is
fucked up. It's about rich people and incest and fucked
up grandmother's, evil stepmothers, like you know, rich families. It's
all there's a theme to her books.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
But the thing dragons and then of thrones.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
But yes, the incest part of the story, which sounds
so weird, just if no one knows what this is about,
but thought I was in the attic. Very basically it's
about there is a kind of picturesque family with these
four kids, ranging from five year old twins to like
a teenage boy and girl. Father dies in a car
accident and the mother has no skill, can't support her family,

(07:01):
so she has to go begging back to her rich
family and stay in their mansion, you know, to beg
them to take care of her. But they were against
the marriage, so she has to hide her children in
the attic so her dying father won't cut her out
of the will. And they're in there for like four years.
And during that time, the older you know, teenagers you know,

(07:21):
I guess, with raising hormones and being confined in a
small space and there's no one else around, decided like
to fall in love with each other. Yeah, and there's
like an evil grandma in there, and honestly, and then
there's like three more books afterwards, and a prequel or
like two books in a prequel, I don't know. Prequel
is awesome. It is my favorite. You find out why

(07:42):
they're against the marriage, and like, oh my god. Anyway,
this is not the point. But the older teenage girl
is a ballet dancer, and she somehow manages in the book, yeah,
to train herself alone in the attic with no actual
like you know, instructors, well enough to become a professional.
But in the Moo movie, which is all I had read,
you know, I had contact with at this point in

(08:03):
my life. She she's a ballet dancer in the beginning,
and her father, I think one of her her father
had given her this like ballet dancer, like porcelain. It's
not a music box, but you wind it up and
she turns in a circle. That's the poor some figurine
to Swan Lake, and my parents got me that when
I was like five because I love the movie. So anyway,

(08:24):
that is the weird way that I got to dance.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
That is an odd origin story for that.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
It is very much not an origin story. We should
watch flowers in the attic. That's my next pick.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
Next pick sounds that sounds kind of more interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Actually, that sounds I.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Love that.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
These well.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
Torn on that. Okay, we'll get back to that.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
I have follow up question to that sure have to
dig deeper into that, which is Erica a really deep story.
Could you describe the first, uh, your first encounter with
this film contextually?

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Okay, so let me I'll jump a little bit further.
So I did two years of ballet, decided it was
a little bit boring when you're five six, So I
switched to a different studio to dance factory, and I
did the competition route I did. I'm tap is my
main jam but tap, jazz, acro pump. And the thing is,
once you get competing, like you have to do ballet
because it's like a foundational part of all the dancing

(09:22):
pretty much like uh, you well, I mean of this
kind of dancing, So you have that you know ballet.
That's why when you in this film, you get a
sense of what the training is like and what the
life is like because it's so intense. And I mean
that's not my experience, but I mean, yes, I did
ballet throughout pretty much all of it, even though like
I was mostly like you know, that was more of

(09:43):
a training as opposed to like, this is my passion.
And I to be honest, I don't remember when I
saw the movie for the first time, because, as we
talked about in the chat, I was like, oh, I
was twelve, it was right after Titanic, And then I
googled it and I was like, oh, that's not accurate.
And I honestly don't remember remember the first time. I
do remember a few things. I used to read seventeen

(10:03):
magazine religiously cover to cover, of course, and I do
remember when they did when they it's this, it's this Cosmo.
You know, I love seventeen. I learned a lot, but
anyway them for Cosmic later it's really not I will
say I learned a ton from seventeen, everything from It's

(10:25):
not just beauty stuff. It's relationship stuff. It's I've got
a ton of books that I bought reviewing that I
gott in seventeen.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Question, did you learn one hundred and eighty six different
sex positions from seventeen?

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Oh that is not what they do with seventeen, and
seventeen isn't even catered a seventeen year old. It's like
pre teens, you know, like no one who's eighteen. Well,
I don't know that's how the stuff works. But I
do remember when they you know, when they reviewed Center
Stage or previewed it, you know, and I was like, wow.
I honestly don't remember when I saw it the first time,

(10:57):
but it did become like a part in my life,
you know. I I think I saw it in Battle Creek.
I want to say, I think I went to bathy Mall,
but my memory, but that could have been Titanic.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
I could have been I can't remember if the boat
goes down in this one or not. I mean spoilers.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
Why are these two films so linked in your mind?

Speaker 4 (11:24):
I don't know. I don't know. I also remember nothing
to do with each other. I also remember trying to
apply for like some seventeen Oh. I took some quiz
in seventeen magazine when I was like twelve or thirteen,
and they asked who my favorite movie was, and I
was so excited to see Titanic but I hadn't seen
it yet. But I was so confident that I wrote.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Well, you didn't go as Sister Act Too.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
I don't know what if that was out yet.

Speaker 5 (11:56):
That was probably the same year I Love Too.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
I don't don't know why those movies are linked in
my mind, because they really haven't been since. And this
is totally not about the movie. Right now, hopefully our
listeners are still with us, because we want to talk
about center stage.

Speaker 5 (12:12):
This is how we this is how we weed out
the week. They will not be they will not tolerate us.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
How we'll probably get a selection of people who are
specifically coming to us because the center stage, and then
we'll be like, what the hell is the best of this?

Speaker 4 (12:27):
They're gonna have an Erica fan club, but you're just
gonna look for the ones that I bring to the table.
So it's it's a fairly like straightforward story, but basically
it is I don't think a lot of people. Okay, actually,
before we get into that, tell me how much do
you know about ballet, like professional ballet, how it works.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
What I saw in this movie? And I assume those
are the two things.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Did you know much before the movie before?

Speaker 5 (12:50):
Now?

Speaker 3 (12:50):
The pants are tight? Yeah they're not, They're not.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
They are tight.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
Ballerine but not bellerinos.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
I'm pretty sure, like technically ballerino's and you know that
is an Italian term and plural would be ballerini, but
I'm not actually sure that it's used. Ballerina refers to
a female ballet dancer. However, justin did you know much about.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
It other than being his favorite forum to watch along
with the opera. He just he just loves this ship.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
I went to school for it. Okay, Like, I don't
know why people even bother like do you like, how
do you do? They just exist as part of companies.
They're independent valerias.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
There are some independence but yeah, okay, So just to
kind of overview like works, I.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
Mean there'sary ballerinas.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yes, no, no, there are I'm going to a ballerina myself.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Know that word works that way? Okay, Okay, So ballet, like,
if you want to be a professional ballet dancer, I
mean one, you start training generally very early on as
a young child. But if you're serious, you go to
a pre professional ballet school, which are usually affiliated with
a company, as in as they do in this movie.
So it's not like I don't know many instances of

(14:16):
someone who's just you know, taking you know, a weekly
or you know, maybe several times weekly ballet class at
their local studio is going to make it to a company.
You usually I mean when and when you go to that,
it's like you're it's like a ballet high school where
you know you're the focus is on dancing and the
training and then you do school in between.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
But how you pay for all these people to live thereas.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
No, I mean I don't know how it is in
other countries because they tend to support the arts more.
But in the United States, when I understand, no, when
it costs a lot of money, it is like tuition
and this housing and it's like it is so much
money that I have scholarships. But no, they do have
to pay from what I understand, and it's not it's
not cheap.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Worth it like a ball arena.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
No, it's not unless you're like a star. And even
then I don't I actually don't know how the salaries are.
I mean I think if you okay, and then once
you get into a company, right the way it works
in the United States, basically there's like three main levels
of ballet dancers. So when you get into the company,
you are in the court, the court of ballet, and
so you're you know, as for all incentive, all all

(15:17):
intents and purposes, you're like a background dancer, and then
you get promoted to soloist where you are a featured
dancer where you have solos right or smaller roles in
the ballets, and then the top level is a principal dancer,
where you are the lead roles. You are Romeo and Juliet.
You know you are Aurora, you know in Sleeping Beauty,

(15:38):
you know you're Odette Nodal in Swan Lake. I mean
that is the or the Prince. You know, those are
the principal roles. And it's different for a different country.
Is like in France they call it in a twelve
the word to star like to get to the top,
and they have like different levels in between. And then
also you know different companies too, like you usually go
from like I don't actually know if it's changed over

(16:01):
the years or how common it is, but even if
you come from a school like they have like okay,
so the company in this show is called American Ballet Company.
That is a fictional company that is loosely based on
American Ballet Theater and at least that they call a BT.
And at ABT they actually have a studio company. They
call it like ABT Studio. And so when you when

(16:22):
you're like an older teenager, you don't go right to
the company, you go to this like in between, you know,
older teenage studio that kind of prepares you further, and
you spend one two years there.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
That my professional training to get you ready.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
Yeah, and then you you yet you know, and then
you get you know, assuming you go right, and then
you go to the company and maybe if you're really good,
you skip that part. But there's like general steps. Some
are apprentices, but basically it's core soloist principle is like
the order basically, but it is extremely competitive. I mean,
the stereotype that every little girl wants to be a
ballet dancer, you know, exists for a reason. You know,

(16:58):
like lots of people love doing this and it's it's
just hugely competitive. So the reason, like I always have
tremendous like respect for ballet dancers, figure skaters and gymnasts
because the training that goes into it. People don't realize.
One they're starting as children and it is so demanding
on the body. They're rehearsing hours and hours every day.

(17:19):
You can see and you get a sense of it
in the movie, like you see how they stretch, you
see the competition, you see what their bodies look like.
It's it's punishing and you know, you like you have
to peak early in your youth and then you've got
to figure out what to do with your life afterward,
and it's it's not easy. I just have I just
and I love behind the scenes. Like half of my
Instagram is ballet dancers of some sort, at least it

(17:41):
started that way, but it's it's like I watched like
dancers all day and I love and I watched the
points to fittings and I watch like I love the
behind the scenes almost more than the performers, because when
you see their bodies up close, like when you see
how high their feet arches are and your their extensions
and their muscles, like it's totally the way they train
your body, like it looks different than other kind of

(18:03):
I hate the word athletes. Ballet is not going to
be a sport, and I hate when people call it that. Yes,
it's physically demanding, what it's an art, like, let's be real.
But the story is basically about one young girl's journey
from being a ballet student to trying to get into
the company. Okay, so we meet her and she's for
what happens later in the show, I'm going to say

(18:23):
she's eighteen, just because that's safe given what happens later on,
and I thought about that on my like eighth watch today.
I'm also she's an older teenager. We'll say she's legal,
and she is. They don't really say where she's from.
I don't think, but she's from like some midw Indiana.

(18:44):
Maybe she's in Indiana. They met, Yeah, Okay, she could
have gone to your school instead of I think actually,
but they but she is in an audition to get
into this prestigious ballet school in New York City and
she and she gets in and right away you hear

(19:05):
the judges that she's got bad feet, but look at
her dance like there's something about her. So she gets
accepted into this elite competitive ballet program in New York City.
Then you meet Eva, who is Zoe Saldana and her
film debut. She she's actually her first one. I'm not
sure if she's actually from New York City proper, but
she's from the streets kind of things. She's from the city.
She's kind of like, very kind of stereotypical wrong side

(19:27):
of the tracks.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
Could put into this role.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of kind of cringey
stereotypes in this movie. Whatever, we'll go with it and
she gets into but she's got a bad attitude. Like
she's naturally gifted, but she has a bad attitude. And
they go to New York and so they're going to
essentially like you know, like I said, the company is
based loosely on ABT, so this is based loosely on

(19:52):
their own like school, and they meet and then they
go into the dorms and they meet there the cast
of characters. So Jody and Eva become best friends. They
meet Maureen, who is their rude mat and she is
like the you know, the best ballet dancer in their year.
She's been there forever, but she's like a mega bitch
and really snobby about it. And then they befriend three guys.

(20:13):
You meet Charlie, who becomes like a love interest for Jodie.
He is from Seattle. He's new and he's extremely talented.
You meet Eric, who's been there. Eric came. Eric's new
or not, but he's also extremely talented. He's very gay.
That's his personality is black and gay. He adds an oh,

(20:35):
that's all you need. Yeah. He adds initial to his
name to stand for Oprah because he loves Oprah. So
that's pretty defining that's white.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
So that's how white people write things. Everybody I know.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
And and then you meet and Saraga is Russian and.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
Uh and he's.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, like you a walking accent with no plot, like
he's just there.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
It's not unfair to say that's the case of a
lot of the people, most of them.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
This is a different era that was enough back then.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Are now killing Ukrainian I mean.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
I mean that's the sequel that's going next year. Okay,
this is our this is our primary.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Interesting that Putin was just coming to power when this
movie came out.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
Coincidence, I think not? But okay, so this is our
like main cast of six. Right, so you're following the
lives mostly Jody, but you're following their lives throughout this year.
So they go to their first class. This is like
one of my favorite scenes the whole and of the
whole movie, and a lot of people love it. It
is the montage of how you prepare for point class.

(21:50):
Point is when you're doing ballet on your toes, like
that's the word. You're in point shoes, right, it's the
satin shoes that have the hard tips on it, so
you can dance, dance on your toes, but people like
it is a lot I had. Point shoes are fascinating
the way that they're made, the way that they have
to be prepped, and how quickly they go through them,
and how expensive they are. Like points shoes are made

(22:11):
of like essentially a combination of like like glue, card glue, cardboard,
and fabric, like layers of them. It's a it's a
myth that they're made out of what they're not, Like
they're made out of layers of like glue, fabric and
cardboard essentially. And and then they've got the they're covered
in satin, and you know they had they come in
all different kinds of like you know, levels of tapering

(22:33):
and you know how far like the vamp goes, like
how far down it goes to your toes. And and
now they come in like a full range of skin tones.
Now they're way more inclusive and and like all kinds
of strengths and stuff. And they are so expensive. They're
like probably on average one hundred dollars a pop. And

(22:55):
they only come and they don't come pre prepared. So
if you if you ever want to go down to
like a rabbit hole, just google, like I don't professional
ballet dancers like breaking in their point shoes because okay, so.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
If you're run through one of these.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
So if you're a student, right, they're going to last you,
depending on which you know where you are for months
or you know, weeks, months, whatever. If you are a
professional dancer, some can go through like two pairs in
the single performance, like Swan Lake. Seriously, ess, yeah, I
mean they'll go through.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
You're not making the shoes well enough, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
It's funny.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
You're far from the first person to say that. I
want to say. New York City Ballet did a campaign
a couple of years ago saying that they spent their
their shoe budget because obviously once you're in the company
to pay for the shoes. They their shoe budget was
like two hundred thousand dollars a year. How much they
spent on ballet shoes. It's a very fair question. I'll

(23:52):
tell you why.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Why can't they just have like plastics or some ship.
Do you think fantasy was made of human leather? It'd
still be as popular.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
I think you should propose that and see how it goes. Okay,
but hold on, jolly what because it's a very common question.
It's a good question, So let me talk about how
they break it down first, okay, because I love this.
So every dancer has different like preferences and needs for
her shoes. So the other thing, not only are they
super expensive and like hands made like they're very it's
like a craft to make a good point shoot and

(24:22):
Freedom London is a big one, and they have all
these behind the scenes things you could do to watch
how they do it, but then they destroy them. So
a popular thing they do is they push the heel
back and they cut off the shank. There's one dancer,
Skyla Brandt with ABT and she cuts off three quarters
of the shank so there's no support. That's how strong
her foot is. A lot of them will, you know,
you always have to bend it back and forth to

(24:44):
make it more flexible. A lot of them will, like
as you saw, they tear off like the top, like
just the top of the toe point because it makes
it less slippery, or they'll shred the back of it
also to make it less slippery. Sometimes they'll darn it
around like the very tip of it so there's more
ability when they're on it. They do all kinds of
crazy stuff and then you know you have to sign it.
You have to sow your own ribbons and elastics, and

(25:06):
everyone has their own preference. So I love the montage
here and I love watching it like on Instagram. It's
just so fascinating. But to answer your question, there is
a brand. There is a brand called Gainer Minden and
they are like synthetically made point shoes and they do
last a lot longer. I'm not sure how much longer,

(25:26):
but it is significantly longer. But I think people stick
with the original because of the tradition. I think they
like that. I think that's I think it's poetic for
a lot of them are not poetic. What's the word
I want? Like meditative? And you know, the customization is
very personal. And that's not even to mention like how
they prep their toes. You see how they wrap their toes.
They have toepads. A lot of them put like paper towels,

(25:49):
like whether toes are like that's what they use because
they or nothing at all. They really want to feel
the floor. I did point for like a hot minute.
You know where I was at, Like you know, I
was at a compet Titian studio and when I was
finally ready to do it, like, there wasn't a lot
of interest to have a point class, and so I
kind of did it on my own a little bit

(26:09):
in ballet class, but it didn't really work out. And
then I think someone stole my point shoes because I
was so bummed. I don't know where they are. I
really wish I had them still, but I got a weird.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
Nay market market. They gotta they got to flip those shoes.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
I bet, I wonder how. I don't know, right.

Speaker 5 (26:31):
They make it out of the package and then they
actively run away from you. That's how anything from works
according to their own Nope, well, yes, according to all
of us, it is Timu. According to their own ads,
it is Tamu.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
So they're probably they probably are right.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
They probably know how to say their own name, I
would think.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
I mean, however, there's probably more of us saying it,
so we win.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
I don't know if there's more of us than there
are the Chinese.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
But but how many Chinese are but how many? But
about how many? How many of the Chinese are buying Timu?
How many saying the word like any of the consumers. Honestly,
I don't care. I don't shop but that's funny. No
that okay. So anyway, so back to our plot. Okay,
so we have this amazing there is a plot. There's

(27:21):
a good plot. It's a good plot. It is a
story of someone trying to achieve her goals. That is
a solid plot.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
May also be a mannequin.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
I'm not going to I'm.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Not gonna be really human. She has the dull, charming
effect of a mannequin.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
I did not cast her. But she is a dancer,
remember that. That's that's We'll get into the actual casting
in a minute. But big, a big, Natalie Portman is
not a trained dancer. Oh my god. She trained for
like nine months for the dance. A may the difference
because she had a body double. Since she had a

(28:06):
dance double.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Dance a good actress to do the good role and
then get the body double.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
The face on you fix it in post.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
Well, this is what I'll say. Another another reason why
a lot of dancers love this movie is because they
finally see real dancers in a dance movie and that
that is a good representation. You don't have to watch
like Julia Styles do some awkward and they get into.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Julia to play historians and movies like.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Okay, but they did, they did in the Washingtonians.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Nobody, nobody makes nobody makes movies about historians. So it
doesn't matter. Show up now and then get the show
something like that.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
All right, hold on, I'm if we're gonna go on
a tangent, it's gonna be my tangent.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
A quick breakdown on the current cast though, as much
as I say that, Okay, Jody Sawyer, the lead is
played by Amanda Schul. Amanda is a real dancer. There's
only I mean honestly saying that, there's only like four
professional dancers that were cast in this film. So Amanda
Schole at the time was an apprentice at San Francisco Ballet,
and after the film she went on to be in

(29:14):
the core with San Francisco Ballet for like the next
six or seven years, and then she went to acting
full time. Eva Zoe Saldana had some dance training, like
she trained for like a decade or something, but she
hadn't done it in years, so she had a background,
but they used a dance double for her for the
more technical scenes. The one who played Maureene. No dance training,

(29:37):
no dance training for Maureene. You don't really see her
dance ever, right, Well you do, but you don't see her.
You see her dance, Eric Oprah Jones. There no dance training, okay,
Sarah Gay Okay. The guy who plays Saraga who is Oh,
I have his name here, Elia Kulik. Maybe that's how

(30:00):
we say it. He was a gold medal winning Olympic
figure skater. Okay, that's kind of cool. Yeah, so not
a ballet dancer, but figure skaters tend to train in ballet.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Two.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
I'm sure he's had some, but yeah, he's like one
of gold men. And I'm not gonna like two years before.
But then we have Sasha Radetski. Okay, Sasha is a
real dancer. Well he's retired now, but he was a
soloist at American Ballet Theater. So he is like the
second of the personal ballet Charlie. Charlie, Okay about that, Charlie. Okay.

(30:34):
So that's our current six. So then we go to
class right where we have Peter Gallagher. He is the
artistic director. He's kind of an arrogant dick, as they
want to be sometimes, and he's like he right off
the bat is like, look this is a tough school.
At the end of the year, I will be evaluating
you throughout all your classes, and then at the end
of the year, you're gonna have a big showcase. And
that is going to be when I determine who gets

(30:56):
into the company. And I can only take three boys
and three girls, okay. So he pretty much like puts
them in their place right away, saying, I know, you
guys think you're like the ship, but now everyone's the shit,
so keep your expectations realistic. So then they actually start class,
and what we learn about Jody is that even though
Jody has such a passion for dance and has something

(31:16):
about her that made him bring her to the school,
she her technique is not good. Her feet are really bad.
And when they say in ballet that they have bad
feet or good the feet. But talking about the arches
of your feet in ballet, you want it's all about lines,
and you want a straight line, like from your hip
to your toe. Okay, So when you point your toe,

(31:37):
you're not you're pointing way down like so, and the
higher your arches like, the you know, the more dramatic
that is. And some of it's genetic, right, because they
do a ton of work to get your feet like
pushed to that level. So yeah, no, just a lot
of stretching and no, I'm just a lot of stretching

(31:58):
and bar work, you know. But on some level there
are people who are naturally gifted with high arches and
those jusuess aren't turnout to another thing. Turnout is how
your hips rotate. So if you're like, if you're standing
up and your feet are parallel to each other, you
now you're gonna push your toes out opposite each other
to one at one hundred and eighty degrees is like
the goal. But that is your turnout, and every step

(32:20):
you do in ballet, you're always turned out. And it's
very subtle to see in the film. But because you
can't the way that they film her legs when they
do a close up of their turnouts right at the bar,
you don't. It's if you're not a dancer, you won't
notice why Jody's feet aren't very different than the rest.
But at that point, you're pay you should be a
close to one eighty if you're that level of dancer,

(32:43):
and she is not quite there, And that's something too
where yes, I mean you're training all the time. But
there's a genetic component to your body there too. And
fun fact with the film is that when they were
directing this, originally they wanted Jody's feet to be more
turned in, I mean not actually turned in, but less,
you know, so to make more of a difference. But
a was like yeah, but a man Sell was like, listen,

(33:06):
if you want this to be realistic, nobody is going
to get into an elite ballet school unless their turnout
is like close, like they're you know, that's not realistic
to have me in that position. So but yes, right away,
what we learn is that Jodie is kind of like
the weakest link in the class. She's got that feet,
she doesn't have a great turnout. She's running into people.
Eva comes in and she's got an attitude. She's late,

(33:29):
her hair isn't up, she's wearing the wrong colored leotard,
she's chewing gum, and she's just being rude. But then
when she dances, you realize like she's like blowing everyone away.
Cause remember their newcomers, right, so no one knows them
yet and this is the impression they're making.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
Yeah, and we can clarify that a little bit too,
like I, so they didn't all have to enter at
the same time. So are they not the same quote
unquote class, Like Marine has already been there and so
have Yeah, someone else liked, can you come and go
into the school? At any point, I couldn't figure out.

Speaker 4 (34:01):
It's open everybody, Okay, So they said they said in
the movie that she's been at a b ABA they
call it American Ballet Academy since she was nine. I
don't know. I assume at that point, you know that
like it's kind of like a normal dance studio where
anyone can pay to take lessons. But then I think

(34:21):
that once you get into like a high school, you
have to audition, you know, to get into the elite program.
So it sounds like it from what I understand. In
Maureene's case, she got into the high school we'll call
it a high school for all intents and purposes at
the earliest level. You know, she's always been in New York,
And I'm going to assume that people audition every year
to get in, and they come in a different stages,
and in this case, they're all at the last stage

(34:42):
of ballet school and that's where they meet.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
So that's I.

Speaker 5 (34:49):
Was not as much as this is setting up and
like trying to show you the world. It doesn't do
as much explanation of the world as I kind of
expected there to be, like just general, here's an exposition.
So you all understand what we're talking about them being
party because I didn't. I mean, I didn't understand any
of that.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
There's a there's a lot of little things, so I
mean it is kind of catered toward dancers. I mean
there's a reason that kind of flopped critically, but it
is a cult favorite, so for dancers. But yeah, that's
when we start learning, like there where they are in
the hierarchy. Maureen, even though she's great, is now threatened
by Eva because Eva is that talented and she can

(35:30):
give her a run for her money with the boy.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
This is when you do a Nancy care game.

Speaker 10 (35:37):
That makes the problem. Yeah, right, I had that. Oh
my god, it's such a good movie.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Paul Walker Houser, the guy who plays the fat bodyguard,
the fat the fat guy, is so amazing in that film.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
I just love how they do it like documentary style,
Like it's just so well done, it's so funny. So
then you know, so then we move on and you
know the boys as well. Charlie is the superstars. Say,
all of the three are like pretty non problematic and
they're all really really good. Now, this is our core story,
but there is a b plot happening too, which is

(36:19):
also important. So at the actual it's happening. At the
company level, there.

Speaker 5 (36:27):
Is it is. It cannot be debated, it is happening.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
I will give you that.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
At the company level, there is also drama. There is
also their own story. There is a love triangle. So
the the artistic director of the company, the one who's
like kind of the arrogance, you know, our creative leader, right,
the one who runs the artistic side, Peter Gallagher. He
is married to the company's principal ballet dancer, who is

(36:55):
named Kathleen Donahue. And so the company's star dancers Okay,
Kathleen Donahue, and I don't want to say their real
names because I'm getting mixed up now, yes, okay. And
Cooper Nielsen, Okay, I get mixed up because Cooper Nielsen
is played by a real life like these are where
the other real ballet dancers come in. Cooper Nielsen is

(37:16):
played by real life Ethan Steifel, who was a long
term principal dancer with American Ballet Theater, and Kathleen Donahue
is played by Julie Kent, another long term principal ballet
principal ballet dancer with American Ballet Theater. If i am correct,
she was like their longest running ever performer, like thirty years.

(37:36):
And I'm not sure if that's as principal or just
her tire run. But they are literally stars of you know,
the company that they're pretending to be, and you know,
so it's kind of like art mimicking life kind of thing.
But anyway, in the story, the two ballet stars used
to be a couple. They've been together for years, and
then Kathleen leaves Cooper and goes to Jonathan who Peter

(37:59):
Galla and marries him, and then Cooper is broken hearted.
He goes to London to dance there and then has
just returned and apparently he's like a big womanizer. He's
kind of the bad boy and he's come back. And
we actually meet him in one of the early scenes
where he runs into Jody and he offers to help
her with our bags, and we see that like Jody's
got a crush on him, he's clearly trying to pick

(38:20):
her up. But now that Cooper is back, there is
this sort of love triangle where Cooper is still kind
of in love with Kathleen. He's trying to prove himself
as a choreographer, and like there's all this second tension. Okay,
so that is sort.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Of the happening. Where is Nils I.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
You know, I'm more into Sasha. Actually I'm more into
Charlie then than Cooper.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
So it's probably because he's the He's clearly the the
whole time. I just I simply thought of him as
generic Paul Rudd.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
In my notes, I wrote poster boy for when by default.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
Well he's a cute guy.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
For the entire movie, I thought he was gay.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
Yeah, so no, And so I'll tell you this. I
have more fun facts for you. Okay, I know it's
gonna be annoying. I'll try to speed it up after this,
because this is like a lot of the cast. So
in real life, okay, in real life, Ethan Stifle and
Sasha Udeski. Charlie and Ethan are best friends. Not only
are they best friends, they are both married to principal

(39:30):
ballet dancers with American Ballet Theater who are also best friends.
So Ethan is married to Gillian Murphy, who's actually retiring
from ABT next month depends when you release this film.
It's going to mean in July of twenty twenty five.
And Sasha is married to Stella Abrera who retired a
few years ago. But it's like this like power couple

(39:51):
situation of two of them, they're all super tight.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
And yeah, so wait a minute, So you're telling me
that I can't call foul on this movie for presenting
too many straight men on the field for this, they're.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Not I would have thought that would be hired.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
No, but i'd be to be honest with you, it is.
But what's interesting is that I follow a lot of
these ballet companies, and there are so many like Power
Ballet Company, power ballet couples. And I think because honestly,
I mean, yes, like I don't know what the actual
odds are, but it's high. I mean, when I used
to work in opera, I my interpretation of the arts
world is fifty to fifty, you know, fifty K fifty straight. I imagine.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
That's different than I would have thought I would, I
would assumed much higher. That's why I.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
Mean, this is just me guessing, right, but it is.
It is definitely disproportionate to the rest of the world. Right,
It's much higher.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
But that being said, that means if you're a straight
male in ballet, you know, you have a lot of
more options, you know. Yeah, so in theory, like you
know and you know you're so, I think it makes
sense that there's a lot of likely power cups leaning up.
I love all this stuff. I love following these things.

(41:08):
So AnyWho, Okay, so that was a lot. That was
a deep dive into the castle.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
My question is why can't why can't Peter and Cooper
just combined forces and make the world a better place?

Speaker 4 (41:23):
Well, as a male, you.

Speaker 5 (41:26):
Is that a call? I had Michael Jackson reference.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
It needs to be a freeway and Eiffel Tower freeway,
you both. It's the it's the chasing Amy solution, right?

Speaker 11 (41:37):
Was that?

Speaker 4 (41:39):
As a male? You tell me? Imagine the acrobatic.

Speaker 5 (41:45):
Crazy hold on, hold on. I also want to just clarify,
because I didn't pick up all of these subtleties as well.
Was Peter Gallagher's character whatever, he was still he was
not already married when he entered into the thing with them.

(42:05):
I don't believe no night No, so they were it was.
It was an affair, but it was he was not
forsaking his own wife for the.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
Battle, right, not from what we know of the story,
not from what we were told. Yeah, so probably not.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
That's I didn't. I wondered if I had missed something
else because of the way they described some of it,
but I didn't. It was impossible for me to keep
up with things. I thought two of these characters were
the same person for like twenty minutes.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, I'm getting terrible. Like all the Caucasian characters in
this movie, I did not tell the difference between.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
Them because all white people look alike to but are
you gonna do about it.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
In this movie? In particularly everyone alike.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
Yeah, they could have guessed a little more varied look
because it was kind of hard. I literally forgot the
medical student and Charlie were like they would.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I will say, actually, medical student, Jim,
that's highest skill Jim would be mine.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Yeah, I take that back, because that's that's actually technically
technically previous generic Paul Rudd, I.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
Will Jim absolutely for Jim.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Years later he reanimated a dead body.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
And then.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
Even later he became the commissioner. Because whoever wrote this,
apparently he doesn't wonder that Jim Gordon is already kind
of a used character name in a totally different sphere,
and you probably don't need to use that because Erica.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
The actor that plays the pre med student, was also
in a Better Place.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
But like, I haven't seen that.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Was that the main character, that's the guy, that's the
guy who shot the other guy in the back of
the head that made Erica had so disturbed that one night.
Wait wait, wait, wait, yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:58):
I don't know what that movie is back in high school,
or maybe this is a high school memory. Okay, we're
at my house. We're all watching movies in my room,
and one of the films we watched was called A
Better Place, in which a character kills another character in
a very brutal manner, and you were there.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
You're like, oh my god, why didn't you warn us?
I don't remember. We also watched Eddie Izzer that night too,
so it was a juxtaposition of.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Movie and Erica also learned the cross dressing exit and
then he was in center.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Stage I know, I see a through line here, what
a plot twist. Okay, So so now we've moved on.
You know, we've had our first class. We've set the stage,
the center stage of who everyone is, where they're at.
So then what what Jonathan says is, Okay, you know
these are all these arts organizations are all nonprofits. So

(44:58):
they have these opening year galla and their fundraisers, and
a lot of what they to do is have to
schmooze rich people to donate, right, so they have the
students like kind of they say to the students, you're
you know we're having You're gonna have you watch the gala,
watch the performance, and then have you work afterward doing
whatever it needs to be done, selling things and you know,
whatever they need to do. So this this is also

(45:20):
why people love this movie because the dancing is amazing.
So they they they watched essentially was like an assumed
assumed rep program. It's not a full length ballet because
they they show you the dance of the Little Swans,
which is classic from Swan Lake, and then they show
you like a full Romeo and Juliette scene from Kenneth
McMillan's rome and Juliette and like they show you that

(45:43):
whole like that's that's a rather like large scene important,
you know, dance for that ballet and like and and
here's a fun fact. So when I was at the
Opera House, I was a super numerus, and a supernumerary
is for like ballet and opera, you're essentially an extra

(46:05):
like a film extra, but you're on stage. You're you're
like glorified prop essentially. And so I the benefit of
working at the Opera House is when I was there
is that when ABT was there, which is my favorite
ballet's company. So that's why I know all this stuff
is I love them. And they were there for a
week doing Romeo and Juliet that exact Romeo and Juliet.

(46:27):
And I auditioned to be a super and I kind
of pitched it to my boss as saying, you know,
I ran the social media, so like let me do
it behind the scenes of like this is what it's
like to be a super. So even though I was
like an inch too short for the costume, they like
made them cast me and were.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
You like a were you like a house plant? Or what?

Speaker 4 (46:47):
No, I was there is there's a scene I want
to say, at the top of Act two where there
is a wedding happening, not like not like the wedding
between the two of them, but like a separate wedding
in town. And I am the mother, okay, I even
though back then I was much younger now, but it
doesn't matter. I was the mother of the teenagers getting married,
and so I was part of like a parade that
like walked around the stage to celebrate the couple, and

(47:09):
then we just kind of stayed in the back as
the dancers. You know, I don't even remember where they
were plot wise, maybe they were guests at the wedding,
like the actual you know, people in plot. But it
was really cool because we were on stage with these
amazing dancers and got to watch like the same show
from different angles with different people every night. But I
would always sneak to this to see that they called

(47:32):
a potada pas space d E space d e u X.
So it's danced for two. It's like it's a it's
a duet, okay. So I would always sneak in to
watch the to watch that potada when I, you know,
when I wasn't on stage or whatever, and I had
I love big dresses, right, I had this dress that

(47:54):
had this like thirty foot train or something stupid. That
might be an exaggeration. It was really really it was
really really long, and I think it was it was
too big for me. And this dress, I remember, I
don't know how I found this information. Maybe they told me.
It was from nineteen eighty four. It was as old
as I was. This dress was as old as I was,
and it was heavy and it was but I mean,

(48:16):
it was cool, like it was so cool. But I
was just like, don't fall on stage, you know, just
like keep it together. But what was really neat that
night is Stella Okay, Stella Brera, who is Charlie's like
Sasha Berdeski's real life wife. She made her she made
her Juliette debut at the Detroit Opera House when she
was when we were all there at the same time.

(48:37):
So I got to watch that, which was very coo.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
So this is all connected. I'm sensing a conspiracy.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
And apparently, I mean at this point, and at this point,
like Ethan was no longer had been retired already, Jillian Murphy,
his wife, was there was one of the Juliettes and
apparently Sasha. Sasha was in the audience and I didn't
know this, and my my coworker friend ran into him
and got a photo with him, and I had no
idea he was there, which was a window opportunity, I know,

(49:07):
But I met a whole bunch of other ones. Like honestly,
that week that was one of my favorite life experiences ever,
to be honest, that week that I got to be
a super and like, you know, wear this old costume
with that was super heavy and long and being.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
Is that a common in ballet to have just like extras?
I didn't think they ever did that obviously knowing.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Minons, I think it's the Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
It's common in ballet, it's common in.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
I kind of expect I would expect an opera war since.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
I mean, you're not you're not like dancing, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Like I was what I thought. I thought everyone had
to dance like that was the thing I thought.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Walking in the background.

Speaker 4 (49:55):
I wanted to be able to go on the next
night would legendary. But okay, I digressed. I know, just
the next time I have a theme that doesn't include ballet,
you know what I'm saying, when you did this, He's
gonna get you.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
That's all I gotta say.

Speaker 11 (50:15):
So.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Yes, So it was like you get like scenes from
real life, like some of the best in the world
doing this thing close up.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
You know what this reminds me of now now that
you're mentioning all these you know, references to real like
uh opera or ballet troops and whatnot. You remember that
Nintendo movie that was basically an advertisement for Nintendo where
all they did was just play the Wizard. This is
the ballet equivalent of The Wizards.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
Wait, I don't know what movie you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Wid The Wizard was just like movie The Wizard had
Fred Savage in it.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
Yeah, what.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Really, I want to say it was basically an advertisement
for Nintendo products.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
Like Nintendo financed a feature length advertisement for themselves. They
get sucked into the game or anything cool.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
They definitely they definitely contributed money. I'm not sure what
percent of the budget they contributed, but it was like
not even a veiled uh endorsement of Nintendo.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
I think it was like the first time people saw
Super Mario Buzzers three and that was like the big reveal.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, and one.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Of the points in the movie like this is the
first time anyone's ever seen this, you know game. And
then someone was like, hey, he found the secret. He
found the secret muckroom, and it's like, how do you
know that if it's the first time, how do you
know it was ever supposed to be a secret.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
About this before it? So that's this movie for dancing?

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (51:57):
Basically the cuts are getting deeper, they're advertising getting very
very deep.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Sorry, it was just an observation.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
It's okay. I mean I've never seen that movie, so
I have no one I was thinking of either there
was there's some other one where a bunch of kids
are like waiting to play.

Speaker 5 (52:14):
Video games at some rich kids house. I know that's
probably not this movie.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
I'll be sure to see that movie.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
Not not that I recall, but yeah, maybe.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
Okay, should we return to center stage? Yeahs Lut's okay,
I do know, And I think now that we've got
the kind of the basics going, it will go a
little faster everybody. So we go to the galla, right,
we see this beautiful dancing and where we also get
a close up the faces of the performer, so like

(52:48):
everyone's crying all of our main like six for the
most part, except for Maureen, which is really interesting because
she's like the star ballot right now of the school.
So then when we go to the after the after party,
like the reception, we see that Jonathan, the artistic director,
is trying to woo this rich woman named Joan, like
a wealthy widow, and she interests she has Cooper Nielsen. Yeah,

(53:13):
so so so she so, so Jonathan has introduces Cooper
to her because he knows that, you know, she's really
into Cooper and wants him to like seal the deal
for a good donation. Meanwhile, later on the kids go
on stage, they play around, they see they're still feuding,
like the eavesdrop on a feud between Cooper and Kathleen.
So we're getting more of the drama here. So that's

(53:35):
that's the first kind of setup of the movie. Now
moving forward, Okay, so we go back to rehearsal and
we see that like Jody is really struggling and they
have a heart to heart with her and they bring
her in and they say, listen, you're not good enough
and at where you're at, we're very unlikely to cast
you in the final performance, and if you're not in

(53:56):
the final show, you're not going to get like offered
a job here or in any other company, because these
end of your showcases are essentially auditions for all ballet companies,
not even just you know this fictional ABC companies, not.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
Like off off Broadway for ballet or something.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
No, it's like, you know, so, I mean, like this
is everywhere, right, like the top ballet companies in this country.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Gary Ballet Company.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
There's like no, I mean, like okay, in real life, right,
there's like American Ballet Theater's New York City Ballet. There's
San Francisco Ballet. There's also like Houston Ballet. There's also
like Ballet met in Ohio. There's also I mean, there's
beanies everywhere, you know. I mean, yes, there's different tiers
of them. The first three I think are probably the
best ones. But but uh so anyway, but.

Speaker 5 (54:47):
She's never gonna dance in this city again if she
doesn't get.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
This, well, they say, look, you know what we're seeing
is you're not New York privileges. She's saying. That we're
saying is if you know you're not good enough to
get into you right now to be cast in our show,
and if you're not casting, not going to get a job.
So they presented to her as we're giving you options,
like we're not kicking you out, but we're just being
real with you if you want to drop out, right, yeah, yeah,

(55:11):
which is I mean it's harsh though, right. So then
she's obviously down in her luck, and so Eva decided
to cheer her up and they all go out and
they somehow at not being twenty one, they can go
to this.

Speaker 12 (55:26):
Dude, this happens in so many movies and TV shows
without you even thinking about it until you look back.
You wait a minute, they can't those vices. None of
these places they go let children in.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
I know they're supposed to be like seventeen, and yet
they're acting like they're doing.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
They go, they can see over the bars.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
I don't think. I don't think even that this era
New York was quite that liberal.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
And partying out in New York at night very affordable.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
So they poppishly.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
Students essentially our core five because Marine is not really
like she's like a friend to me kind of you know,
they go out, they kind of refine their joy for dancing.
They party, they salsa, you know, they have a good time.
Maureene interestingly goes on a date with Jim, the medical
student that are pre med student at Columbia who she
met at the gala, and they go on like a bowling.

Speaker 5 (56:17):
Day, presumably substantially older than her, by the way, just
based on where we are in our respective careers. I mean,
but we're assuming everybody's eighteen. We've already established that's our
assumption for this movie. So yes, though, but as they yippy,

(56:39):
they are still yeah whatever whatever.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
So so so we follow Marine on her like first
date with Jim, which is also weird because it's a
group date. It's like Gym and his friends and they're
bowling and drinking beer and pizza. And this is where
you really start to learn, like Marene's history, that even
though she's a star ballerina, you start to learn the
sacrifices that she had to make to get there. So
she's like, I've never bowled before, and you can have

(57:03):
a well, no, she hasn't done a lot of things before, right,
that's what they're right.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
It's that the bowling is a symbol, the pizza is
a symbol.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
Well, and then you learn she's got a messed up
relationship with food like another ballet like stereotype, and you
learn that she's got bolimia. But then also she's really
like having a good time and she's really enjoying her
life outside of ballet. So you're starting to learn what
like the change is happening here. And then in another
fun scene like the Core five, they're drunk over or
they're drunk over, they're hungover as hell the next day

(57:34):
and they're not doing one class and they get kicked
out and punished by cleaning mirrors.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
And then something Harry felt.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
Like this happened. This doesn't seem like that's real.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
Did I miss some kind of like water fighting, Like they're.

Speaker 5 (57:52):
They're goof they're goofing off, so like they have to
polish polish the trophies in the in the Yes trophy
room or whatever like that. I didn't feel like something
they would do at a professional ballet school per se.
Also they seem very I can see that. No, there's
like like they tolerate a lot of backtalk, and like

(58:17):
you're like, I feel like this is the kind of
place you get into and if you don't get lied instantly,
they're like, well, what you're expelled now, you stupid bitch.

Speaker 4 (58:25):
I mean I kind of thought that too. I mean
there was like one scene where like, you know, they're
picking on Jody and Eva stands up for her and like.

Speaker 5 (58:33):
Yeah, get out of class, kicked out.

Speaker 4 (58:36):
I thought it would be more than kicked out of class.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
But you know whatever, I feel like with that population
of gay man, there's an acceptable level of fact that
you have to the curriculum, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
I mean, there is there is fun.

Speaker 4 (58:54):
Yeah, no, but I mean there is a truth that
these like creative artistic types, especially when they reached that level,
they're extremely talented in that level of success. The egos
are there, right, they are, you know, but when you're
a student, you're you know, you're a star student, but
you're still like a student and should be in a
place better. But she also she changes, right, like she
evolves and.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
She she kind of learns, does you know.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
It just feels it doesn't feel like it's any direct
result of her getting punished. It's just that she eventually
figures it out herself, rather than coming from the institution
that she's in.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
But not not to build on the point, but yeah,
I think one of the things that I think really
shocked me about the film is sort of how hollow
the characters feel to be, or like how a cookie
cut here they are in visa vis their plot lines.
Where it felt like, again to go back to this
point about the idea of this being an advertisement for
the American Ballet Theater, it does.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Feel like it's not, though, because they don't know. Probably
on purpose, right, they.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Don't want to feel like very strange, because like if
it feels like I'm supposed to enjoy the film because
I like ballet, and I don't know if that's how
you make it successful.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Like somebody needed a coke cab it, you know, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
I don't know if that makes it any better?

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
But what a coke habt?

Speaker 11 (01:00:14):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
And judge some mother a coke cabin?

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
Yes, no.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
Brazilian trying to turn this into like Black Swan or something.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Yes, yes, really one of the creepiest masturbation scenes outside
of Muhl and Drive ever.

Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
I mean I didn't even think that was that creepy.
So that's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
It's hard to like any of these characters because I
feel like they're not real people.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Well, it's because they're written first of all, yes, because
everyone just needs to fit a type that we can
really center this story around. But the second thing is
that they feel like how fourteen year olds are trying
to write older people.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Yeah, I agree, they don't.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
The dialogue almost universally sounds like what an early teenager thinks,
well partially how they talk anyways, and then how they
think older people would talk at each other. And it's
just like time and again you're like, yeah, that, yeah,
that's how real people would say that. I'm for sure
they would.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
That's funny.

Speaker 5 (01:01:22):
This is I won't students from the whole planet. No, yeah,
the whole planet. That's what someone would say in response
to that. I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
Oh yeah. Like in the very opening scene, we're on
the very.

Speaker 5 (01:01:36):
Scene, it's like the second line of dialogue and we
are not.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
I mean, she is establishing how competitive the world is, right, I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Mean it does.

Speaker 5 (01:01:48):
It does set me up pretty quickly. I know what
we're talking.

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
I mean I wouldn't actually say that's like the worst
round of dialogue. I mean, how many people and they're
gonna say, oh, twelve from this class, and she said
the whole planet. That really hits the point home that
this is really a big deal that she got probably just.

Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
Said out of anything, but yeah yeah, or the whole world. Yeah,
I mean yeah, there's more to come get, don't get wrong,
or like another great like they're in the not apparently
alcoholic Salsa club and then Eric asks what Jody has that?

(01:02:32):
Uh Charlie? What does he say?

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
He's like, what does what does she have that I don't?

Speaker 5 (01:02:37):
I don't have?

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
Yeah that I don't know. Eric has a crush on
Charlie too.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
Yeah right and instead of like the obvious or they
just could even been played for for double jokes, she
something salsa and someone else could have just said which
means vagina? Like boom, right there, there's a joke just
written salsa means vagina. That's much easier to just plug
in something like that. I don't it missed opportunities.

Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
I'm I here to defend the writing. I'm not here
to defend the acting. I am well aware think you are.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
I think you're taking this personal.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Oh no, I'm absolutely not. But I I know what
I offered up to two U three. So but I'm
here to talk about the dancing, right, like, but but elephant.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Joke, Yeah, I definitely weird joke. That was a weird
choice of joke to put in.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
It was a weird choice of joke also.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
To like choose that moment to pan away to the
pizza and have this moment where you're like, Oh, there's
gonna be something about this pizza later while you're like
trying to see the joke is still audible though going
on in the background, I'm like, am I supposed to
be still focused? Is there something a through line with
that joke gonna come up? Turns out yes there is,
but like the whole focus of the shot turned into

(01:03:51):
like looking down at a slice of pizza.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
But my impression was she chose Bolima in that exact
moment a.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
Kind of she wasn't.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
She wasn't doing it before that, Like she.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
Chose that piece of pizza, and therefore it was like,
I mean, this is come to Jesus moment.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
It's interesting because like I don't I mean, I've seen
this movie so many times, but I'm pretty sure I
did not catch a lot because I feel like the
background plot and like the joke, the way it's told
is so like it's it's told. It's like I don't
see just background, but I wasn't listening. It's not something
that was actively paying attention to, so I.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
Sure if I was supposed to, that's why I tried harder. Also, help,
I had a Russian copy, so I had American subtitles
running the whole time, So even if you weren't supposed
to well know what was going on in the background,
it would always be translating out what was being said.
So I'm automatically reading it as it goes. So maybe
that's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
I think a per.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
Okay, that are you?

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
Yeah? I think a good twenty five percent of the
American population is pro Russian because they find so much
their media on Russian websites. That's counterscan I think.

Speaker 4 (01:05:10):
I guess we're almost almost at the halfway point.

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
Here, Yes, yes, Erica wants to move forward?

Speaker 4 (01:05:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Almost? Mom like that more got mom lady, the mom
lady of Marines, right.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Yes, the mom lady.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
I guess that I loved her dialogue the best, like
in terms of straight kid writing adult dialogue. Perfect, that's
like the best way of describing it, Kellen, because that's
how she talked, as if the seven year old was
trying to imagine getting in trouble on some ship they

(01:05:54):
only vaguely know about.

Speaker 9 (01:05:57):
They should have just gone with the whole peanuts approach
and just been like, since since we haven't brought up
the mother, I'll just clarify that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
And the mom is we're talking about Maureen's mom, and
she's definitely a stage mom and she works at the
company too, so she's very involved in Maureene's life, and
she's very involved in making her daughter a star. And
she sees, you know, when she learns about her boyfriend,
you know, she's looking at that is like the distruction
for Maureen and doesn't want any of this. Okay, So

(01:06:31):
now moving forward. Okay, this is like another one of
the great dance scenes of the film. Everyone has their favorites,
but I love this one. So Jody, who is still
needing to rEFInd that joy of dance because she's getting
like beaten down, she goes to a an outside dance
studio and she takes the jazz class. Just she says,
I want anything but ballet, and she takes this fabulous,
fabulous dance class and was not actually a class.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
I was flab There was no there was no instructing
going on.

Speaker 11 (01:07:00):
So this.

Speaker 4 (01:07:03):
Okay, So this Okay, So in New York there are
the probably the too much well known are like Broadway
Dance Center and Steps on Broadway, and they're like these
two dance studios that offer classes of like all ages,
but a lot of professionals. This is where they go
to like take class. So this is not a beginning class, obviously,
this is a class for very advanced or professional dancers.

(01:07:25):
So they're going into you know, like I guess, just
holing their skills. And so yeah, you just watch this
like great warm up. You watch this fantastic routine to
higher ground. Ceevie want to tigground. But the thing here
she runs into Cooper Cooper who's also the bad boy
and taking this really cool jazzy dance class. And so anyway,

(01:07:47):
he you know, goes after her and and she and
he hits on her and they end up hooking up
at his house and for him, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
I love by the way, and these movies when like
the guy pours a glass of wine for the woman
and they each take one sip and that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
It's the same. It's the same any movie consumption of food,
unless that's the point of the scene. It's literally drinking out.

Speaker 4 (01:08:19):
Do you know what I think about all the time
is when I'm watching a movie, especially when they're eating
or there's anything messy like we've talked about, like with
the Pina mhalland Drive. It's like, let's say they get
it like a hamburger and they to take a bike
a bite out of it. I think, how many hamburgers
did they have to take like a bite out of?
Is there steps of like twenty hamburgers? Probably take a
bite and it down there comes next us.

Speaker 5 (01:08:40):
The spit bucket is held by one of the pas
and they just spit it out and throw the rest
of it out.

Speaker 4 (01:08:45):
But then you're wasting so much food.

Speaker 5 (01:08:47):
Food must lust. There are certain ones who Chris Chris
Pratt famously on Parks and Reddit would not stage heat anything.
He would just keep eating whatever they add which was
something that part of his like getting in shape, was
realizing he couldn't just eat everything for real, and that

(01:09:10):
cut out of like thousands of calories his diet automatically.
And I believe Brad Pitt for the most part with
his fixing his oral fixation with eating, that's why he
eats in every movie. I believe he pretty much consumes
all of the food that he has depicted.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
I think that was always.

Speaker 4 (01:09:30):
I think I would start and then I would if
I got full, then it would stop.

Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
But the craft anyways, yeah right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
But you can save your per diem. You don't have
to buy food for yourself. You're just eating on the jets.

Speaker 4 (01:09:43):
They already get their food provided they have craft services.
Have you ever been on a step before. I've been
an extra on a couple of movies, right, and like
n TV shows and like they just have the food
provided you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
Get the bucket from the PA afterwards. The you that way,
you don't waste it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
But you guys, okay, So I know that you guys
aren't like the dancers in this group here, but like,
oh no, we are, okay, but come on, you must
have enjoyed that jazz scene. That jazz classic. Wasn't that fun?

Speaker 5 (01:10:15):
I mean it was interesting. I literally couldn't tell initially
what was supposed to be going on.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
I mean, I will say these scenes were great for
skipping ahead by ten second anchor.

Speaker 5 (01:10:28):
I got it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
I got enough out of it, Yeah, I got.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Actually it also runs. It really is cool. If it's
done at like higher frame rate, it looks really it's.

Speaker 4 (01:10:39):
You guys are breaking my heart.

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
That love scene got slowed down.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
I did not, but that's why I said earlier. I
was like, we have to put in our heads that
she's eighteen, so this doesn't become like statue toy rape.

Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
It's already it's already vaguely creepy anyways.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
But also he's like, we're treading close to us the
boundary of acceptable.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, we don't know, but I
would like mid twenties, right, Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:11:10):
That was the thing.

Speaker 5 (01:11:11):
After a little while, I started wondering if he was
supposed to be significantly older than that, even because he
doesn't look like he is, but like the history he
apparently had, I was like, wait, is he supposed to
have already been here for like ten years to stuff?
And now I couldn't. I couldn't what his character's overall
role was until it was a parent that he was the.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
Mean mid to late twenties.

Speaker 5 (01:11:34):
But still that's what that's what.

Speaker 4 (01:11:37):
He looks a teenager and still in my high school right,
Like that's a little bit probmatic.

Speaker 5 (01:11:43):
It's the nineties through the early two thousands.

Speaker 4 (01:11:45):
Sounds like he has a lawsuit on her hands.

Speaker 5 (01:11:52):
But it was any of them great, great choreography, and
yeah they're sure no no issues with that at all.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
Could have done it a little bit of trusting, but
it's fine.

Speaker 5 (01:12:02):
Yeah, it looks like several of the people, several of
the people in warm ups appear to just be doing
stage sex, which was also part of the confusion about
what this class was going to be about.

Speaker 4 (01:12:12):
So it's just a jazz class.

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
That's just jazz baby, Yeah, so okay.

Speaker 4 (01:12:18):
So then the next scene is it has like one
of the most famous quotes from the movie, which is
so silly because it's like not that great, but like,
now they're about to get cast for the showcase, and
so now all the choreographers and teachers that are going
into the classes to observe and we don't we don't
talk about her. But there's another like kind of outside

(01:12:39):
the cast member who is not part of the course six,
but she's named Anna and she's also like one of
the top dancers.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
In this Yeah, I thought this was the main character.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
Yea was trying to show up and she was like.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
The main character.

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
So Anne, Yeah, I know, because she's also blonde and
she also looks like Jody.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
I well, look exactly the same.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
So but Anna her thing is, you know, they're all like,
you know, doing you know, they're you know, they're all
doing their steps on the floor and uh in the
center of the studio, and they have to do a
parawet like a turn, and everyone does a double and
she does a triple, and and we even talked about it.
We haven't even talked about Oh my god, what's her name?

(01:13:25):
Donna Murphy. Donna Murphy, who's like a huge musical theater star,
is a teacher, she's like one of the instructors. And
she stops the clash. She goes, Anna, Anna, I want
you know, it's a double parrouet. And Anna does a
triple again, and so she stops just like Anna, and
she goes and Anna goes, I'm sorry. I thought there
was enough music for a triple and like a triple pair. Weet,

(01:13:47):
I mean, you're turning three.

Speaker 5 (01:13:49):
There's enough music for the paarrowette. I don't get that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
She's trying to find an excuse how she can show off, right,
And she goes, I want a clean double. Like it's
like a thing that like it's become it's like become
picked up. Now it's it's a quote.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
Yeah, I wouldn't have thought that line was gonna be
the iconic line.

Speaker 4 (01:14:08):
I know, it's like I want to clean double.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
You know, it was a line.

Speaker 5 (01:14:14):
Now that's no hang on, spider monkey, I know it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:20):
She says something that's kind of like, you know, and
it's just a fun character Okay. So so now it
is like the moment of truth and we find out
what the casting is and surprisingly Jody, who was told
by the artistic director that she wasn't likely not going
to get cast. We find out that Cooper, you know,
has been allowed. Cooper, who has choreography aspirations, has been

(01:14:42):
told he can teach at teach the students. He can
teach uh or not teach. He can choreograph a dance
for the students. He wants to choreograph for the company,
but Jonathan says, prove yourself with the students first, we'll
see how it goes. So he casts Jody in a
ballet that also stars Eric O Jones and Charlie which

(01:15:04):
ends up being which we'll go into what that's about.
And then we find that in the Big Number that
Jonathan is choreographing, Maureen naturally gets the lead and Eva
only gets in the core and she's crushed because she
knows how talented she is, but she also knows that
her attitude cost her like a leading role. And so

(01:15:24):
now now it's like full on rehearsals. Now it's like
this is our this is our thing. And so it's
really interesting because when you start the rehearsals, you start
with Jonathan's ballet, which is this classical ballet, like very traditional,
choreographed in real life by Christopher Wildon who's a big
name choreographer, and then and then Cooper's ballet is completely

(01:15:45):
untraditional and I mean, yes, you could argue that he
catched Jody because he hooked up with her, but he
also met her really think but he also but he
also connected her with her in a jazz class, and
his untraditional ballet style has a lot more jazz influences.
And this actually has like the storyline of the ballet
he's choreographing is a love triangle between a you know,

(01:16:08):
a ballet dancer who is dating on the ballet dancer,
but is you know, also involved with the owner of
a ballet company or the lead of a ballet company,
which is pretty much you know, he's he's making a
ballet about his own life, right.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
Yeah, yeah, real real subtle there, dude.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
Right, and you know, but you but you find out
that this ballet, aside from being you know, about his
own life, it's edgier, you know, it's more upbeats, totally
different than what everything else you're doing. Yeah, we've got
two main rehearsals going on. We've got Jonathan's ballet, where
Marine's the star and Eva's in the core, which she's
said about. And we have Cooper's ballet, which is the

(01:16:45):
untraditional jazzy type of you know, totally different style. That's
that's starring Jody with Eric and Charlie and is about
his own weird love triangle but things. And then also
what happens in this which is kind of important, is
they have a fun day out and you know, the
Core six have a fun day out in New York
for Eric's birthday, where Charlie tries to express his feelings

(01:17:07):
and ask Jody out and she's like, I'm so sorry,
I'm sort of involved with somebody because she's delusional, and
Charlie's like, oh sorry, I didn't realize it. And then
when they're a rehearsal again Charlie, and Charlie sees how
Jody is like doting on Cooper. He puts the pieces together.
Now as everybody knows, in which we all soon discover,
is that Cooper, you know, like Jody is just like

(01:17:29):
a one night stand. And there's a really cringey scene
where Jody goes to the Lincoln goes to Lincoln Center
to watch Cooper perform, and she goes like side stage
and she's like, wow, you're so good and she's like,
must be tiring, huh okay, and then Cooper just like
brushes her off and he's like, cool, see you in rehearsal.

(01:17:50):
So then she goes back to rehearsal and she's like
getting real ornery and I don't know, does a little tantrum.
Charlie calms her down, but she has a reality check.
This is sort of the things that are that are happening.

Speaker 5 (01:18:06):
Does does does Mandy Moore have like a sponsorship with
this movie? I know she had a track, but like
the more I was listening, I prewear I heard Mandy
Moore songs.

Speaker 3 (01:18:18):
There is more than one.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
Yeah, yeah, there's a last three And I'm glad you asked,
and let's go to that at the end.

Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
Oh okay. Also, I point out, because I'm looking at
the breakdown that I think we're supposed to actually be saying.
The only famous person out of this Zoe Saldana. She
has a till day over the end. And I have
never I have never once seen anywhere except on the
description of this movie. So I'm so I'm wondering if

(01:18:48):
that is, if that is she's Dominican, right, maybe she.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
Is in this.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
I have no idea, what what I know, she's something
like that. Sorry, Okay, I will say with Zoe, right,
it's quite remarkable that like she went from center stage
to like Crossroads and then which.

Speaker 5 (01:19:13):
We'll do next Christ and that too.

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
Yeah, she was just aff cross Road and now she
just but then but now she just won an oscar, right,
Like that's quite a true degree. And yeah, I mean
this is you know, this is quite a.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
Jump, this board, this is range. That's all I gotta say.

Speaker 5 (01:19:44):
I've also got to say one other thing, as far
as the casting goes to I can't ever read as
it as often the case, or at least in a
few things that I've seen. If I'm supposed to ever
truly dislike or disagree with, uh with gat with Peter
Gallagher because he's he never seems aggressive or threatening or

(01:20:09):
prickish or any of the things that I think, at
least in this role he's supposed to be. But the
way he plays everything he comes across, he always plays
everything as like rational and fair.

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
He's not dishonest with people.

Speaker 5 (01:20:23):
I don't. I can't tell if I'm supposed to dislike
him because I don't. Maybe that's just because he's Peter Gallan.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
None of this is really meant to be dislike or not,
you know, and like there, I think it's just depicting
like a reality, like he's not a bad guy, but.

Speaker 3 (01:20:38):
You can't take everybody, I mean, with.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
These people like there there is like I mean, kind
of an arrogance that you get a sense there. I mean,
he's an artistic director. He's like the top for like
a top you know, ballet company, Right, there's a confidence there.
He's they're all former start answers themselves for the most part.
So it's like is he ever rude or anything? No,
but there is a sort of like he makes that lamb,
well I got the girl or you know, like he

(01:21:02):
tells right away, like I got rid.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
I was just you know, boasting for one other person, right, yeah,
but I mean like there's and then I was like
which girls this? I can't tell the difference?

Speaker 4 (01:21:14):
Yeah, who do you get?

Speaker 3 (01:21:16):
Who do you get?

Speaker 5 (01:21:17):
I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
Going back to rehearsals, right, we're getting this mix of
this love triangle, this portrayed love triangle, and a real
love triangle on you know the other scene, we're seeing
Maureen start to break down, like we're seeing you know,
Jonathan saying, what's wrong with you? You're where's your energy? Maureen?
Like people aren't going to pay to watch you just
you know, be weak and like you know, all this stuff.
And we know as an audience that like she's not happy,

(01:21:41):
she's bully miic and and what we're seeing is like Jim,
her new boyfriend, I think, is giving her an insight
to what life outside of ballet is. Where all is
her mother sees is Jim is bad for you, Jim
is this distraction for you? So this is what all
this happenings. We lead up to the final show, and
the night before on a rehearsal, Eric in rehearsal busts

(01:22:05):
his ankle or knee or something. He is injured and
he cannot dance anymore. This is a problem because he's not, no,
not in this case, and normally, like you know, you
have like an understwell in this place, he's like, you know,
Jonathan tells Cooper, He's like, you need to use the understudy.
Actually this is such a dick move, but like again,
this is this fiction. But he's like, well, Andre, the

(01:22:28):
understudy isn't good enough, so I'll do it. And like,
can you imagine being like a ballet student, like an
aspiring ballet dancer, you can get an understudy of like
a lead part. Okay, the chances of you getting to
perform in this one showcase are like slim to none.
And then the lead actually gets injured, like what you've
been sort of going for actually happen. Attack them, and

(01:22:53):
then yeah, and then and then all of a sudden,
the choreographer is like, nah, fuck it, I'm we do
it instead. Only I can do it, And he says,
you know, and he's like, Nope, it's got to be
me or nobody. I'm going to pull it because Andre's
not good enough, and no, one talks about this, like
about Andre, poor Andre. You know meets Andre, right, but.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:23:17):
It's like a one line thing, like you got to
use who's the understudy?

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
Andre?

Speaker 4 (01:23:22):
He's not good enough, so it's got to be me,
Like that's the whole I.

Speaker 5 (01:23:24):
Didn't have the guts to kill him. We didn't have
the guts to kill him in a car craft.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Why are you having an understudy?

Speaker 4 (01:23:30):
Like what is the point of Because the point because
because the point is like they need an excuse to
have the three starred answers to dance together, and and
there's a reason that Cooper needs his belly to be
that successful, which we find out in the end. So yeah,
then we get like.

Speaker 3 (01:23:50):
I think he was the one who engineered the injury.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
I feel like both Jody and Andre probably have grounds
for a lawsuit against the kind because, you know, you
think about it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
Dude needs to hurt himself. Oh my god, dude, they
hurt Charlie got hurt, and then Andre. Then they need
another line that says, oh my god, I just heard
found out that Andrea. There's something like that and there's
no other options. And that's when the guy we can't
have a.

Speaker 4 (01:24:21):
Dancer with that is funny. Justin that's also a fair point.
I mean, I don't know if my mind would go
straight and straight.

Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
Literally seeping out of his skin, like you can't dance.

Speaker 4 (01:24:32):
Or what if you know his mother just died. You know,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:37):
That's that's too that's too heavy. Po Okay, I.

Speaker 4 (01:24:43):
Syphilis something like that, you know anybody crazy? Okay? Well interesting,
or maybe he could just have the flu, right, we
could just make it like we.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
Need to have a reason.

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
Otherwise it's really dickish. It's like almost you picked that
person the sacrifice.

Speaker 4 (01:24:58):
I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm like, I feel
like there were like choices that people's gloss over in
this film like that are like quite problematic. I'm not
even talking. We've even talked about Emily. Emily is the
one who she's also one of the best ballet dancers,
who's like a long term students at the at Aba,
and but she's getting fat and she eventually.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
She's approaching a normal BMI. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
I mean, obviously Emily is not fat, because if you
were actually fat, you would not be an elite ballet school.
But she's fat for what they're looking for. And at
one point, like Justin mentioned in the beginning, they were like,
you should finish the nutritionist. They'll give you some pointers.
Apparently she didn't, and so she got kicked out for
being too fat.

Speaker 5 (01:25:44):
All these schools have nutritionists on staff.

Speaker 4 (01:25:48):
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
I mean they're like, okay, here's the key, you don't
eat anything.

Speaker 4 (01:25:58):
I mean, I will say I think a lot has changed,
Like culturally, I think it's had to because there's so
much more attention to this, I think, and dancers, Like,
there's much more attention paid to dancers fiscal and mental
health because a lot of times you just to say, like,
you know, you dance in your twenties and retired. Now
dancers are going into their forties and retiring, you know,

(01:26:20):
like Jillian Murphy is at least in her mid forties
and is retiring next month, And.

Speaker 5 (01:26:25):
I just keep thinking, you're saying Killian Murphy and getting
really what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:26:31):
It was funny realize it was a dancer. Yeah, well
it was funny because I was trying to realize the
actual date of her last performance, and Sillian or whatever
his name has kept coming up, and I was like, well,
that's a fun chilling but clearly there's a g and
what I typed and like, stop making this more difficult,
you know Google.

Speaker 5 (01:26:50):
Yeah, but yeah, but now it's like that's a lot
of you did try to turn Peaky Blinders into a ballet,
and that sounds like a terrible idea. Sis I don't
h they were advertising it all over the United Kingdom
when I was over there. I'm like, really, Peaky Blinders ballet.
I really do feel like that's a stretch to try
to get to that point. But Okay, sure, I.

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
Don't know enough about it to have a thought on it.

Speaker 6 (01:27:13):
But but they.

Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
Okay, but okay. But there's but there's a.

Speaker 4 (01:27:19):
Lot changing in terms of especially in like in this country,
where you know, we're always pushing more diversity into you know,
in in like liberal arts things, right, so like well
not anymore, yeah, not anymore, but like but dancers like
they're getting a lot they're doing more cross training, they're
getting like physically stronger, and there's definitely, like I think
in the past, especially if you go to like Russian

(01:27:41):
schools and stuff, it's like they are strict you dance
through the pain, you do it this you know it
is that's it's exactly, but there's but honestly, like you
have to eat a lot to be able to sustain that.
And another principle with ab T is it Beella Boilston
is like she always talked about how like she eats
she loves pasta, and she eats pasta like before every performance.

(01:28:04):
You know, like there's so there's I mean there, yeah, yeah,
you have to so I mean realistically, like, yes, you
had to watch your way, but you're you're not going
to be able to sustain dancing all day without it
and the way and they dance all day. I mean
when you're in the company, the standard day is like
you have company class in the morning. Ballet classes are
an hour and a half long. So every day you're

(01:28:25):
doing your class, you're doing bar, you're doing center. You're like,
that's how you maintain your form. And then you know,
you have rehearsals throughout the day, you know, so you'll
be rehearsing several different ballets at once, and then you know,
if you're in you know, and then you'll have performances
at night. So sometimes people are like dancing like twelve
hours a day, you don't have performances every night. They

(01:28:46):
only have like they're only in season essentially, and like
most of the kind of their main seasons are like
fall and spring, so like usually they have a lot
of summers off, so it's not like this is all
the time. But they it's not like they're you know,
they're dancing all day long. So they'll be performing you know,
Swan Lake tonight and rehearsing Giselle tomorrow earlier in the day.
So it's a lot. But yes, Emily did not get

(01:29:10):
her you know, calorie arithmetic correct, and she was going.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
You know, she was write, I want to write something.
I want to write a comic or a short film
about like a ballerina getting too fat over the summer
and having to like work it off before the next season.
Maybe be awesome. Yeah, Like I was a vala. Yeah,
if I was a vallerina and I had a whole
summer off, I'd be smoking so many blunts and even

(01:29:35):
so much pizza.

Speaker 3 (01:29:38):
Pizza.

Speaker 4 (01:29:39):
I mean, I know you had to get but like
it's not like you have you spent a contract like
every year, so I don't know exactly when the contracts
go out, Like if it's like at the end of
the pendulous and like, I feel like there's there's some
clauses in there that are like you need to be
within this, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
Oh yeah, contract do you guys?

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
Did you watch the Netflix series about the Dallas Cowboy Show.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
I did.

Speaker 4 (01:30:10):
It's actually and again cheerleaders too. They're not on the
same level, but it's all the same kind of like
really difficult physical things that are mostly dumb regimen that
are under value. They're all dancers like that, they're all like,
you know, I don't know their backgrounds, but they're so
I love watching them. But when they get when they
make the team, they go in they get measured for

(01:30:32):
their you know, very small you know, outfits or whatever
for so okay, so here's the thing. They they get
for their uniforms that are very tight and they are
not assigned another one. So basically they're saying, this is
the way you're staying like, you don't get another uniform.

Speaker 5 (01:30:54):
So I thought that was really intimatingform pretty quickly.

Speaker 4 (01:30:58):
Well, I mean it's not that they're never washed, but
it's but it's like we're not letting this out.

Speaker 3 (01:31:02):
We're not the one cheerleader who for like good luck
Purposes never was.

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
Yeah, I don't know if they have that choice though,
Like I don't get the sense if that's something they
take home. It's like the costumes like that are in
these ballets. They're not taking home these costumes every night.
They have people that wash them for them, that that
tend to the costumes, you know, those like too two two's,
like in like classical ballets, there's like five hundred dollars

(01:31:28):
like a pop. Some of them are depending on how
they're so much. All this stuff is so expensive and
they're stuff one.

Speaker 5 (01:31:38):
I was going to go into the black market business
of selling this ship.

Speaker 4 (01:31:41):
That's what I'm I don't I don't know how ballet
works about all this stuff, but I know, like you
know at the opera house, when you they have like
these big, glamorous like opera costumes, it's under it's like no.

Speaker 5 (01:31:54):
No, no.

Speaker 4 (01:31:54):
But but what I'm saying is like they're not washing
these fancy, fragile costumes every night. They watched the undergarments
like the under the armpits and stuff, but they spray
them with vodka to clean them.

Speaker 3 (01:32:08):
Yeah, because because it probably evaporates pretty quickly, I.

Speaker 4 (01:32:11):
Guess, so you know, it's to clean them. I mean,
it's not like you're getting them actually, so I don't know.
I mean with the ballet costumes that they're actually sweating
in them.

Speaker 3 (01:32:25):
But initial DETERSI of the American Ballet Company.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Anyway, I bet, I bet a nude ballet is probably
grosser than it is sexy.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
Crouching.

Speaker 5 (01:32:42):
Yeah, I can.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
There's probably it's probably sexier dress a lot of crouching
and whiplash. Yeah, exactly what are you talking about? Anyways,
I'm saying that we're talking about cleaning clothes, and I
was then I started imagining would.

Speaker 5 (01:33:00):
Be easy you didn't have to wear clothes, And then.

Speaker 1 (01:33:03):
I imagine it's probably grosser nude to watch a ballet.
Then it would be a clothes ballet. I'd rather see
a clothes ballet.

Speaker 4 (01:33:11):
It's also I don't want I guess there. Okay, there
are some ballets like where there's nudity, like when I
was twelve, Yeah there was. I mean, there's there's a
ballet company called Moms or maybe it's more like contemporary
so it's not like classical ballet, and they yeah, there was,

(01:33:31):
no They're they're like, let me check how they describe themselves.
They're ore like contemporary modern, and I saw this show.
It wasn't like a I like story ballets and uh,
let me see. But also they just call themselves a
dance company. Let's see.

Speaker 1 (01:33:53):
Anywhere. I started a dance company because I saw a
dance company.

Speaker 5 (01:33:57):
I mean, sure, this is America. Whatever you want. You're white.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
Richmond Ballet. Maybe not, but I feel like you cannot
fail with that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:16):
But yeah, so I mean moments is it's not a
belly company. I mean it is a dance company, but
they do a lot of like a lot of acrobatics
and dance. They kind of do their own thing.

Speaker 5 (01:34:25):
Is it like.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
No, they actually I guess they call them dancer illusionists.
I saw something greater than years ago they did, like
they called it. They did it a take on Alice
in Wonderland called Alice, and it was awesome. But in
this one that I saw, I mean I was twelve,
and I still like very much more preferred story bellets,
anything abstract. And I remember them being on something like

(01:34:47):
from what I remember, which has been a while, on
something like skis and like topless and like moving around. Yeah,
they came, and I mean I was was definitely mature.
I was like, oh my god, Booby's you know, but
it's not unheard of. I mean, ballet is an art
form that's about, you know, about the beauty of the
physical body, right, So I don't think anyone's.

Speaker 3 (01:35:12):
Including Booby.

Speaker 4 (01:35:13):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I don't think anyone's going further
south than that. But the other thing too, if you're
doing like partner work, you don't want to be but
like but like, you know, ballet's too with the right
there's a lot of lifts and stuff and that would
not be safe at all. Other people are that like slippery,

(01:35:34):
a lot of a lot of grabs. Yeah, okay, So
now we're getting to like, now we guys, we are
so close to the end right now, I know you've
ben waiting for it dancing around.

Speaker 5 (01:35:49):
We're still technically half an hour from the end of
it herself.

Speaker 4 (01:35:53):
But yes, but lucky are you guys? For our purposes
today half that is danced.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
So one thing I'm not trying to derail, but I
want to talk about. Yeah, you are the young ladies
who was kicked out for being zofttig as the Germans
would say. Her mother was also written like a like
a way a kid writes a mother, you know what
I mean, her dialogue had that very like kid, Uh,

(01:36:18):
this is what a good strong parent says about their
kid in these and omens. Sorry, I liked that. It
was really funny.

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
Yeah, that's I mean, it's interesting because like, what's the
point that I think?

Speaker 3 (01:36:29):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:36:29):
I mean, it's kind of like they are, you know,
just going through like a lot of realities that do
happen with this. I mean a lot of stereotypes. But
the soncle didn't come from anything, you know. But okay,
now the Big Dance Finale.

Speaker 1 (01:36:43):
While we are at one question, Erica, I'm this matching interview. Listen,
would you consider yourself a dance mom if you had
a kid, would you be? Like absolutely, you'd be like
the mom, a marine's mom.

Speaker 4 (01:36:59):
Maybe like I if I had kids, right, I would.
My personal hell would be to be like a soccer mom,
like if I had a son. Okay, I would, It
doesn't matter, yeah, right, I mean, I I mean, look,
this self fictional. Who knows, But I do not want

(01:37:20):
to be spending like my time going to children's sports events.
I mean absolutely not.

Speaker 5 (01:37:26):
You can't even tolerate children's events periods.

Speaker 4 (01:37:29):
So yeah, I mean I went to my niece's dance
recital and like that's great. But like artistic things, sure,
but that at least it's in my wheelhouse. But I
don't like sports, and I don't want to be like yeah,
I mean, I'm not saying in real life, if like

(01:37:50):
my kid really wanted to do that, I would say, no,
it's still like healthy and whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
Your son is like mom, I want to be an
alternate fighter, so.

Speaker 4 (01:38:01):
Okay, but yes, if I if, I mean, if I
had a son too, but like I would definitely get
them and dance or gymnastics early. I would never force
my kid to do something that they didn't want to do.
But if my kid really liked it and they you know,
or theater too, I get, you know, get them into
the young age, and if they wanted to pursue like

(01:38:23):
that kind of artistic stuff like singing, dancing, acting and everything, like,
I would make those opportunities happen for them. If they
didn't want to do it, I wouldn't force it.

Speaker 11 (01:38:31):
But like I.

Speaker 4 (01:38:33):
You know, I'm still bitter about the fact that I
had to take gym class when I could have been
taking quire in addition to bed right, like that would
a waste of my time. I did not. I did not.

Speaker 1 (01:38:46):
Not at all.

Speaker 5 (01:38:49):
I feel like we did.

Speaker 3 (01:38:49):
We did dance in gym class.

Speaker 4 (01:38:51):
Remember we did one short segment that was my favorite
part of jim Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:38:57):
We had one good dancing and hooka.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
Yeah, like that was fun and line dancing.

Speaker 3 (01:39:04):
I think, oh yeah, yeah, dancing.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
I did not need three more years of jim Okay,
and like I didn't need beyond that. I mean, to
be honest, that's the most value I've ever had in
gym class. She actually broke down the rules missus keyho.
I remember her. I thought she was delightful and she
broke down the rules of sports, which I didn't know,
and culturally that's something that's good to know. But and
we did the line dancing, so I felt that there

(01:39:27):
was something of interest for me. But then I don't
remember the other name gym teacher. But that was a
complete waste of time, complete waste of time. We can
we like finish the movie now, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:39:39):
Maybe one more question, no, just.

Speaker 4 (01:39:45):
Okay, So now we're finally at the showcase. Okay, this
is everyone's big moments. So where we're at is Eric
is you know, on crutches right now, so Cooper will
be filling in for him. And the night before, okay,
but the night before everyone's freaking out. Shody is terrified
because she won. Now she's got to dance with her,

(01:40:07):
you know, the guy that like, you know, scorned her.
But also she's like, I'm an amateur and I'll be
dancing next to one of the best dances in the world, Like,
are you kidding, I'm gonna look like She's like, I'm
gonna look an amateur. You know, this is a lot
of pressure, and Maureen is about to star in the
other ballet and she doesn't want to do it. And
what in the catalyst for this is that she tells

(01:40:27):
Jim She's like, when I saw Eric go down, when
I saw him fall, She's like, my first thought was
I wish that was me? And that was like got
her to realize that, like she really doesn't want this
path that she's on. And Eva meanwhile, it's like, I
wish that could have been you know, I wish I
could be dancing where you are. I wish I could
have either one of your roles. But you know, to me,

(01:40:48):
it's just I love dancing to Tomorrow's just another day
I get to dance, So that's you know. So then
we get to the big ballet, Jonathan's ballet, and it
should be Maureene, you know, coming on stage in the center,
and everyone is shocked because it's actually Eva and we're
and it's like and her mom is watching, and her

(01:41:10):
mom's going, what's what. I'm so confused, what's happening because
like it's your name and know all these things. And
so Eva's dancing and the mom goes to find Maureen,
and Mariene says, listen, She's like, I don't want.

Speaker 11 (01:41:22):
To do this.

Speaker 4 (01:41:22):
I'm not happy. If I was happy, I wouldn't be
making myself sick. I wouldn't just be set all the time.
And you find out that the mom had wanted to
be a dancer, but her mom didn't have the body,
and she's like, mom, you didn't have the feet, I
don't have the heart, and they you know, her mom
isn't super supportive, but like Maureen makes a big choice
to leave it. Meanwhile, Eva and then and then meanwhile,

(01:41:48):
like Eva knocks it out of the park, you know,
and she has her dream role and she nails it.
Then we get to like the most fun ballet of
the evening, which is Cooper's ballet, which makes no sense
at all realistically on the.

Speaker 5 (01:42:01):
Phone at all. There's there's yeah, I mean certainly more interesting.
I don't think this is this.

Speaker 3 (01:42:08):
This was leaning towards threesome and they they did it
all the way.

Speaker 1 (01:42:14):
Yeah, okay, let's not go that direction.

Speaker 4 (01:42:16):
Let's talk about how this actually played out, because at
this point we've only seen bits and pieces of the rehearsal,
but never the actual music. We've heard, like, there's a drum.
Most ballet classes have a pianist, like a live pianist.
They actually had like a drum set. Okay, we knew
that much. And there's this like fabulous star where there
you know, she's in a ballet class, and uh, it

(01:42:38):
might be Swan like music, or it might might be
not or isn't Cracker. I think it's not Cracker.

Speaker 5 (01:42:45):
It's like sugar plum Fiiry. It's sugar plum Fury.

Speaker 4 (01:42:47):
I think, yeah, it's not Crackers. So there, but you
know they're doing bar work. But all of a sudden,
you know, Cooper comes in on his motorcycle, which they
added in because Ethan stifle is in the motorcycles, so
they purposely added in for him as the actor got
to be. They and they change the music and it
turns into Michael Jackson's you know the way you make

(01:43:08):
me feel, this upbeat, fun dance routine and you know,
so it's kind of this cat and mouse like chase
game that they're playing. And then she, you know, on
this motorcycle, you know, kind of runs away with him.
But the ballet doesn't end there. Somehow we transition to
like a love scene where they're like on a bed
on stage and for a student showcase.

Speaker 5 (01:43:29):
And a lot of where she like I know, and.

Speaker 4 (01:43:37):
You know, she's like taking off her you know. Okay,
but then we have and then it cuts to like
this kind of Mandy Moore, Oh my god, dog, hold
on a minute.

Speaker 1 (01:43:53):
I love that he's just literalizing his just plot.

Speaker 5 (01:43:56):
Yes there's no stating, no froofy symbolism.

Speaker 1 (01:44:03):
Yeah, he's like this bitch and sing and I went
to sleep. Okay, two, I will show the tower.

Speaker 3 (01:44:14):
I came back. I almost had a threesome. Didn't happen.
Maybe next time it will happen.

Speaker 11 (01:44:19):
So the.

Speaker 4 (01:44:27):
So then the third part of this very very long
ballet for like a student showcase. The third part of this,
and now we've got three different outfits. Okay, now she's
in a pretty blue dress, her hair is down, and
now it was like the actual, like you see the
actual kind of trio. You know, I guess between them

(01:44:51):
and you know, both the guys are trying to winter over.
It's Mandy Moore's I want to be with you and
and then in the end it ends with her like
rejecting both of them. And so she goes into this
like fiery red this is and this dance is called
canned Heat, and she's in this fire red dress and
her point she was magically changed to red also, and

(01:45:13):
she gets those remember those nineties twists, you know, like
then your hair like when you're you twist all your
hair back and put it up. Kind of it's a
complicated it's not an you know, it takes a little
bit to get that hairstyled down. But yeah, so this
beallet ends with this fabulous, high energy, you know, bright
red dance routine where she's rejecting both the guys. There's

(01:45:34):
all these great leaps from junks and turns in it,
and it really ends in a really high celebratory note.
This is like the grand finale of like the movie
in terms of like we're going out with a big
bang and dance number, you know, and this is all
choreographed by Susan Strumman, who are also choreographed like the
jazz routine, I think any of the funky stuff she choreographed,
and which is such a cool, cool number. Everyone loves

(01:45:55):
that number. And but yes, there's definitely like how long
is this ballet? This is a student showcase. There's no
way we're having all these outfit and scene changes, Like,
I don't know, this is this is where.

Speaker 5 (01:46:04):
We just logistical questions about this showcase in general.

Speaker 4 (01:46:10):
Like yeah, this is where you suspend your disbelief.

Speaker 5 (01:46:14):
You've also switched the lead out with nobody finding out
in the first part, Like no one involved knew this
was going to happen, because apparently you can just come
in and be like tag, you're it now and disappear,
and then the other person can just step it and
then be the I mean, the thing is this is apparently.

Speaker 4 (01:46:35):
Rector the choreographer is not like backstage with you. They've
done their job. At that point, the stage manager takes over.
So maybe the stage manager. Maybe you just say to
the stage manager like, hey, you know, Maureen can't go on,
I'm going out, and they just believe you, like I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:46:51):
Know, maybe lack of diligence being done in that case,
but yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:46:57):
Again, there's as of.

Speaker 5 (01:46:59):
Disbelief I can to like pull her off by the
next yeah play off?

Speaker 4 (01:47:04):
Yeah okay, so yeah we so but Joe, but Jody,
you know who was told them again and you don't
have what it takes your not good enough, like sore.
She knocks it out of the park and everyone's like, wow,
this is amazing. And Cooper you find out he wanted
to also be you know, he had to take over
for Eric because this is also his audition to get

(01:47:25):
funding for his new ballet company. So after this.

Speaker 5 (01:47:29):
Show, he's the one who crippled the other.

Speaker 4 (01:47:31):
Yeah no, because no one crippled anyone. You watched him
fall on the conflict of there was a.

Speaker 3 (01:47:38):
Banana field on the stage if you look really.

Speaker 5 (01:47:40):
Closely, Yeah, like you came from the grassy knoll.

Speaker 1 (01:47:46):
Or not so now one second, because it's fucking crazy,
the conflict of interests that are allowed to exacerbate in
the genre of ballet. But I can't even have life
stud it's by my own book. Then I'm an expert
on like what you can.

Speaker 3 (01:48:04):
You can date your students, Yeah, you can dates, create them,
cast them, and a play about you fucking them.

Speaker 1 (01:48:13):
That you can make money from an outside investor.

Speaker 4 (01:48:17):
It's a while you may also, I mean I don't
say it is a conflict of interest per se. I
mean it's certainly like really awful to given given that, yes,
given that, Like the whole point of the Shoot student
showcase is in the audition for companies, and you have
and you take away that opportunity from the understudy, Like,

(01:48:38):
that's that's totally not cool.

Speaker 3 (01:48:40):
That's not a conflict of interest in his company? What well,
what they were auditioning for his company? Basically, they don't.

Speaker 4 (01:48:49):
They didn't. No one knew that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:50):
Yeah, but I sure nobody knew that.

Speaker 4 (01:48:52):
But but actually that's that's not who we cast though, right, Okay,
So let's talk about the aftermath. Okay, So now they
have all their individual interviews with Jonathan and Donna Murphy
where they kind of find out what their fate is. Okay,
and for our you know, for our people, it's it's
mostly good news. Charlie gets into the main company. And Eva,

(01:49:15):
who you're like, I don't know, she has a bad attitude.
She pulled this. They're gonna pan out for her. She
gets into the main company, so that's a huge thing,
you know, she succeeds there. Sarge, our figure skater gets
San Francisco, where his girlfriend is, so it's a win
for him and Eric even though and Eric, even though
he is injured, also gets accepted to the company. So

(01:49:36):
like everyone has band no, no, no, it's not unexplainable
because he said I'll be observing you throughout the year, right,
So they have watched him, right, I mean, Jonathan has
seen him, seeing him, Cooper has seen him. It's not
like he's a complete unknown, right, So he must have
been good enough throughout the year for them, you know,

(01:50:00):
Cooper situation. He wants to be a choreographer. He was
introduced by Jonathan to this wealthy widow at the beginning,
and we find out that he's been courting her this
whole time and she has degreed to fund his new company.
And this is the big reveal, and so Jody goes
in and Joe doesn't say anything, he's. So he goes
to her. He's like, I'm starting this new company and

(01:50:21):
you have to be in it, and I'll start you
as a principal, like you'll be at star, right, which
is like, not how it works. You have to Usually
you started in the court or an apprentice and you work.

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
Your way up. So she's none of you are talking
the boss.

Speaker 4 (01:50:36):
Let's let's just say she's super talented, right, I mean
she for what he wanted, right. I don't think the
moral of the story is to sleep your way to
the top. It's suggested, know that I look at this retroactively.
I can see where there's some yeah. So, but what's
interesting is she goes into her interview and she does

(01:50:57):
not let them speak. She says, don't say anything, because
if you're not going to offer me a role with
the company, I don't want to hear it. And if
you are, I won't have the strength to say no.
But then I'll be spending my best time, you know,
waving a rose back and forth, like being in the core.
And I'm better than that. She's that's literally what she says.
And she goes you know, the and and then she

(01:51:20):
tells them that she is going to be accepting a
principal role in Cooper's new company, and then she like
walks away kind of like mic drops and like the
others who don't say anything, and so you don't you
don't officially know whether or not she was going to
get in, but then you know. She leaves and she

(01:51:40):
tells Cooper that she's with him, but then Cooper tries
to kiss her, and she's, I know this is where
they're writing, especially, I feel cringe every time I hear it.
I know, and like it's what does she say? He
tries to kiss her, and she goes, Cooper, You're an
amazing dancer, an amazing choreographer, but as a boyfriend, you

(01:52:02):
kind of suck. And then she like leaves and goes
and finds Charlie and.

Speaker 3 (01:52:08):
A line Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:52:10):
Charlie, and I'm like.

Speaker 3 (01:52:15):
Everybody like I'll be around when.

Speaker 1 (01:52:21):
He's like, I might not be your first choice, but
I was the last one remaining. Yeah, have you ever
done that to a guy?

Speaker 4 (01:52:30):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:52:32):
Have you ever?

Speaker 1 (01:52:33):
Have you ever been in a situation where the leader
of a ballet troupe was recording you? You get together,
but then you're awkward about it, and then you reject
him later on to choose someone else. Have you ever
been in a situation?

Speaker 3 (01:52:50):
Only?

Speaker 4 (01:52:50):
Only once a long time ago. But you know, I
learned my lesson didn't go well. So actually, you know
what's funny?

Speaker 3 (01:53:01):
Did you in the meds? She wanted, she didn't want,
she didn't want to dance.

Speaker 4 (01:53:09):
I mean, I did have a crush on like Sasha
on Charlie, but really it's it's all about Jim, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:53:15):
I mean Ronnie.

Speaker 4 (01:53:16):
But come on, okay, So, so here's what. Here's what
I caught this.

Speaker 3 (01:53:20):
Time watching Harry was a ballet dancer.

Speaker 4 (01:53:22):
Yeah, honestly, I would not be surprised at all, would
we crazy was a ballet dancer?

Speaker 3 (01:53:30):
Yeah yeah, many many got swayzy under his spell.

Speaker 4 (01:53:36):
Okay, but let me tell you what I learned. We're
talking like.

Speaker 3 (01:53:38):
We're talking like pregnancy from fumes like that pregnant. Way
too much as it is, I'm very dan.

Speaker 4 (01:53:53):
I am not even gonna continue with this. We're going
to finish.

Speaker 1 (01:53:58):
He was my question for the favorite thing over.

Speaker 4 (01:54:02):
Okay, So here guys this time, which was new to me,
if that you okay, do you guys think from watching
this that they would have offered her a contract with
the company. Like, do you think like because her dancing.

Speaker 3 (01:54:20):
Was not classical enough?

Speaker 5 (01:54:25):
Now, I think that I think Christopher Nolan saw this
and took it as inspiration for the end of Inception,
because you're not supposed to know how it was really
going to end, if it was a dream or not.

Speaker 4 (01:54:38):
What do you think Justin.

Speaker 1 (01:54:42):
Would have been in the background? Probably?

Speaker 4 (01:54:49):
Do you think she would have been one of the
three women that would have been accepted in.

Speaker 1 (01:54:53):
The Yeah, but she would have been like not user right,
but to be fair though she also had those wonky
ass white feet thing of things going on.

Speaker 3 (01:55:03):
Clippers.

Speaker 4 (01:55:04):
I will say I stands is my stands, as I
agree with Josh that she might have like that, like
that star power as a dancer. I think maybe the
Disney version. I think maybe the Disney version would have
been like, oh wow, she proved them wrong. But realistically,
you know, you're right she You know, they do classical

(01:55:27):
ballet and she didn't have that technique for it. And
I feel like they might have fought for her harder
if they really wanted her.

Speaker 1 (01:55:32):
But the core girl energy in a Lilac fairly roll
the entire time.

Speaker 4 (01:55:39):
I don't I think it's probably the op. I don't know,
she proved her star power. But this is what I
caught this time around, right, this is what's new to
me this time around. Yeah, well no, okay, So honestly
a big picture Josh, where's okay? So you know, we

(01:56:02):
are obviously watching this show from Jodany's perspective, but in
terms of like the company, like Jonathan's perspective, right, she
is a pawn a small pond, you know, in a
larger creative idea, right, And he doesn't even like think
much of her. He's not upset with her. He just
doesn't really think she has what it takes. But what's
interesting is that when Charlie go you know, at the end,

(01:56:25):
when Charlie finds out that, he goes, oh, wow, I
just heard you're going to join Cooper's company. She's not
the one that told him that. And he goes, oh,
Jonathan told me. And I'm thinking to myself, why would
Jonathan be the one to tell you this? Like Jonathan
when he's doing your final audition and is saying, hey,

(01:56:49):
you're going to be in the company. By the way,
have you heard the news? Jody? Who I really don't
give two shits about is about to be a principal
and like my arch nemesis.

Speaker 5 (01:56:58):
New Ballet Company, Like, right, what would you bring that up?

Speaker 4 (01:57:02):
That relationship is like artistic director and like literally student
potential core member. So this time around, I was like,
that's how they're spending their time and his big career
break is talking about Jody and Ethan, Jody and Cooper.

Speaker 5 (01:57:17):
That was always probably not we just needed to get
the final expositional piece.

Speaker 3 (01:57:22):
So we could could have done.

Speaker 4 (01:57:24):
But yeah, so this time around, I was like thinking
on that.

Speaker 5 (01:57:31):
Yeah, and I'm gonna you know, well, probably if we
follow up with several sequels, will find the answers to
all these questions.

Speaker 4 (01:57:40):
Fun fact, there are something sequels there might be, but
I've never watched that. This would be really really bad, So.

Speaker 3 (01:57:48):
You have not watched them.

Speaker 4 (01:57:50):
No, and like Ethan's stifle, Like, so Cooper and Sasha
or Cooper and Charlie are in it, but Amanda Schult
Isn't It does.

Speaker 5 (01:57:59):
Actually return certain characters. Wow, Yeah, I thought for sure
would be all new people every time.

Speaker 4 (01:58:06):
No, and I do want to watch it, but I mean, yeah,
it does not. It's not part of the cult following here.

Speaker 5 (01:58:13):
So it doesn't. It doesn't make the cut.

Speaker 4 (01:58:16):
However, I did discover okay for our listeners who really
love this movie like I do. There is another similar story.
There is an Australian children's television program called Dance Academy
that came out I don't know ten years ago or something.
I stumbled upon it on Netflix when I was like

(01:58:37):
an insomniac kind of night, and it is literally the
same plot. It is a a young girl who is
a teenager who's like this got a you know, huge
star power. She loves dance, she doesn't have the right body.
She's from like a small, you know, rural Australia place
out backshore, and she gets accepted into this elite ballet

(01:59:00):
company in Sydney. And right away, you know, there's the
mean girl that she ends up, you know, rooming with,
who feels threatened by her. But she's got really bad technique,
and there's the bad boy love interest. And in this case,
she starts off as like a sophomore, so there's like
three it's only a three season show. Yeah, and and
and it also is more like accurate to teenage life.

(01:59:23):
And then there is a film that came out.

Speaker 1 (01:59:25):
But there's Oh my god, it's so good.

Speaker 3 (01:59:28):
It's so good.

Speaker 4 (01:59:29):
I love this show so much. So I know this
is not you three of the audience, But if you
love this movie, not Dance Academy, let's.

Speaker 1 (01:59:39):
Rank this film. Let's rank this film on the heavily
mandate ten stone Celestial Harmony scale. This ancient scale, dating
back to the founding of the Han dynasty, was used
by the sages of the Wu Dang Mountains for millennia
to pursue earthly and spiritual excellence. Films jumped from one
stone to the next along a path towards nirvana and

(02:00:01):
the cessation of all worldly suffering. The best films will
reach the best films will reach the ten Stone of enlightenment,
while the worst stones will trip upon the first and
face reincarnation. As Gary Beesy's butthole, I think that's new,
But all right, average films reverse gross is such a

(02:00:27):
gross image.

Speaker 4 (02:00:30):
Okay, let's just move forward. Oh my god, I am
so hot right now and I can't turn on my
AC and I'm hungry, and we need to like move forward.

Speaker 1 (02:00:48):
Okay, average films hold on one second, Eric, Average films
will reach the fifth stone to reincarnate as a random
Nick Cage product. Collect your chie and rank this film.
Who wants to go first? I go last?

Speaker 3 (02:01:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:01:03):
All right, yeah, I'll allow it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:08):
I'll go first. I can't think of a more monumental
film in the history of cinema than Center Stage. Coppola
had Apocalypse Now, Corsese had Raging Bull, Uberc had Clockwork Orange,

(02:01:32):
and Nicholas Heidner had Center Stage. Uh ten out of ten.
You're not giving it a ton of I'm going to
read this. How do you, Erica? How do you pronounce
t U L L E, tool, tool LG and tool

(02:01:54):
and tension By our favorite author, Chad g Version four
O Them. In the hush before the curtain rise, where
shadows stretch and breath defies, a dancer stands with pointed grace,
a sculpted form in silk and lace. The lights ignite

(02:02:18):
his silent trance, each muscle taut with elegance, Yet all
eyes stray as they behold the codpiece Raisin proud and bold.
His tights a canvas drawn so tight, reveal both discipline
and fright. For though he leaps like when swept fire,

(02:02:40):
one slip could doom the whole attire. The pod de
Do begins its arc with limbs entwined in language stark,
she floats, He lifts his stance, divine, though stitched within
the seams malign, his leaps defy the pull of earth
yet threatened seams. With every birth of flight, the crowd

(02:03:00):
dares not to blink. What if the fabrics on the brink?
Oh Art demands its silent screams to ache behind perfections dreams,
What glory sown in thread and pride holds dignity.

Speaker 1 (02:03:13):
Just barely tied.

Speaker 3 (02:03:21):
To toast the dancer's daring feet, who balances on blistered
feet and guards with every practiced chance his legacy and
very tight pants. Love is over.

Speaker 5 (02:03:37):
That was the first. That was the first stands up.

Speaker 4 (02:03:40):
We have to keep going, I think, Josh, never give
them a word count, he says, all the time you
want are you really giving it a.

Speaker 3 (02:03:52):
T are you disputing my rating?

Speaker 4 (02:03:58):
I just want accurate scene?

Speaker 1 (02:04:02):
Who's nagtily?

Speaker 3 (02:04:03):
What do you need?

Speaker 5 (02:04:07):
Okay? Well, I have nothing of that nature or magnitude
to follow up? I planned none of this so center stage,
center stage. I vaguely knew it existed before. I vaguely
know it exists more now. I gather it has importance.

(02:04:32):
I felt like some things were probably pretty accurate outside
of being written by a thirteen year old. It is
undoubtedly and indisputedly a movie from two thousand, so I
couldn't even find a Mandy More lyric to quite sum
it up, but I tried very hard to think about

(02:04:56):
doing that. I appreciate, as I've said, more so the
actual dance scenes than prettty much any other part of
this movie other than a soft spot for Peter Gallagher
thanks to the o C of course, And as a result,
I'm going to say that this one doesn't turn out

(02:05:17):
quite as far as it needs to to hop past
Two Stones, but it squarely lands on that second stone,
and that's as far as it's gonna get. So it's
probably reincarnating as I don't know, not anything to do
with Gary buc think.

Speaker 4 (02:05:36):
Two Stones, Kevin to.

Speaker 5 (02:05:41):
Brace a pair? You want? I mean, you can't. You
can't say of a movie that's a demo real got
say two.

Speaker 3 (02:05:49):
Stones is about all you're going to fit in these pants?

Speaker 5 (02:05:54):
I should have I should have been thinking.

Speaker 3 (02:06:00):
On tonight.

Speaker 4 (02:06:06):
Well, okay, I just.

Speaker 3 (02:06:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:06:10):
I love this movie.

Speaker 4 (02:06:12):
I think I'm very yeah, I mean realistically, I yes,
I understand it's flaws acting, not the strongest writing, not
the strongest plot, you know, plot's okay, but present.

Speaker 11 (02:06:25):
But the but it.

Speaker 4 (02:06:32):
But the dancing is incredible, and it's really like it's
special in the sense that it gives it realistic glimpse
at what dance life is like for ballet dancers. And ah,
it is a cult classic for a reason, and as
a member of the cult, I have to give it a.

Speaker 5 (02:06:48):
Tennis as a member of the cult. Ah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (02:07:01):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (02:07:02):
I think I've talked this evening about.

Speaker 5 (02:07:05):
Probably your review was was already somewhere hidden in the
subtext anyway, pretty much.

Speaker 1 (02:07:13):
Well, thank you Erica for introducing me to go. I
did learn new things in the process of watching this film,
and I was better educated for it. But I would
rather have watched You Got Served.

Speaker 10 (02:07:34):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (02:07:35):
I would have rather would have watched Jamie Kennedy's Kicking
It Old School.

Speaker 5 (02:07:40):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (02:07:41):
I would have rather watched Singing in the Rain, which
is an achievement compared to this. So instead of making
you watch this movie next time, I think next time,
if you're looking for a wonderful, family oriented film that
features a lot of dancing, good plot, deep characterization. You
should watch. Toothy twenty four is Abigail, a comedy horror

(02:08:03):
film that features a female vampire ballerina.

Speaker 4 (02:08:07):
I do believe you're using your review time of this
moment film me, movie, filmy U.

Speaker 3 (02:08:15):
And to be fair, Justin's Revenge is going to be
very drawn out.

Speaker 4 (02:08:23):
Justin's Revenge and not like Eric has revenged Erica.

Speaker 1 (02:08:29):
You threw down the gauntlet. Your film broke me spiritually, mentally, emotionally,
and probably even sexually. When I think about it now.

Speaker 3 (02:08:42):
I must break you.

Speaker 4 (02:08:45):
Like is like so much stronger? Okay, next film beaten down?

Speaker 1 (02:08:55):
In my next film, I throw down the gauntlet. Next
film will be two thousand eighteen's Suspiria, and I'll show
you dancing Erica.

Speaker 5 (02:09:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:09:04):
If I don't know, we like generous Erica.

Speaker 11 (02:09:12):
Kahaka one two, three of its poems.

Speaker 5 (02:09:34):
It's dank, straight up